Kindergarden Plan 3000

Rotary Club Amboró

Computer Donation Project


Colegio Virgen de Urkupiña

Colegio María Teresa

Colegio Carlos Laborde

Colegio Daniel Campos

Colegio Luis Barrancos

Colegio María Teresa


Rotary Club Amboró

Computer Donation Project

Rotary Club Amboró from Santa Cruz, Bolivia (District 4690) is interested in helping source and find a Rotary Club in the U.S. that would be willing to do a Matching Grant for a Computer Donation Project for an extremely poor sector of our city called Plan 3000.

Plan 3000 is a suburb of the city of Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Its population is about 200,000 people. A Foundation called Hombres Nuevos has determined that 60% of that population live in poverty and 40% in misery.

There are only 2 main roads that access the Plan 3000 and the rest are dirt streets. There is minimal sanitation in the area, and basic services like sewage are practically unknown. There is electricity and water in the area.

We as a Rotary Club have been closely working with this non-profit organization called Fundación Hombres Nuevos. An unconventional priest called Nicholas Castellanos leads the Hombres Nuevos Initiative. He is a bishop from Palencia, Spain and about 10 years ago he decided to leave the comforts of his city in order to "live and work for the poor with the poor."

Through his tremendous efforts he has been able to seek and find a lot of donations from Spain. Most of his donations have gone to building large schools. It's very common to see an Hombres Nuevos school that usually costs $200,000, while you see the state-constructed schools, with the same investment, ¼ of the size.

One of the reasons for the success of these schools is because they are "escuelas de convenio". In English, "schools with an agreement." Padre Nicholás Castellanos does not believe in giving everything for free. His schools are built only after there is an agreement with the Bolivian government on the management of the schools. Once that's accomplished, there must be an agreement with the parents of the children of the school. The parents must be actively involved with the school. They participate in the construction and maintenance of the school, as well as pay a minimum fee of less than $10 dollars a month for their kids' education.

Ten dollars might not seem much to us, but when a family of 5 live off an $80 to $100 dollars income per month, it's 10% of their income.

Anyway, getting back to the computer donation idea, we had a contact with Ron Swenson from SolarQuest® last year and we discussed the possibility of getting a 40 foot container down here to Bolivia full of computers, printers and accessories. There are a couple of the Hombres Nuevos schools that have used computers and they have technicians that can assemble and configure used computers.

We would like to do that for the following schools:

SchoolLocationTotal Students
Colegio María Teresa PulidoBarrio Cordillera 1,400
Colegio Daniel CamposBarrio San Antonio 1,300
Colegio Virgen de Urkupiña Barrio Virgen de Urkupiña 1,000
Colegio Carlos LabordeBarrio Johny Fernández 1,000
Colegio San Agustín Barrio San Agustín 1,300
Colegio José BonoBarrio 26 de Junio 1,300
Colegio San JorgeBarrio San Jorge1,300
Colegio de Guaraníes Barrio Nuevo 1,300
Colegio España Las Gamas  1,000
Total10,900

The objective would be to contact large corporations that are renewing their computers and are willing to have a tax-deductible donation. Perhaps a Rotary Club in Silicon Valley or some large city could check out the computers so we don't get junk being sent down to Bolivia. Believe it or not, it's a very common mistake.

Find a Rotary Club or District willing to finance the transportation costs to Bolivia. The port of entry to Bolivia is Arica, Chile. Land Transport is about $1000 dollars from Arica, Chile to Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

Rotary Club Amboró could receive, deliver the computer donation and make sure they are placed in each school. Furthermore I would suggest that if each school could hook up with El Porvenir and SolarQuest®, perhaps you could have Bolivian students teach American kids Spanish and American kids teach Bolivian kids English. Some kind of interactive chat sessions and monitored activities. Who knows, have some of the best kids with the best grades win the opportunity to become a Rotary exchange student.

When you take a good look at the pictures of a school in the Plan 3000, you can definitely see that the Hombes Nuevos Project is making a major difference in the area.

Shack School Plan 3000 Classroom in Shack Plan 3000

Father Nicholas Castellanos
(Hombres Nuevos Founder)

Stanley & Jack Rosholt
Rotary Club Amboró

Contact Information
Stanley Rosholt
Rotary Club Amboró
Calle Sevilla No. 18
Las Palmas
Santa Cruz, Bolivia
Tel/Fax +591.3.358.4080
Email: rostan@scz.net
Ron Swenson
SolarQuest®
147 South River Street
P O Box 7080
Santa Cruz, CA 95061
Tel +1.831.425.8523
Email: ron@solarquest.com

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Sports Projects

We have been working with the Hombres Nuevos people and we can definitely assure that their initiatives are building a better World and they are making a difference for the people in the Plan 3000. There's so much happening with this project that it's difficult to write it all down.

One of their largest projects is a Sports Complex called Ciudad de la Algeria - City of Joy. They have built swimming pools, basketball courts, an indoor gymnasium, a soccer field. Some of the recent activities in the City of Joy are Ping Pong, aerobics, tea won do, running (track), weight lifting and Rhythmic Gymnastics.

We as a Rotary Club have just finished a Rhythmic Gymnastics (RG) project, a $10,000 Matching Grant 20686 with District 9620 from Georgia and Rotary Club Amboró. We built lockers, benches, gym mats and wall bars for the RG gym. We also imported a 15 x 15 meter RG carpet.

The Rhythmic Gymnastics Program in the Plan 3000 has been one of the most successful projects that Hombres Nuevos has developed. In the beginning, they started training a group of very poor girls Rhythmic Gymnastics. They trained on grass, dirt and cement floors.

The drive that these poor girls had to train was impressive. Many preferred skipping a meal in order to afford the bus ride to their RG class. This tremendous effort finally paid off when one of these girls became an RG champion in the national competitions. We hope that our efforts in helping their sport will help develop more future champions.

The City of Joy is an excellent alternative for many of the poor people in the Plan 3000. I can truly testify that the area is a disaster area. Lots of poor shacks and poor houses. Dirt and disease everywhere. You see a lot of Alcohol, Drugs and Sex. Seems that young girls at the age of 13 are getting pregnant from left to right. It's a sad picture, although surprisingly enough, people get used to living in that mess.

That is why the Hombres Nuevos project is most interesting. The schools are teaching the young that they can build a better future for themselves. The City of Joy gives them a place to go that is away from all the problems of the Plan 3000. I truly believe that through sports you can teach kids a lot of values and keep them away from trouble.

One of my wishes as a Rotarian is to help the City of Joy with sports equipment. For starters, things like frisbees and kites would be easy to get and a popular item. Hacky Sacs, indoor football, flag football, tennis, and water volleyball to name a few. I would love to see a softball team develop. We were even thinking of trying to get some funds for a boy scout group. We would need tents, sleeping bags and uniforms. Merit Badges and some other stuff.

So if you come across any Rotarians that can get me 100 frisbees or 100 yo yo's, I can start new and exciting projects down here. If you find any Rotarian interested in visiting Bolivia, let us know.

Best Regards,
Stan Rosholt
Rotary Club Amboró