Hi there, If you can help us out with sending Ariel, Rodrigo and Johanas to nationals just click on the DONATE icon.

THANKS!!!!

HEADING SOUTH AGAIN!

Boxes bursting with donations!!

Greetings from the US of A. Kathy and I have been here visiting family for the past 4 weeks. We head back to Bolivia, Jose Luis, the chicos and the horses in a few days. Visiting family and friends has been great but Bolivia is always in our minds as we realize how much a part of our daily lives Vida y Esperanza is.

Brianna sent the donated materials to my mother's so now we just have to see how much of it we can get back to Bolivia. We have over 20 saddle pads, 2 saddles, a few helmets, jumping vest and other clothing and some bridles!! Thanks so much Bri and friends!!!

Yeah lots of saddles pads!

So now we got to get this stuff South!

If anyone wanted to donate some money to pay the extra baggage fees that would be a big help.

Once we return we will be finishing up the second side of the seed room and will also need some donation to help with that. We are still about $800 shy of the money we need to finish it up.


Just click on the Pay Pal icon to the right to help out with the seed room or bag fees.

Thanks!!!

WOW I can't believe 2 months have flown by. We have been busy with 3 volunteers who came to help out. 

Enkhmend Gereltogtokh has been here for 8 weeks designing a new logo, developing a website and hanging out with David trying to figure out how to make gold out of horse manure (composting)!!!!!

compost class

Eliane has been here 8 weeks as well and has been putting final touches on a grant application so Vida y Esperanza can find a steadier source of funding. 

Brianna Zimmerman flew in and out of here in month but left behind many new friends and some great riding lessons. She goes to Stoneleigh-Burnham School  which has equestrian studies as part of their curriculum. She helped with fence painting and teaching; and in general was joy to have around and willing to pitch in anywhere. We and Brianna are hoping to deepen the relationship between the school and the project over the next year. 

She also collected used tack which will be great help! 

 

bri with geronimo

bri helping saddle up

 

bri getting ready for class

THANKS TO ALL THE VOLUNTEERS FOR THEIR SUPPORT AND GOOD VIBES!!!

We are still in need of support from individuals to help get the barley fodder system back up and running now that the cold weather has finally come to an end. If anyone can help out great and more importantly if you can pass the information on to friends who might be interested in helping please do!!!

TEMPS LOWER AND SEEDS SLOWER!

BLUE ROOM UPDATE...

Since we last posted a couple of weeks ago the temperature has taken a dive in Cochabamba to lows of 2C at night. This has slowed the sprouting process and sent Lee, Abby and Erin to the drawing board for ideas on how to insulate and raise temps in the blue room. We have seen some amazing things done with plastic bottles that could help. We are also facing attacks from birds and small rodents as they too look for food as we move into the dry, cold season.

We are not discouraged but just set back a bit and still needing some financial donations(approx. $500 in total) to finish up the room (more plastic to insulate, finish shelves and buy 40 more growing trays) and buy the pump we need to improve the seed watering set up.

If you can please click the Pay Pal icon and give.

To those of you who have already given thanks sooooo much.

IN OTHER NEWS..

We had another competition this past Sunday which went really well. Both horses and youth left with big smiles on their faces. Well okay maybe not the horses exactly, but the kids definitely.. Check out Rodrigo!

Jose Luis and his sister have been busy distributing material to schools and clinic about our Equine therapy Program and the riding classes. Here is the poster we got printed which was designed by Mia. Beautiful job, thanks so much Mia!

BACK TO SHOWING

Last Sunday while the sky was still black the boys head  to Blajot to ride Suerte, Pittu, Black Beauty, Valkirie, Distiguido and Payso the 10 kilometers to the country club for our first competition of the year. It was a great day filled with nervousness and laughter, as we scrambled around sharing clothes, helmets and even riding boots. Thanks to Richard, rifling through the stock he has at his riding school, we all looked handsome or in Mariana and Kathy's cases pretty, as we each took a chance at jumping.

In mini-jumping 0,70 cm Daniel and Miguel came in first and second!!!

José Luis giving them their ribbons.

Evey one else did just as well and below is a selection of some of our finest moments through out the day.

Sitting their basking in the Cochabamba sun, watching the kids puff up with pride as the completed the courses against horses twice as big and 20x as expensive, I could see why José Luis is so adamant that they compete and how much it means to everyone of them to get a glimpse of this world so far from their barrios.

THEY LOVE IT!!!

Jose Luis feeding our first harvest!

As you can see the horses love the barley fodder. This happy photo was taken by Dominik a volunteer from Switzerland who has been helping us over the past few weeks.

Justin and Mia Rock!

Hey everyone, we have been so lucky for the past 2 weeks to have two great Australian volunteers with us, Justin and Mia!! They have used their skills as a plumber and a graphic designer to help us move the seed room along and create some great promotional material.

You can see from this series of photos that Justin is getting the irrigation set up. We are having some issues with light and with water pressure but we are finally sprouting 8 trays to see how it goes!!!! Justin has been a life saver and so busy I don't even have a pic of him to post!

Irrigation tubes running into the trays

Funnels used to drain trays

Drain running out of growing shed

Our new hose and soaking buckets!

As you know from reading old post we have lost the $450 funding we had to pay the rent and buy a bit of food for the horses so the pressure is on! Fortunately we have a great team of support both in Bolivia and the US and we have been exploring a number of money making ventures.

1. Expand the Equine Assisted Therapy (EAT) program to paying client/private client. We have begun to offer the EAT privately with a beautiful poster that Mia is in the process of designing.We have 2 new children participating and their parents have been overwhelmed by the effectiveness of the therapy. Once we put a few more touches on the promotional materials we will be visiting doctors who work with children with disabilities to let them know about EAT and its effectiveness. In order to make this a success we need to print posters, business cards and leaflets.

Handmade bridles with donated bits.

2. Make halters and bridles to sell to other equestrian schools in the area. Jose Luis has done this in the past and it has been very successful. In order to get this moving forward we need a bit of capital to buy the webbing we make the halters from and bits for the bridles. This photo shows you an example of our work.

3. Use the horses on the weekends for trail riding. There are a number of beautiful spots around Cochabamba for trail riding and in the past the kids have made money to feed the horses by taking folks on weekend trail rides. In order to do this we need to be able to shoe the horses and get a poster (YES Mia is designing more than one) printed advertising the rides.

4. Finish up the seed room. This will lower food costs by 45%, from $9739 a year to $5322 a difference of $4417. With the latest financial problems it is even more crucial that we get this up and running. Since we last wrote another $150 has come in so we are $700 short of our goal.

So as you can read we are busy and we are trying to become more self sufficient and generate our own funding sources. We do still need donations to help with this so please, if you can hit the donate button DO.

If you want it earmarked for any particular thing just let us know and we will be sure to use the money as you would like. Please pass this on to friends and family if you can it helps us to expand our circle of donors.

Thanks Justin and Mia and all of you for your help and support!

HEADING UP!

The seed growing room at blajot!

Thanks Abby and Ann for the donations yesterday!!

Now we only need $849.20 to completely finish the blue seed room and $253.20 more to get Justin to set up the watering system while he is here!!

UP WE GO, DOWN WE GO...

Just a quick note to see if anyone can help out with the curent DOWN WE GO. The only stable funding source for the equine assisted therapy program has been terminated. Although it was only $450 a month it allowed us to pay the rent on the field the horses are in $150 and pay Jose Luis' a small salary $300.

We have come up with a 3 solid ways to raise the money:
1. Look for private clients for the equine assisted therapy program.
2. Use the ponies for birthday parties.
3. Start trail riding on the weekends for tourists.
4. Submit a grant to the Global Children´s Fund.
So we are working on these although numbers 1 to 3 call for a bit of capital in the way of money for advertising and shoes for the horses.

The current crisis makes finishing up the barley sprouting project even more crucial as it will reduce the costs of feeding the horses by 44%.  To date we have raised $970! Thank you all who have donated.

To finish we need to raise $996 more but most crucial is the $400 for the watering system so the volunteers coming at the end of March can set that up. 


If you can give anything $5 or $10 or $20 it would be put to good use!!!

WE SURVIVED RAINY SEASON!!!!

Things are good with the horses, they spent almost 2 months in the rain eating grass in abandoned lots around the city and many are a bit fatter than before. One of the ponies got badly cut and we are having to have a vet come everyday to keep him healthy.  Jose Luis has organized a soccer championship and the youth are playing every Mon, Wed and Sat nights. Turbo and Alejandro do an awesome job of heading up the horse care staff and are very proud of how well the horses survived rainy season. We are all working hard now the rains have stopped to get the horses and ourselves! back in shape.

Magaly giving out school supplies.

A number of the kids were helped out by the project with school supplies as so many of them drop out of school due to lack of money to buy what they need to complete their homework.

The blue room is still standing after the torrential rains and we are ready to get back to work and get this barley fodder (click here to see a facsimile of what we are setting up, of course, without Home Depot materials :)) system up and running. We have built 2 shelves but need one more as well as the watering system and a couple other odds and ends. We have found volunteers to donate their time to build the last shelf and have a plumber coming at the end of March who will donate his time setting up the irrigation system!! We are in good shape and could be up and running in mid-April!

To date we have raised $970! Thank you all who have donated.

To finish we need to raise the following:

Growing trays  $310
Shelves $150
Watering system $400
Pump  $100
Timer for the watering system $36

Total $996

If you can help give a click on the Pay Pal button and please pass this on to anyone who might be interested!!!

RAINY DAYS IN THE BLUE ROOM

Team work!

It is rainy season here in Cochabamba which means the hills turn a emerald green and the horses spend their days grazing in the empty lots around the city.

We are trying desperately to get the "blue room" done and the seed sprouting underway.

Erin and Manuel volunteering

 TGFV (Thank God For Volunteers)....Erin has been with us for the month and has been amazing in her tenacity for this project. She hails from Washington state and works as a chemist but has discovered she has a talent for building shelves with not very straight knotty eucalyptus logs! She and I struggled together after Micha left (another TGFV!) to figure out how the heck you put these things together!!

This week we have been moving quickly thanks to Manuel who is visiting Erin from Peru and Pinki who is  always ready to lend a hand. 2 shelves are almost complete and ready to be put into production! I have included some fotos of them workin in the rain in the blue room to give you an idea of what we are up to.

The first shelf!!!

We have raised about $900 and still need another $1000 or so to finish shelves, set up a watering system and get the seeds. Thanks to all who have donated we really appreciate it and to those who haven't been able to yet even $10 or $20 goes a long way so if your inspired hit the button to the right of this post.

Cielo and her foal

Hi there this is Lee in Cochabamba. I wanted to give an update on how fundraising was going to date and share some updated costs.

First we have a new addition to the Vida y Esperanza family!!! Geronimo a beautiful pinto whose mother is Cielo and father is Pittu. He loves to canter around after his mom as she works in the afternoon.

To date we have raised $560 (thanks!!!) which has been spent to buy wood to make our own funky shelves (we have finally found a volunteer to finish this work since Micah left!). We have dug the foundation our for the room (but still need funds for the foundations and floor approx $200). We have put a roof on and put up blue plastic tarps for the sides (still need funds to put up adobe walls which will allow us to better control temperature and humidity $340).

The room for seed sprouting under the trees

 We have found a plastic container that will work to fashion the growing trays. The containers needs to be cut and drilled and a plastic drain put in making the cost of each container is $7. We have bought 30 containers but still need another 30 ($270 we still owe $60 on the ones we just bought!). We are still playing around with how to set up the watering system and are estimating that will cost approx. $500.

So folks we are still raising money if you can help us out! Click that button to the right!