She recently brought the following video to my attention which shows the plight of many people in Bolivia. I did not previously know that Bolivia is one of the poorest countries in South America. People are forced, often as children, to work in atrocious conditions for very little money in order to survive. I am helping her, as well as educating myself and my blog readers, to determine what can be done to help people (and our other fellow beings in the world) out of such a desperate situation.

Firstly, let’s watch the video to get an overall feel for what their situation is. The video is in Spanish which language I personally do not speak. So Mayra was kind enough to provide a brief narrative in English as follows, which I edited a bit for easier reading.

“The video was shot in a small town called Morococala located about 3 hours from the principal city of Oruro, Bolivia. Morococala is a small town with around 300 families, most of whom work at and live around tin mines. The town is poor with really bad conditions, having only one school and a small church.

Marlene is a woman shown in the video who lives in Morococala and has worked inside the mine for about 14 years. She started to work there when her husband began drinking and abandoned their family. She works inside the tin mine to support her family. She, a well as the other miners, chew coca leaves and drink alcohol to help suppress their hunger as they cannot have food inside the mine.

She is one of the only women that works inside the mine. The men primarily work inside the mine bringing rocks outside for the woman to break up and look for the tin ore. The women primarily work outside of the mine since the men think that woman inside the mine are bad luck. The women must also battle the culture of male chauvinism in Bolivia, called machismo, while working and living.

Another woman in the video named Dona Juana took over her deceased husband’s mining job after he died inside the mine, which is a common practice. She has been working breaking up the rocks to find the tin ore for 13 years.

The miners work about 12 to 24 hours to earn 100 bolivianos (Bolivian money), which is less than $10. It is sad see the cruel reality in far towns in my country.”

Stay tuned for How to Start a Charity – Part Two.

Sincerely,

Sebastian