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A Helping Hand
When Joan Velasquez’s husband, Segundo, first moved to Minnesota from Bolivia in 1969, he was amazed at the amount of perfectly usable goods Americans throw away. A manager of technical operations for an airline at the time, he would return home from work lugging surplus tools, machine parts, and other items that were headed for dumpsters. “It was repulsive to him almost,” she says. “It was always, ‘How could you throw this away? Somebody in Bolivia could use this!’”
Joan (Ph.D. ’79) had been a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia in the late 1960s, when she met Segundo, and had seen firsthand the devastating effects of the country’s poverty. With 95 percent of rural Bolivians living below the poverty line, the country has the highest rural poverty rate in the world. Ten percent of newborns die in their first year and the average family makes less than $300 annually. Few have access to clean water and health care.
In 1994, when she retired as a social work administrator in Ramsey County, she and Segundo—who was still collecting surplus goods—decided to formalize what he had been doing informally for years. They co-founded Mano a Mano (Hand to Hand), a nonprofit, volunteer-driven organization that collects and ships discarded but serviceable American goods to Bolivia. Originally, Mano a Mano focused on sending surplus medical equipment.
But the Velasquezes knew their impact would be limited if rural Bolivians did not also have access to health care, so they also began raising funds to build free medical clinics. To date, 94 clinics have been opened, giving more than 700,000 Bolivians health care access for the first time. More than 2.5 million pounds of gurneys, wheelchairs, and stethoscopes that were otherwise destined for American landfills have also been sent.
Last year, the National Peace Corps Association recognized Joan with the Sargent Shriver Award for Distinguished Humanitarian Service. The annual award is named for Peace Corps founder Sargent Shriver and recognizes returned Peace Corps volunteers who continue to make contributions to humanity.
Much has changed since Velasquez first walked from door to door as a young volunteer in rural Cochabamba trying to gauge the needs of its residents. Then, she says, villagers would tell her stories of immense hardship and conclude with “si Dios qiere” (roughly translated, “if it be God’s will”). “There was a sense that there’s not much you can do to have an impact on the world or on your life,” she says.
Velasquez believes that programs like the Peace Corps and Mano a Mano have changed that outlook by emphasizing local involvement in everything from planning to building. Last year, rural Bolivians logged 80,000 hours building clinics and completing other community development projects with Mano a Mano’s assistance. And Mano a Mano has expanded into an organization that underwrites the construction of roads, reservoirs, and schools in addition to medical clinics. Si Dios qiere isn’t as prevalent these days, says Velasquez, who continues to co-direct the organization with Segundo. “Once people get that sense of ‘we did this’ then they come back and say, ‘We need to have our children go to school. Can you help us build a school?’”
—Danny LaChance