Every Effort Helps

This two-minute video focuses on the importance of education for Bolivian children.

But how does health affect education?

For every child in the video, and thousands of their classmates, each day of school brings them closer to a life free of poverty. Every day is important, even when supportive teachers (mentioned in the video) give extensions so struggling kids can finish their homework.

If a child gets sick... they miss school.

If a sibling gets sick, and a child needs to care for them because a parent has to work... they miss school.

Health is an integral part of education.

Our partners in the Clean Hands, Healthy Schools program are working help children stay healthy so they can stay in school, through basic handwashing and dental hygiene education. Keep kids healthy, keep kids in school.

Every donation supports these efforts in Bolivia. Make a tax-deductible donation here.

-- Mackenzie Malia
President & Co-Founder, AAVia Foundation for the Health of Bolivian Children

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Life in a Catastrophe: Nurses on the Front Lines

Damaged infrastructure limiting transportation...
No access to clean water...
Inconsistent access to gas for cooking, and no electricity...
A poor population with limited means to make rapid improvements or access needed cash.

This is a new reality for so many people after the catastrophic damage of recent hurricanes and earthquakes in the Caribbean and Mexico.

It is the constant reality for so many people in Provincia Los Andes in Bolivia where the AAVia Foundation funds programs through the School of Nursing at Pucarani.

I recently blogged about how important and cost-effective hand-washing is, and why it is such an important part of the program we fund. Nursing students and professors lead a remarkable program, Clean Hands, Healthy Schools program (CHHS), where they have designed education materials and developed lessons to use with children and parents to teach the WHO hand-washing method as well as dental care.

Green: Area of CHHS program reach around Pucarani in Year 1.
Red: Area of CHHS program reach after Year 2.

The province of Los Andes, from Pucarani to the shores of Lake Titicaca, is rural, with little development. It is off the beaten path as it sits separate from the capital city of La Paz and is wedged apart from the routes even tourists might take from the Peruvian border, through the lovely lakeside town of Copacabana, and across the Altiplano to La Paz.

Only 17% of the homes have running water. The arid land of the Altiplano limits farming options. Most all the roads are dirt and stone, limiting transportation. Homes often cook with propane tanks and depend on when, or if, trucks make a delivery to the rural area. A large number of children have intestinal parasites. And with the poverty and limited resources, intestinal and respiratory infections are common. This often leads to missed school, malnutrition, underweight children, stunted growth, and too often, death.

The Clean Hands, Healthy School program is that important: it saves lives.

Nursing student teaches children to wash hands well in Igachi, Bolivia, 2017, with CHHS.

The School of Nursing at Pucarani not only provides professional training for so many in the region, an effort that pays dividends, it also reaches out to the region where they are needed, and is helping the children and whole community survive even as they face a constant catastrophe.

And that is why we are so proud to partner with them in the effort!

Please help with a tax-deductible donation to the AAVia Foundation and, if you are in the area, join us for our 4th Annual Gala on Friday, October 13 at Casa Larga Vineyards in Fairport, NY.

-- Timothy Malia, MD
Medical Director & Co-Founder, AAVia Foundation for the Health of Bolivian Children

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Bolivian Conductor Boris Vasquez is AAVia Foundation's Special Guest!

For the 4th Annual Gala on Friday, October 13, our Special Guest is Boris Vasquez, the director and conductor of La Orquestra Sinfónica Juvenil de Santa Cruz (Youth Symphonic Orchestra of Santa Cruz), and we could not be happier!

Boris combines a passion for music with a desire to influence the world. His students are are from low-income families with little access to music and the arts. Through music, Boris teaches his students that by joining the many skills of various people, a symphony orchestra can perform many beautiful works, as seen here during a recent rehearsal for a special celebration performance:

The AAVia Foundation understands that the sphere of children's health often touches upon the arts. Access to music through a youth orchestra provides opportunities in a community that can provide support and encouragement in many ways.

Our shared interest in supporting the children of Bolivia make us excited to host Boris in Rochester!

Special Guest Boris Vasquez from Bolivia

Join us on Friday, October 13 at Casa Larga Vineyards in Fairport, NY at our 4th Annual Gala to enjoy the wisdom and talents of Boris Vasquez of the Youth Symphonic Orchestra of Santa Cruz.

--Timothy Malia, MD and Mackenzie Malia
Co-Founders, AAVia Foundation for the Health of Bolivian Children

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Hand-Washing is Exciting ... and Cost-Effective!

A donation to a non-profit should make an impact. And with the AAVia Foundation your support does.

We fund a Bolivian-based program run by a rural nursing school that reaches schools and communities throughout its province to promote hand-washing and dental care.
That should excite you!
Why?

Because to public health specialists such a program is fantastic, even "exciting!" And you should believe them.

Children practicing hand-washing, via School of Nursing at Pucarani.

The handy chart below from the Global Handwashing Partnership shows how hand-washing is considered one of the MOST COST-EFFECTIVE interventions for lessening deaths and disability:

Chart via Global Handwashing Partnership blog.

By decreasing diarrhea and acute respiratory infection frequency, hand-washing lessens death rate of children, missed school days for children, malnutrition, and delayed growth of children. Remarkably, research shows hand-washing promotion remains effective even years after a program finishes as folks continue the new habits, and it seems to be self-promoting as others in a community pick up the habit.

Hand-washing promotion isn't only cost-effective, it likely makes money many-fold for societies by avoiding costs of illness and maintaining children's health.

--Timothy Malia, MD
Medical Director & Co-Founder, AAVia Foundation for the Health of Bolivian Children

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Kip Keino: A Star In Many Ways

Many of us are halfway through the Olympic Games -- cheering on our favorites and celebrating the medals given to the impressive athletes excelling at their sport. But today is also International Youth Day, and last week the Olympics presented a special award to someone whose life has impacted hundreds of children.

Kipchoge Keino won two gold medals and two silver medals at the 1968 and 1972 Olympic Games, breaking track world records and becoming an international star almost overnight. His most important work didn't start until he retired in 1973, when he returned home to Kenya and began working with children to provide them with greater access to education and opportunities.

Kip Keino with the orphans he raises in Kenya, via CNN

With his wife, philanthropist and nurse Phyllis Keino, Keino began an orphanage for children in Kenya, which later led to the creation of schools to provide them and other children with an education. Now, he also runs a training center for students who want to become athletes, in addition to the schools and orphanage.

Keino's work has impacted hundreds of children, and the Olympics Laurel award is sharing his work with the world.

In this video, listen to his story as he reminds us that "this is the thing we need, to be able to assist those needed children in our society, we need to build this world to be a better world."

The Olympics show us how our athletes are not just competitors. They can change the world. And someday, some of these children will become our Olympians, and will change our children's world.

Today, on International Youth Day, let us honor Kip Keino, whose work is empowering children to become our future Olympians, leaders, and heroes.

--Mackenzie Malia
AAVia Foundation Co-Founder & President

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