Caring for the Kids of Prisoners

Program providing medical care for small children living in 

prison with their mothers in La Paz, Bolivia needs new funding.

Obrajes is a nice section of La Paz, Bolivia. It's not too far from downtown, has a nice mix of businesses and restaurants, and enjoys milder weather than much of the city due to its lower altitude. So it may be a surprise to have a women's prison in the neighborhood, yet that is where you will find COF (Centro de Orientacion Feminina Obrajes).

The street view of the prison is nondescript other than the sign on the wall identifying it and the metal door answered by uniformed police. A former school, the property behind the wall has a central building from that earlier era surrounded by newer structures and shacks crowding the space.

Also behind that wall are over a hundred children living with their mothers. And, I learned, a health program for those kids in need of support and new funding -- you can help! (keep reading to learn how)

A couple weeks ago, I joined Dr. Sergio Armaza Virreira and Dra. Jimena Condori Surco from the mobile medical unit of Hospital Arco Iris on a stop at the prison. It was one of many visits and tours I made during the ten-day long official visit to La Paz for the AAVia Foundation for the Health of Bolivian Children.


Making weekly visits to the prison, the mobile medical unit provides care for the children who live there, most under the age of five, who do not get medical services from the prison system. It is programs like the Hospital Arco Iris mobile medical unit that serve the needs of the kids.

Famously overcrowded and with decaying infrastructure, Bolivian prisons are also known for the high number of children living within their walls. The women's prison in Obrajes is no different. Designed to hold about 100 prisoners, the facility actually holds about three times that currently -- plus another 120 kids!

Entering the prison for the visit, I handed over my passport, was patted down, and entered a courtyard crowded with women and children. Some prisoners were doing some morning calisthenics, others were chatting in small groups, and many sat in chairs along the periphery. About a quarter of the facility is another courtyard where laundry hangs from wires, drying in the sun -- a service the women do for the public to make money to pay for what they eat and own while in the prison.

We made our way into the main building where the medical team met with prison officials to discuss how the financial support the program had been receiving is not being renewed. The team, however, reported they would continue visiting the prison each Wednesday to care for the kids even while funding opportunities were searched for.

This prison program is one part of what the mobile medical unit team from Hospital Arco Iris do, but its funding is separate. The mobile medical units provide free medical care for La Paz' street kids and poor when parked by plazas and markets. When special care is needed, the patients are served at Hospital Arco Iris, a private charity center that is now perhaps the best hospital in all of La Paz.

The children in the prisons get the same free care both on-site and at the hospital when needed. Visiting the prison weekly, the mobile medical unit provides continuity of care and  timely services before problems become severe. There were many smiles and happy conversations between the doctors, the women and many of the children during our visit -- evidence of the trust and respect these doctors have developed in the prison.

At this time, the prison program is not formally part of our plans at the AAVia Foundation for the Health of Bolivian Children. But it is a good program in need of support, and promoting such efforts is part of our mission, even if the support is not directly through us.

I wish to vouch for the prison program and the efforts of the doctors, colleagues I am happy to now call friends. And I also wish to offer you a way to support their efforts with a tax-deductible gift.

HOPEworldwide-Bolivia has been working closely with Hospital Arco Iris for the last three years and is focused on pragmatic efforts that have a positive effect on real lives. Having been in touch with them for many months, we formally visited them during our trip to La Paz and appreciate their efforts to improve health care in Bolivia. Our two organizations are truly kindred spirits!

Please take a minute and go to the DONATION page for HOPEworldwide-Bolivia. Their country director has assured me that funds will be directed to this effort when the Comments section says "Prison Program" (see middle of the donation page and "Additional Information"). Then please let others know of this need and opportunity.

There is a very capable program on the ground in La Paz offering care to children who need it. That program has capable doctors and staff, and it has a proven track record. Your support with funding will have immediate impact.

Thank you!

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

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Mountains & Forests, Sand & Salt: Bolivia's Natural Beauty

At the AAVia Foundation for the Health of Bolivian Children, we often point out challenges faced by impoverished Bolivian children needing medical care. And we support our colleague starting a center for infants and children with colo-rectal problems who need high-level care or face life-long risk of problems and complications. But there is a lot more to Bolivia than poverty and barriers to medical care.

On a map, Bolivia looks small because it borders Brazil, one of the world's largest countries, but Bolivia is actually as big as the states of Texas and California combined! And Bolivia has remarkable diversity: Amazonian rain forests; savannas; mountain valleys; high peaks; Titicaca, the world's highest navigable lake; and even the world's largest salt flat which lies remotely at 12,000 ft (3600 m) elevation!

This tourism clip from Bolivia is worth a watch if you want to get a taste of the land's and its people's majesty. Enjoy.

And, remember, "Bolivia ¡te espera!"

--Timothy Malia, MD
Co-founder, AAVia Foundation for the Health of Bolivian Children
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Our Blog: Warm in December, Cold in June

Welcome to the first blog post for the AAVia Foundation. We look forward to posting about our activities, stories of our experiences, news reports, updates from our Bolivian partners, and whatever else we can imagine. Our hope is this will help readers better understand our motivation to support efforts in Bolivia for children's health.

Today, however, I wish to point to great poetry, specifically Robert Frost (1874-1963) and a poem he wrote about one hundred years ago, The Mountain (1915). 

Frost was a Pulitzer Prize winner and the first poet asked to read at a presidential inauguration when John Kennedy invited him in 1960. He used his life in New England to color his poetry with natural world imagery and colloquial speech which related to common-man life both literally and metaphorically. His work is a major part of how rural American life of the early twentieth century will forever be remembered.

While most may recall Frost's poem The Road Not Taken ("Two roads diverged in a yellow wood ... I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference."), we were drawn to The Mountain and from it found the name of our blog: Warm in December, Cold in June, as it reflects where we are and where we hope to go.

In the poem, a man is visiting a town which sits in the shadow of a mountain. As he hikes toward the mountain he meets a local farmer who is walking with an ox and cart. The conversation which follows relates how the mountain's size limits the growth of the town and that there are stories of a spring at the top which is "almost like a fountain," and which feeds a brook that flows down the mountain. The brook is storied as being "always cold in summer, warm in winter." The old man, though he has lived there a long time, has never climbed the mountain or seen the spring but he encourages the visitor to consider ways to climb the summit.

Later, the visitor tries to learn more about the brook and the water's temperature when he asks:

"Warm in December, cold in June, you say?"

And the old man replies (with what I imagine is a slow, heavy rural New England accent and dry humor):

"I don't suppose the water's changed at all.

You and I know enough to know it's warm

Compared with cold, and cold compared with warm.

But all the fun's in how you say a thing"

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The poem winds down with no finality as the farmer turns to continue walking with his ox and cart. We never know if the visitor hikes the mountain finding the brook and its spring, or simply returns to the town where he started.

So goes life. We travel, sometimes to places that are "held in the shadow" of something grand like a mountain. We meet locals who encourage us to hike and explore new places. We ask questions and learn from the locals, understanding more of their past and possibilities for the future. But those possibilities are never certain and the reality that will unfold is only determined by what we choose to do next.

That defines the AAVia Foundation for the Health of Bolivian Children at this juncture. 

Bolivia lies in the southern hemisphere where, yes, the weather is warmer in December and colder in June. The peaks of the Andes Mountains dominate the geography. And we are learning from the locals so we may understand possibilities and choose our actions to better shape the future as we all climb the summit which lies before us.

--Timothy Malia, MD

Co-founder, AAVia Foundation for the Health of Bolivian Children

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