Beams Bytes – March 2005

Dear Friends and Family,

We hope winter is winding to a close for most of you in the northern climes. We are just about through our hottest months here south of the equator and the weather should start cooling off soon. This is the end of the rainy season, and while we have been relatively dry this year, it has been raining heavily up in the mountains above us. This means the rivers that flow down from the Andes swell with muddy rolling rain water and flood low lying parts of Santa Cruz along the Rio Grande river. While this mini-disaster did not make international headlines, it did greatly affect 1000s of peasant farmers in the communities where World Concern is working. In fact, 168 families with whom we are working with in the CAMS micro-credit program, have been affected by this flooding. They have lost all of their crops, which were just about ready to be harvested. For the majority, agriculture is their livelihood and a disaster of this magnitude will push them further into poverty. They have had to abandon their houses and fields, and are living dislocated in tents until the water recedes. The CAMS program is trying to raise enough extra capital to give these families emergency loans so they can immediately replant and recuperate some of their losses this year. Pray that the flooding will abate and that CAMS will be able to help these families through this crisis.

The political situation in Bolivia is worsening by the day as well. Last week the president of Bolivia, Carlos Mesa, resigned, and then several days later rescinded his resignation. He claims he cannot govern a country that does not allow democracy to function. In the 17 months he has been in office, there have been over 800 protests and civil disturbances. These various protesting groups have listed over 12,000 demands of the government. Most of these protests come in the form of road blocks, blocking key highways and disrupting commerce. In Santa Cruz, there has been a call for autonomy, meaning the state of Santa Cruz wants to independently elect a governor and does not want to send so much tax revenue to the capital in La Paz. How does this affect us? The local Santa Cruz civic committee has called a number of general “paros,” or strikes. They block all traffic from moving in the city and anyone who is on the roads without a permit will have their vehicle impounded. These “paros” usually last for one or two days, but they are becoming so frequent that it is hard to work consistently. It is a holiday for the kids in school, but otherwise it costs local businesses millions of dollars a day in lost revenue. Personally, I enjoy the general strikes because I get the chance to ride my bicycle all over town without worrying about traffic.

Most recently the Santa Cruz bus drivers have called for a transportation strike and are refusing to run their routes until the city lets them raise the cost of a fare. They currently charge $0.18 and want to raise it to $0.24. This does not sound like much, but here in Santa Cruz a roundtrip bus ticket amounts to between 10% and 20% of an average daily wage. And I would estimate that 90% of the cities population relies on busses for daily transport. Needless to say, the city is in chaos. People are walking and riding bicycles to work and school. Taxis are almost impossible to get, and when you do manage to get one to stop they want to charge three or four times the normal rate. Bus drivers are attempting to block major intersections with their busses. Last week when I came back into town after a visit to our projects I unwittingly drove through what was practically a war zone. The military began forcibly removing the buses, beating and arresting the drivers, and breaking out bus windows. The drivers were throwing rocks and attacking the press and the military and police. They began looting several neighborhoods. The military fought back with tear gas. As I drove home I passed burning tires, a burning police motorcycle, and lots of bricks and other debris in the road. It felt surreal, as if I were driving through a movie set or something. From one intersection I could see 20 or so policemen advancing on a line of rock throwing bus drivers. Later that night I saw that 30 people had been injured. Thankfully no one has been killed. Things appear to be calmer this week, but the drivers insist that there will be no more buses until they can raise the fare.

Pray for the political situation in Bolivia this month. We feel God’s presence in this country and know he will answer the prayers of 1000s of believers around the world. Pray also for how World Concern can respond to the local needs of families in poverty throughout Bolivia.

Thank you so much for your faithful support of this ministry. We are still behind in our yearly budget, but are confident in God’s faithfulness. Please pray for God’s leading in how he would have you support this ministry. Our new ministry blog (website) is www.beamsclan.blogspot.com. Visit the site to read frequent ministry updates, see pictures in our photo gallery, and find links to other ministry sites.

In His Grace,
Danny


Mailing address:

Daniel Beams
World Concern
Parapeti #146 -- Casilla 3681
Santa Cruz, Bolivia

Office Telephone: 011 591 3336 3664
Home Telephone: 011 591 3352 9156
Email: beamsclan@yahoo.com, danielb@worldconcern.org.bo
Website: www.beamsclan.blogspot.com

Road Blocks

The political situation is never dull in Santa Cruz. For the past month or so, civic organizations (mostly politicized groups of peasants farmers), have been blocking the major highways going in and out of the city of Santa Cruz. Currently 3 of the 4 exits out of down are completely blocked. The road to Argentina (where all of our diesel comes from), the road to Brazil, and the road to La Paz, which goes on into Chile and Peru. These diverse groups are demanding a variety of things from the government and refuse lift the road block until their demands are met. The government is hesitant to use military force because they want to avoid violence at all costs. In the mean time, our work has been greatly disrupted because we cannot travel out to the projects. Also, many imported goods are becoming scarce. The local paper is predicting that the city will be completely out of diesel by this weekend, even further paralyzing the commerce. I will wait in line to fill our tank up this evening (we drive a diesel Nissan Patrol SUV), and try to make this last tank full stretch as far as I can.

New Links

Check out the new links on the right of the screen. We now have links to a photo gallery and to our archived monthly newsletters. Also, you can click on the "Paypal Donation" button and contribe directly to our ministry. Alternatively, you can click on the "Contribute" link to learn how to make your World Concern payments on the internet instead of having to send in monthly checks. Also, I plan on adding some longer journal entries and diatribes in the "Longer Missives" section. Thanks for reading!

More Flooding

The flooding continues in the Rio Grande area. The water had been receding, but Sunday morning another wave hit and the water rose to a higher level than it reached the week before. Our country director, Marcia Suarez, visited the area last week and brought some tents to some of the homeless families. But this is just a drop in the bucket compared to the needs in the area. These mini-disasters are sometimes hardest to deal with because the do not make it into the international news media, so donations do not come in like they should to help relieve the crisis. World Concern Bolivia would love to do more but our project budgets are too tight as it is. If you feel moved to help in this effort, please make a donation and designate it to the Rio Grande Flood Victims.

Also, in the Yapacani project area, the project motorcycle was stolen over the weekend. This was the only transportation for 10 project facilitators. There is no money in the budget to replace it and now the field workers have no way of quickly getting into some of the more remote project villages. It will cost about $1200 to replace. Please be praying for this need.

Flooding in Micro-Credit Project Areas

This is the rainy season in Bolivia and recent storms in the mountains have caused the Rio Grande to rise rapidly and flood many of the communities where we work through the CAMS micro-credit project. More than 160 families have lost their crops and have been forced to evacuate their homes and communities. This is a tragic loss for them personally because most do not have any alternative sources of income and the majority of their annual income would have come from the lost harvest. The CAMS program is working hard to put together a plan that will give them an emergency loan so they can replant after the waters recede, and we will give them an extended amount of time to pay off their old loans. This is the second time in ten years that this area has seen severe flooding. Many people will probably decide to leave the area completely, but this too is difficult because they do not have the cash necessary to buy new land in higher areas. Please pray for these families in the communities of "Dos de Agosto," "Villa Montero," and "El Plato." Pray that they will recover quickly from these losses and that World Concern and the CAMS program will know how best to respond to this emergency situation.

Reina weaving a hammock in Santo Corazon

Reina in Santo Corazon

Reina and her daughters, pictured below, live in Santo Corazon, an isolated community several days away from the nearest town with public transportion. Trucks can only get into the area one or two months a year. During the other months people must walk or ride horseback for several days to get out to a main highway. There are no banks or public offices in Santo Corazon, and only a few small stores. They only have electricity two hours each evening. Before Reina joined the World Concern women's solidarity group called "El Progresso" she lived in a tiny one room mud house. Through this micro-credit and savings group she has gained access to small loans starting at $150. With this loan she bought yarn and other artisan material to begin knitting clothes, purses (like those in the picture), and weaving hammocks. She already had the skills to make these things but did not have the money she needed to invest in materials. As she has progressed in the group the last couple of years she has been able to sell many hammocks to local cowboys who live and work on the surrounding ranches. With the profits she has been able to add several rooms onto her house, pay for her children's food, clothing, and educational expenses, and beginning putting some savings in her group's savings fund, the "banco comunal." She attends monthly meetings where she learns small business management skills and where she is taking a course called "Biblical Values in the Marketplace." The local World Concern field worker, Iracema, makes sure that all of the members of her solidarity groups hear the Gospel message. With a good history of loan repayment, Reina now has access to loans of up to $400 per 6 month cycle. After several years of working and saving, women like Reina, will have saved enough money of their own so that they will not need to depend on credit from an organization like World Concern. It is exciting to see how quickly women like Reina can improve their families well-being with a lots of hard work, and a little help to get going. But the most important change Reina can make is from the inside. Once she accepts God's grace in her life, everything else will be brought into perspective.

Santo Corazon from the air

Reina and her daughters in Santo Corazon

Luciana enjoying the sun at Lomas de Arena

Vanessa and Isaiah having fun

Nathaniel with his sandboard

Sunset at Lomas de Arena

Lomas de Arena, Santa Cruz, Bolivia