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Paraguarí, Paraguay II

Location: Paraguarí, Paraguay
Project Focus:
 Environmental Health
Length: 8 Weeks
Dates: June 15, 2010 - August 12, 2010

Project Specific Activities:

  • Partner with local youth to run camps for 5-12 year old children focusing on environmental health.

  • Run 2-week long day camp for children during the Paraguayan winter break.

  • Collaborate with Plan-Paraguay youth groups and community members on the planning and implementation of a community-based initiative (CBI).

  • Some Volunteers may be partnered for 10 days with Paraguayan youth from the Junior Achievement program.

Take a Photo Tour of Paraguarí:

 

Project Area:

Paraguarí is located in southern Paraguay, roughly an hour and a half southwest of the country’s capital, Asunción. Paraguarí is made up of fertile forested lowlands, with hills in the northeastern area, and the Tebicuary River along the southern border. The land is flat and rolling, with small plateaus and hills spread out in the distance. The economy of Paraguarí is based primarily on the harvesting of lumber and agricultural production. Not only will Volunteers have the chance to improve their Spanish skills in Paraguay, but they will also be assured of picking up some Guaraní, an indigenous language used in social settings in host communities.

Project History:

AMIGOS initiated its work in Paraguay in 1972 in partnership with the Ministry of Health. For a number of years the project included a combination of human immunizations and community sanitation efforts. In 1993, AMIGOS expanded its work and divided the projects into two separate projects, one project focused on human immunizations based in Asunción and another focused on Community Sanitation based in a nearby region.

In 2001, AMIGOS discontinued the human immunizations project, redirecting efforts towards community sanitation, health and environmental education. This will continue to be our focus, along with the active involvement of youth in community development programs in 2010. It will also mark our seventh year of collaboration with Junior Achievement.

Partner Agencies:

Plan Paraguay
Fundacion Paraguaya/Junior Achievement
SENASA
REFOPAR

Further Actions:
AMIGOS Voices

“I saw through my work with AMIGOS that there were so many ways to influence the world. I realized that if I studied what interested me, there would be opportunities to use whatever skills I learned to better my environment, from the neighborhood where I grew up to a little town on the other side of the world.”

–Roanne Sharp, Student, UCLA