Unidad Educativa Alexander Agosti
Date of Completion: May, 1999
The people of Amachuma are Aymara, the resilient ethnic group that withstood the cultural domination of the Incas. The villagers displayed their toughness in uniting to build a school for their children.
The village, located more than 12,000 feet above sea level along the Bolivian Altiplano, is connected to the main highway by a dirt road which turns to mud when it rains. One morning, a work group set out with a truck to pick up bricks for the school. They were due to return that evening. Well, it started to rain on their return to the village and they got stuck many times along the road, forcing them to unload the bricks each time and pull the truck out of the mud. They returned to the village 36 hours later, tired but proud of their contribution to the school project.
The Amachumeños are as generous and welcoming as they are hard-working. When the school was finished, they named it in honor of the BwB project coordinator who worked alongside them during the three-month project.