Welcome to the Helping Hands website. My name is Linda Zarate, Coordinator of the Helping Hands Project which began in January of 2004. Originally from Canada, I have lived in Bolivia 41 years and raised my family here. My husband Raul and I have two daughters and four grandchildren. After I retired from teaching, I began the Helping Hands Project with my friend Marion Ibañez to open up educational opportunities to Bolivian youth of very limited economic resources. We feel that education is one of the best ways to help reduce poverty in Bolivia.

Hello my name is Janneth Quispe Clares and I was born in La Paz. In the year 2010 I married the love of my life, Jorge. I am working in the Helping Hands Project since 2006 as office manager and during all this time I met different young men and women who finished their studies with success and started to work.  This is only possible because there are many people to support the project. However there is still a long way to go in order to continue our work helping young people who could not afford to study although they are willing to. Our mission is to go on working for them.

I am Ángel Morales born in Los Yungas La Paz. I studied English at Centro Boliviano Americano for about 26 months, and now I have already finished it. I would like to study a career that involves this language. In January of 2011 I started to work at the Mendez Arcos Library, which I know very well, since I have studied there for four years. That makes it easy for me to get along with the teenagers, and I love working with them.

Hey! I am Fabiola Chino, I study Public Accounting at the University Salesiana of Bolivia. Being in the project “Helping Hands” I help at the office with the accounting. It is very interesting to work for the project. Furthermore it is always fun to work with the volunteers, Linda and my friend Janneth. I am very happy to have found this project because it really changed my life completely with the joy it gave me and with this experience I learned that "IN LIFE ONE HAS TO SUFFER BUT THROUGH EXPERIENCE ONE LEARNS", "EACH SEED PLANTED CAREFULLY WILL MAKE A STRONG TREE.”

Hello, my name is Clemens Harnisch, I am 20 years old and I come from Germany. I am going to be a volunteer in the “Helping Hands” project for one year. While being here I will concentrate especially on the tutoring and recreational activities of our high school kids. Furthermore I am giving classes in English, German and Latin to the university students. During my stay I would like to improve the project’s web presence, thus my first project was to renew the webpage of “Helping Hands”.

I am Janek, a German volunteer in the Helping Hands Project which is situated in La Paz. I am very convinced about the aims and the line of actions of the project. For this reason I am happy to support it with all my skills in the upcoming year. My tasks are varied and depend on the predominant situation so that I am engaged in different fields. Some of them are: the webpage, translations or the leisure activities for the students.