Sarah Terrazas, Chair of Friends of Bolivia, is our guest blogger this month and she tells us about the celebration of the 30 anniversary of the charity Sarah leads.
On 28 September the charity I volunteer for, Friends of
Bolivia, will celebrate its 30th anniversary with a Peña Folklorica in
Wimbledon.
I’ve been going to FOB events for as long as I can
remember. My parents have been involved
pretty much since the beginning and as a young girl I loved going to the
parties, where I’d get to stay out way past my bedtime and basically spend all
night running around with my friends. I
didn’t even mind when my parents made me dress up in a bowler hat and pollera. Then,
as I grew into a typical grumpy teenager, I decided the parties were simply not
cool enough for me to go to, and for a number of years I refused to go to any
events.
It was a couple of years after I graduated university that I
became involved in Friends of Bolivia again.
I had started a career in fundraising when the then Chair of the
committee asked me to join and help out with organising events. The more I learned about the charity, the
deeper I got involved. It seemed
incredible to me that with just a handful of volunteers Friends of Bolivia had
managed to send over £300,000 to its adopted projects in Bolivia. The charity
was run on a simple basis – raise as much money as possible during the year and
at the end of it, divide it between the projects. Each of these projects had been introduced to
the charity by a member who had personally visited it and they ranged from care
homes for elderly people, to accommodation and care for young people with
special needs.
Now, a few years later, I’ve become chair of the charity’s
committee and it sometimes feels like I get much more from FOB than I put back
in. Yes, it takes up a lot of time - 5
hour committee meetings are not unheard of, and there have been lengthy
discussions about the best way to chop the tomatoes for a Sarza - but in return
I get to practice my Spanish and keep in touch with my Bolivian heritage
–something that as I grow older is becoming increasingly important to me. Plus, it’s all for a good cause. I’ve been able to visit a couple of the
projects we support in Bolivia in recent years and let me tell you, one visit
to an old people’s home where 10 nuns care night and day for nearly 100 elderly
people, the majority of whom have dementia, is more than enough make all the
effort worthwhile!
The Friends of Bolivia Peña Folklórica will take place on
Saturday 28 September at Sacred
Heart Church Hall in Wimbledon.
There’ll be a live show of Bolivian folkloric music and dance, with
presentations from four different dance troupes and a live band. Tickets cost £40 (£38 if bought by members)
and include a glass of bubbly on arrival and three course dinner. Download
a booking form now.