Improving local healthcare services for Indigenous communities in Bolivia

Pucarani is a municipality in the Bolivian Altiplano, situated on the outskirts of La Paz. Its public hospital is a second-level institution that provides intermediate and specialized care to the residents of the municipality and the 11 surrounding rural communities, however, it could not offer medical testing. As such, these poor and marginalized communities had to travel more than 45 kilometres to reach La Paz to access these services, a costly undertaking for most. This situation deprived them of quality care for the screening of numerous chronic and infectious diseases, particularly among children.

This project provided the hospital’s new laboratory with state-of-the art equipment so that local healthcare services can be offered to the region’s Indigenous communities. This is part of the hospital’s modernization program, which has been funded by the local council since 2020.

The project was carried out in collaboration with the Centro de orientación y capacitación Whipala (COCAWI), a local partner organization of Terre Sans Frontières. Founded and run by Bolivian women, COCAWI has been working since 1999 to promote local development and economic empowerment among poor rural communities in the Altiplano. It also maintains a partnership with the municipality of Pucarani to support the healthcare system in the 11 rural communities.

This project is directly benefitting 12,600 men, women, boys and girls—the number of people who use the hospital each year. In improving access to local healthcare, this initiative is having a positive impact on preventive public health and the reduction of infectious diseases, which is helping to alleviate the heavy mental burden on Aymara women in Bolivia, and is promoting sustainable development in Pucarani