Youth Venture

Progress Since March 2006, Performing Life has worked with more than 100 children and adolescents on the streets of Cochabamba, Bolivia. These youth ar of all ages and come mainly form low income households and work on the streets juggling to help sustain the family. for this reason, we have put allot of importance into the performing arts, but the goal of the project is to offer these youth with alarger variety of performing arts which they can use to genrate income. Classes are held in local parks accessible to working and street youth. We offer two classes every day which last from 2-3 hours, where we teach performing skills and provide a meal after each class. We also provide youth with the appropriate equipment needed for these activities. So fa, we have held classes where we teach juggling techniques with Clubs, Rings, Poi, Diabolo, Devil Sticks, as well as Unicycle and various other things. We have helped many youth improve their performing skills to generate increased income through these classes, where there is always a n experienced instructor present to help out. We have seen the rapid improvement in the participating youth and have seen the notable change I not only their income, but also their putlook on life and most of all the way they now see their futures. These classe are structured so as not to get in the way of school, family time, etc. We have been able to hold more than one class a day with the help of older participants who have proven able to recruit new youth, teach them and manage the classes. they have proven to be a big help so far and are always eager to help other youth get out of the situation that they once lived in. We also have been able to set up visual arts workshops, making bracelets out of thread that are sent to the U.S. and sold there, benefiting the participants in a direct manner. The money made by each participant frm the Braacelet Program is saved in their own bank account, which is set up for them by Performing Life, with the goal being that this money will not be wasted and insead will saved up untill the participant is able to invest it in some sort of business that will benefit themselves and/or their families and will help maintain them in the future. So far we have made some of these inestments come true, and they have proved to be quite advantageous for the youth who put them into practice. We have helpd various youth living on the streets, many of whom were sniffing glue to get out of this situation and inot a better environment. All of our activities and progress are documented every month and can be found in our Performing Life Monthly Reports. (link to monthly report page)