Project Progress and Client Impressions
Working on my team’s global service project so far has been so fulfilling, and the time seems to have flown by. It’s hard to believe that we’re heading on the trip next week already! Meeting our nonprofit client in Bolivia, CEOLI, gave me an immediate first impression of how dedicated Ronald, their Director, is to the organization. He was so understanding and kind with our team as we asked our list of prepared questions and attempted some rudimentary Spanish where possible. Later on, the cultural presentation we had to give really contextualized just how difficult the circumstances are for keeping CEOLI running within Bolivia. After researching so much about the specific challenges in disability law and healthcare and the mismatch with the actual reality, my group only gained more respect for CEOLI for managing to stay open and continue serving kids without any government funding or even local donors to help them. They act as the only special education support center in the Cochabamba area, which makes their work incredibly important to the local community.
Our project includes several different deliverables spanning network connections, fundraising, training resources, and equipment procurement. Because of the number of moving parts, our team has been very busy reaching out to as many people here in Pittsburgh as possible to get help with different aspects.
The first part of the project involves building network connections for CEOLI. This has been slow going but is progressing. Our decision to contact organizations like Global Links worked successfully, and they are open to connecting with CEOLI for potential future medical equipment needs. However, getting at least three total connections is still a work in progress. Our attempts to get in touch with other local nonprofits and relevant Pitt student organizations have mostly been answered with silence so far, so we are continuing to follow up and look for new organizations to contact.
The donation portion of the project, on the other hand, has been an amazing success so far. Our team started a GoFundMe campaign and circulated information about our project across our personal social media accounts. We also shared it with family members, emailed past GSL alumni, talked about it in our student organizations, and I even made a business school–wide Teams announcement to increase awareness and encourage donations. To great success, we have already raised over $2,200 in extra monetary support, and we are still working to collect more throughout the semester! Once we return from the trip, we also intend to run an in-person fundraising event at The Roots on Forbes Avenue, where we are hoping to tap into students’ willingness to grab a meal in order to encourage donations from people our own age. The organization of that event has already started, and we’ve made contact with a representative and are now gathering the necessary paperwork to run the fundraiser. For the equipment part, we also managed to secure five gently used laptops for CEOLI to use for speech therapy purposes, which came from a donation by a tech company that was upgrading its employee equipment. Our plan is to bring them with us to Bolivia and set them up for CEOLI in-country. On this end, my team is confident we will bring in additional funding that can be given either directly to CEOLI or potentially help support funding resources for the training portion if needed.
The final part of our deliverables involves training resources. Ronald shared that he would like updated information about hydrotherapy that his therapists can use to improve their services for the children at CEOLI. However, despite reaching out to relevant university departments and faculty, student organizations, local nonprofits, and even swim schools that offer hydrotherapy, we have not had much success in getting responses. Since CEOLI specified that a video or live webinar would be the most helpful format for these five trainings, this has made things even more challenging. We cannot simply hand over written resources, so we need to not only build a connection with an organization but also find professionals willing to take the time to create a resource for us. Because of this, we are still identifying new contacts and continuing to reach out wherever we can. I’m also going to look into online training programs that may be behind a paywall, as the fundraising can hopefully help offset that cost if we need to pivot towards that route.
Goals for the Travel Component
Overall, the main thing my team is hoping to accomplish during the trip is gaining a greater understanding of the client’s situation and needs. Since our project has so many different parts, the more context we can gather about the actual operations of CEOLI, the better we will be able to deliver a useful final product. For the training component specifically, I am hoping we will have the chance to see the therapy sessions in action and speak with the therapists on staff. The best way to understand what training they already have is to observe and ask questions about it, especially since we will be able to watch demonstrations even with the language barrier.
Continuing to build a positive relationship with CEOLI’s staff is also a priority, since this will be our first in-person interaction. We want to show them the work we have completed so far and learn more about the center itself. Making sure we are respectful, asking thoughtful questions, and continuing to strengthen the partnership will be important, not only for our specific project but also for maintaining a strong long-term relationship between the university and CEOLI.
Working Within Cultural Differences
One cultural difference that may affect our work is the pace and style of communication. In the United States, especially in academic and professional environments, communication is often very direct and efficiency-focused. People tend to respond quickly to emails, schedule meetings far in advance, and prioritize completing tasks as efficiently as possible. From what we have learned about Bolivia, relationships and personal connections tend to play a larger role in professional interactions, and communication may happen at a slower pace. Building trust and rapport can be just as important as the business being conducted. Because our team has been working on tight academic deadlines and project deliverables, adjusting to a different pace of communication could be challenging, especially on a limited schedule in-country to get everything done.
Language is another factor that may make conducting parts of the project more difficult. While a few of us have some basic Spanish ability, none of us are fully fluent, and we will likely be relying on translation a lot throughout our visit. This could make it harder to ask detailed questions about the therapies, equipment, or training resources that CEOLI needs, especially when it comes to technical terminology. We may have to rely more heavily on demonstrations, translation help, or nonverbal communication to understand what is happening, and if it feels like we aren’t making a genuine effort this can also affect the quality of the relationship.
At the same time, recognizing these differences will hopefully push our team to be more patient and flexible, which we have already begun doing. Instead of focusing only on completing our deliverables, we can also prioritize listening, observing, and building relationships with the staff at CEOLI. In the long run, this will help us produce a better final project because we will better understand their real needs, and further the partnership between Pitt and CEOLI for future projects:
How Lectures and Readings Impacted Reflection
I think the material on the nature of the service-learning partnership, and how it can easily become unbalanced toward the needs of the students, was the most impactful to me. As a student going into this program, I knew I would be getting some benefits from participating in addition to my own desire to help driving my commitment to the program. I’ve always been heavily involved in volunteering and have looked for ways to help others through many of the extracurricular activities I participate in outside of class. As a result, I initially thought of this program as a natural extension of that same approach.
However, after learning about the many ways service learning can be done badly and how it can sometimes hurt more than help, I started to think about the project differently. I realized that before starting the class, I had unconsciously been thinking about the project as students helping the nonprofit instead of viewing us as reciprocal partners. There was definitely a mindset shift for me. Hearing more about the power dynamics involved and reflecting on my own privilege in this context has helped me grow throughout the work we’ve done so far. Looking ahead, I am trying to be more mindful of this perspective and focus on what CEOLI actually needs rather than what we assume would be helpful.
I also believe that traveling to Bolivia and interacting with CEOLI in person will help further solidify this shift. Seeing the center firsthand and speaking directly with the staff will make the partnership feel more real, and it will help our group better understand the work they are doing on their side of the equation.