Bolivia

Bolivia is a country of contrasts. The world's foremost producer of tin, and home to Latin America's second-largest reserves of natural gas, this country has the lowest average income in South America. Bolivia is plagued by drastic inequality, economic polarization, and marginalization of its indigenous people, who represent about 60 percent of the population.

Rural poverty in Bolivia has steadily worsened during the past few decades. The dire economic situation of the countryside has resulted in mass migration to urban centers, where the quality of life is slowly deteriorating. Meanwhile, small farmers face the additional challenges of deforestation, degradation of natural resources and climate change, which alters the seasonal cycles and generates long, unpredictable periods of drought and floods.

Since 1955, Catholic Relief Services has worked with our local partners in the Catholic Church to improve the quality of life of poor Bolivians. Whether providing housing, water and sanitation systems, health services, agriculture assistance, microcredit, or emergency response, our work in Bolivia strives to strengthen the capacity of the communities we serve to take control of their own development and achieve long-term change. CRS Bolivia's work focuses on two major areas: livelihood and emergencies, and civil society and citizenship participation.

From our office in the capital city of La Paz, CRS Bolivia runs programs in six of the nine states, or departments, in the country.