Bolivian university takes higher education into rural areas

Published: 2003-10-21

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- In rural Bolivia young people have little opportunity to go to urban centers where the universities are, so in the Diocese of Coroico the university went to them. Through the efforts of a U.S. missionary nun, a university that stresses agricultural and health programs was started in the small town of Carmen Pampa in 1993. Higher education also helps break the fatalism among the rural poor that they cannot improve their lives, said Bishop Juan Vargas Aruquipa of Coroico. The university was founded by Sister Mary Damon Nolan, a member of the Missionary Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception. Earlier this year the school was recognized by a U.N. affiliate as one of the top nongovernmental programs in the world that fight poverty. "They say that education is free in Bolivia, but only if you live next to the school. But if you live in rural areas you have to go to the city and live there to get educated," said Sister Nolan. She is now president of the university in Carmen Pampa, called Unidad Academica Campesina (Rural Inhabitants Academic Entity). Since 1993, the university also has become a fully accredited branch of the Catholic University of Bolivia and increased its students from 54 to more than 600.

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