Project O.S.C.A.R.

The organisation O.S.C.A.R. was founded in 1969 by an american fransciscan priest, Miguel Dooling. He started to build access roads to isolated villages with volunteering university students. Tenant and person in charge for the non-governmental organisation O.S.C.A.R. is the bolivian franciscan province. Currently, the project is managed by the austrian fransciscan priest Fr. Roberto Eckerstorfer.

The project started in Guanay and was moved to Alto Beni in 1984 to work there with resettlers from the highland, always concerned to help of the most neglected part of the population.

The project takes care of all essential aspects in four different programs: road construction works, education, health care system and agriculture. The project’s main objective is sustainable development: educating the population, in order to enable the local communities to help themselves. And obviously, infrastructure is most important to connect local farmers with the markets for domestic trade.

Driving force at the road construction sites are voluntary bolivian students: as an alternative civilian service, bolivian students can stay for one year in the camp to work at the construction sites. Every year, about 100 students live and work in the camp. Mostly, they are working in the field of road construction, instructed by professional engineers. 

Apart from construction works on access roads, the project takes care of school education in the area and supports building and improvement of school buildings, but also concentrates on the educational training of teachers. The sub-program CETHA gives adults the possibility to pass a secondary-school examination.

The main focus of the health care system lies on treatment of leishmaniasis and tuberculosis. But also, the charity works on broadening the knowledge about prevalent diseases and healthy nutrition in the population. 

In an agricultural program, farmers are instructed how to carry out agriculture without damaging the forest and how to protect the thin layer of fruitful ground against erosion.

In all four programmes of O.S.C.A.R., the main focus is put on knowledge transfer and raising awareness. O.S.C.A.R. works in close cooperation with locals and decisions on new steps forward are made together with a committee, consisting of 20 representatives of the population and 3 representatives of O.S.C.A.R. itself.