Mid March 2008 Megan Fitze and Connie De Jong of Global Gallery (682 N High St) and Rhonda Bartoe Tucker of Studios On High (686 N High St) traveled together to Bolivia as part of a Global Gallery partnership with a Fair Trade organization called Handicrafts Loreto. Fair Trade organizations like Handicrafts Loreto donate a portion of their profits to community building projects and to begin an orphanage project near Cochabamba, the third largest city in Bolivia.

The Global Gallery trip was both to support handcraft development and to support the construction of the orphanage.  The orphanage is called K’illallaray and will serve eighty children from the communities around Cochabamba. The complex will have eight home units, and each one will have a set of parents that create a family environment for eight to ten children. There will be no adoption of the children. The orphanage also includes a workshop structure so the parents can create works for sale to support the financial health of the family.

Connie and Megan had traveled to Bolivia and worked on the orphanage in 2007; they returned in 2008 with Rhonda and six other Global Gallery staff members and volunteers. Rhonda’s son and his fourth grade classmates at High Point Elementary School in Gahanna sold Valentine’s Day chocolates as a fundraiser and collected $700 for the project.  In addition, the children collected donations of art supplies, including crayons, coloring books, and other goodies for the children which the group took with them.

During the trip, the group worked to install a floor in the orphanage home.  The nine member team used very basic equipment (shovels, pickaxes, buckets, and wheelbarrows) to carry tons of rocks and dirt that created a sub-floor ready for concrete.  What would normally take a few hours in the US, took a week to complete in Bolivia. 

Another very important part of the trip was visiting with the local artisans who hand-knit the Alpaca clothing, which is sold at Global Gallery.  The artisans spin their own Alpaca yarn and carve their own needles.  During the trip, Connie, who speaks fluent Spanish and a native dialect Ketchua, met with the artisans to complete an interview for her doctoral dissertation on Global Gallery’s educational programs and to update the women on the stores’ needs and accomplishments.

Global Gallery has committed to travel to Bolivia each year to support the development of the orphanage, called a Family Restoration Center, and to encourage capacity building of the foundation and the microenterprises associated with the project. Megan Fitze says, “Every time I go to Bolivia, it makes me look at the items we sell in the store differently. In my mind, it connects them more and more personally to the artisans who created them.”

Local Columbus residents can support the project and keep up with its development through Global Gallery in several ways. Firstly, Global Gallery maintains a blog about the project at www.boliviaorphanage.blogspot.com. Donations can be made through PayPal on the blog page. Secondly, Global Gallery collects used cell phones and turns them in, collecting money for donations to the orphanage. All four Global Gallery locations accept used cell phone donations. Finally, Global Gallery also hosts fundraisers each year in support of the project.




In additions to the contributions made by Global Gallery, Rhonda, who was moved and influenced by what she experienced in Bolivia, is helping to raise funds by creating and selling small drawings, which she calls “Art for Orphans”. 

Learn more about how you can help and make a connection to Bolivia by contacting Global Gallery.

by Megan Fitze, Connie DeJong, and Rhonda Bartoe Tucker

CAR, Africa

Erfurt, Germany