Gather messages and ensure communication between villages and communities. Tusoco, a network of rural associations for community tourism (Red Boliviana de Turismo Solidario Comunitario), took up this challenge in the first issue of their information newsletter, Tusocorreo, in June of 2008. This was not easy: how to report on communities isolated in the Bolivian Altiplano, far from telephone cables, antennas and internet connections ? Tusoco’s answer is original to say the least; it depends on a human chain to transmit information.

This starts in Cochabamba in central Bolivia, where a message is entrusted to a provincial bus driver. He then carries it a few hundred kilometres and hands it on to a food transporter, who is one of the few people who travels to the more remote parts of the Altiplano. In exchange for 5 Bolivianos (around 45 cents), he carries and delivers this message to the village chief or to the representative of a rural organisation. Most villagers cannot read and write, so each community designates a person to read the message to the village assembly. At the same time, those villagers who wish to communicate with the offices of Tusoco can see this same person, who will write their message. This is a common practice in Bolivia. In the message will be information on the network, and questions concerning current matters in the community. This message will then be sent back to the offices of Tusoco. Certain communities receive transport only twice a month; the message can therefore take up to three weeks to get back to Tusoco, always given that the transporter, unaccustomed to this system, doesn’t forget to pass it on…

An ambitious means of communication

The Tusoco network helps to ensure complimentary sources of revenue for these Bolivian village communities, while at the same time respecting the local culture and natural environment. This newsletter was thus designed to facilitate communication between village communities, who will use it to report on the current state of their projects, and also to ask and give advice to other members of the network. Another strong point of Tusocorreo, as much in its format as in its development, is the necessity for cooperation between members of the network, which constitutes the main force of an organisation. It is also the strategy chosen by Tusoco: to carry out activities in an associative way, with a constant use of an inter-dependent economy. According to Sandro Saravía, national coordinator of Tusoco, “Bolivian indigenous communities are still marginalised, and too often excluded from any decision-making. It is essential that we develop means of communication which integrate the most isolated village communities. For us, communication is life, the essence of our existence. We are a population that communicates to preserve its values; it is essential to us in a society of perpetual change due to globalisation. Moreover, we know that information is the key to all forms of development”. The type of communication adopted by Tusoco uses new strategies, indispensable to the Bolivian population, to meet the challenges of the contemporary world. It is also the best way to ensure that culture, knowledge and know-how are not lost, and that rural populations can take control of their own future, and not be the victims of it.

Also read: Resonances Latin America N° 25 - June 2008