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UNITY CHURCH-UNITARIAN
  • Visit
    • Accessibility
    • Building Tour
    • Directions and Parking
    • Pathway to Membership
    • Our Beliefs
    • Visiting Sunday Services
    • Welcome
  • Worship
    • Holy Week
    • Music Ministry
    • Sunday Services
    • Sunday Offering
    • Worship Associates
  • Grow
    • Adult Faith Formation
    • Art Lives at Unity Church
    • Artist in Residence
    • Cairns
    • Chalice Camp
    • Library-Bookstall
    • Religious Education for Children and Youth
    • Spiritual Practice
    • Theological Themes
    • Wellspring Wednesday
  • Act
    • Beloved Community News
    • Act for the Earth
    • Affordable Housing
    • Evergreen Projects
    • Gun Sense
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    • Staff
    • Memorial Services
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    • UUA/MidAmerica Region
    • Values, Mission, and Ends
    • Who We Are

Mano a Mano

This Mano a Mano Ministry Team team supports the work of Mano a Mano International Partners, a  non-profit organization founded in 1994 by Segundo and Joan Velasquez, long-time members of Unity Church-Unitarian. ​The team is a welcoming group with a social justice focus. It is chaired in rotation by team members and meets monthly except during the summer.  Members also spend social time together, organizing a summer picnic and winter holiday party every year. To learn more about this team, please contact Ann Mabbott at amabbott@hamline.edu.
Bolivian village celebration
Bolivian child with lamb
Unity members participate in Bolivian celebration.
Mano a Mano International Partners is dedicated to building infrastructure for health care, education, transportation and economic development in rural Bolivia. Mano a Mano works in bilateral partnership with four Bolivian counterpart organizations: Mano a Mano-Bolivia with its focus on health and education; Mano a Mano Nuevo Mundo which builds roads and water projects; Apoyo Aereo, providing air transport and air rescue to remote areas; and Mano a Mano Internacional which hosts visitors and pilots new projects such as its Center for Ecological Agriculture (CEA).
 
Through these partnerships, Mano a Mano has built a network of over 170 community health clinics as well as more than 60 schools with on-site housing for teachers. Mano a Mano has constructed hundreds of kilometers of roads to connect remote villages with larger towns and services. Mano a Mano’s water projects support food security for subsistence farmers in the high Andes, while the organization’s Center for Ecological Agriculture trains farmers in sustainable agricultural practices.

Members of the team support Mano a Mano International in a variety of ways including:
  • Volunteering to collect, sort and pack medical and school supplies, assist with research projects, help with office work or many specialized activities
  • Organizing informational forums and workshops to inform church members
  • Selling Bolivian handicrafts to raise funds
  • Becoming passionate advocates for the organization by “spreading the word” about its sustainable projects

Nearly 150 Unity church members have traveled to Bolivia to observe the work of Mano a Mano’s partner organizations. Annual group trips in March and June are coordinated by team members. On a typical trip, travelers tour clinics in remote rural areas; see roads that Mano a Mano has carved into mountainsides; and visit water reservoirs that help farm families attain food security and increase their subsistence-level incomes. Visits to the CEA are a highlight of most trips.
Unity Church-Unitarian | 733 Portland Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55104 | 651-228-1456 | unity@unityunitarian.org
All rights reserved.
  • Visit
    • Accessibility
    • Building Tour
    • Directions and Parking
    • Pathway to Membership
    • Our Beliefs
    • Visiting Sunday Services
    • Welcome
  • Worship
    • Holy Week
    • Music Ministry
    • Sunday Services
    • Sunday Offering
    • Worship Associates
  • Grow
    • Adult Faith Formation
    • Art Lives at Unity Church
    • Artist in Residence
    • Cairns
    • Chalice Camp
    • Library-Bookstall
    • Religious Education for Children and Youth
    • Spiritual Practice
    • Theological Themes
    • Wellspring Wednesday
  • Act
    • Beloved Community News
    • Act for the Earth
    • Affordable Housing
    • Evergreen Projects
    • Gun Sense
    • Indigenous Justice
    • Mano a Mano
    • Partner Church
    • Racial and Restorative Justice
    • Obama School
  • Connect
    • Board of Trustees
    • Calendar
    • commUNITY Newsletter
    • Congregational Care
    • Contact Us
    • Fellowship Groups
    • Membership Database
    • Ministerial Transition
  • Watch
    • YouTube Channel
  • Give
    • Annual Fundraiser
    • Annual Pledge
    • Make a Gift
    • Heritage Society Legacy Giving
  • About
    • Facilities Use and Rental
    • Staff
    • Memorial Services
    • Unity Church History
    • UUA/MidAmerica Region
    • Values, Mission, and Ends
    • Who We Are