Examining “Gap-Filling” in the Curriculum of the Pirwa Afterschool Program for Children in Huancarani, Bolivia

Abstract

Abstract This article examines how and why the Pirwa, a local development organization founded in Huancarani, Bolivia, has evolved their afterschool program for community members over time and how the program “gap-fills” in the place of state social services. Mark Schuller (2009) describes “gap-filler” NGOs as organizations that serve as sources of aid when the state cannot provide them. This article examines the afterschool program from 2002 to 2017 and demonstrates that there were three ways it changed over time: transitioning from using indigenous knowledge to mainstream academic knowledge, hands-on teaching to tutoring, and using foreign volunteers in the program more frequently. This article will demonstrate that while the retreat of state aid from the Bolivian government has created the need for private organizations to gap-fill, the Pirwa has used the agency they've developed as a community to implement a curriculum that fits the needs of community members at the time.