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Thousands of homeless children, many aged as little as three years, sleep on the streets or in the drains of Santa Cruz. They have to steal or beg for their food in order to survive.

My name is Annie Syrett and in late 2006 I spent nearly six months in Bolivia as part of my degree course, working with Alalay, a street children’s charity in Santa Cruz. I returned after graduation and will be working with the kids until May 2010. However, I still update my website as frequently as possible!

Alalay has very little money, with much of the funding raised locally in Bolivia – the few staff are often unpaid for long periods and when times are particularly hard, medical aid has to be rationed for the kids.

Which is why I am determined to help them, and why I started this registered charity in the UK called “Friends of Alalay (Santa Cruz)”. It is unusual amongst charities in that ALL of the money raised goes directly to help the children and nothing is spent on administration.

Money raised in the UK will only be spent on projects that are formally agreed between the Bolivians and us.

Where practical, donations will be used to help the Santa Cruz Centre become more self-sufficient: by improving education and skills development; by growing more food in-house, maintaining some livestock and training children in animal husbandry; by training in building work; textiles and so on.

I have spoken recently at many primary and secondary schools, churches and other groups of all ages in England and Wales about the plight of the street kids. Upon my return to the UK in May 2010 please do get in touch HERE if you'd like me to talk about the street kids at any event.

Personalised Alalay gift cards are available for any occasion throughout the year - a photographic-quality card which includes a picture of an ex-street child with a short statement about their personal history, along with your personal message, and says that the recipient of the card has helped care for a street child in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. For more information please click HERE.

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LATEST NEWS FROM ANNIE:

I have been back in England over the Christmas period but returned on the 8th February to be once more with the street kids and set up my main projects for 2010. As well as my ongoing work, these include:

1) Renovating a cabin at Alalay's out-of-town centre (the 'aldea') so that small groups of UK school students and teachers can visit Bolivia and spend several days in joint activity with the ex-street kids, such as drama, dance, music, art, English, Spanish, helping in the new vegetable garden and so on.

2) Establishing a programme to teach English to 100 kids at Alalay in 2010 - English is vital for their future education and job prospects.

3) Introducing new bursaries to help older kids through their vocational and university training

It is so good to see so many people in the UK who are enthusiastic about providing help to less fortunate young people in Bolivia. The following are just a few up-to-date examples of their amazing help and a fuller list can be seen on the brand-new "News" page which can be found HERE

The church council at All Saints Church, Clifton has very kindly agreed to support my charity as one of those adopted for the Lent period. An appropriate display has been mounted at the church and I am enormously grateful for this very practical help.

I spoke recently at the Bristol Branch of the English Speaking Union (ESU) who were extremely supportive and for the third year running have made a very generous donation towards my work with the kids.

Ben, Michaela and Jenna, students from the North Bristol Post-16 Centre at Cotham School have raised further funds for Alalay as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award, through a cake sale at the school.

The 74th Bristol Cub Scout group raised a fantastic amount from their '100 challenges in a night' evening and we will soon agree with them where it will be spent.

Two of my good school friends Juliet and Sophie are running for Friends of Alalay in the Bristol 10km on Sunday 9 May - please support them at www.justgiving.com/Juliet-Cartwright

Many thanks to them all, and to the many people who have kindly set up standing orders - it is very helpful to be able to rely on some regular giving - and for all of you who have kindly given so generously. Remember, everything goes to the kids!