2009: Grand prix "Vale Un Potosí"

A medal for Marianne Sébastien, awarded by the UNIMPO (Women’s Union of Potosí) and by the mayor’s office of Potosí, et recognition as "Visitantes Nobles" for Ophélie Schnoebelen, Olivier Reymermier, Marie George and Reino Lehtinen.
The ceremony took place in the famous Salon de Actas in the Casa de la Moneda.

For the Foundation Voix Libres’ outstanding results, its sense of realism and social vision in Bolivia (600'000 beneficiaries in 16 years of existence), the UNIMPO, a prestigious women’s association in Potosí, has decided to award the honorary prize of the Department "Vale Un Potosí" to Marianne Sébastien.
 

Marianne receiving the "Vale un Potosí"medal in Potosí.

Extracts:

"It is essential that we sincerely esteem and recognize the scope of the social activity realized by Voix Libres and by its president, Marianne Sébastien. Never before have such results been achieved in these regions among the most ostracized families of the mines, rural areas and slums of Bolivia.

On behalf of the people of Potosí, we thank Voix Libres for its work and wish long life to its projects in favour of the poorest of the poor".

Rosario Angulo
Presidenta de la Unión de Mujeres de Potosí

The women from our carpentry workshop (former mining guards and pailliris from Cerro Rico),accompanied by orphans from our Jatun Ayllu centre were present at the ceremony.

Marianne Sébastien, president of Voix Libres, has just been nominated "Woman Entrepreneur of the Year 2007" by the CFE (Club of Women Entrepreneurs) in Switzerland: 100'000  micro-credits granted to Bolivia's poor since 1994.

"How  happy I am to share this recognition with my friends from the mines, who I have shared their lives with for the past 15 years! This prize is a spotlight on their extraordinary courage.

In Potosi, 90% of micro-credits are granted to women. They are the living proof or the potential for change which each human being possesses: they were slaves, they have become entrepreneurs... they were dumb and have found their voice... they were alone, and now we are together.

Thank you to all the teams. Together, we become that hidden force that shakes fatalism, splits the hard casing of history and opens wide the gates of destiny... to free the voice of liberty."

Marianne Sébastien

Gold Medal for Marianne Sébastien, nominated Potosina de honor

Voix Libres has been recognized as a "Meritorious Institution" for its wide-reaching results in favour of the poorest people on both a deparmental and national level...350'000 beneficiaries in just 12 years. Such decorations are only awarded to the most prestigious personalities or institutions. Here are extracts from the speech of the Prefect of Potosí, Oscar Caviedez Uzeda:

"It is an unprecedented honour to award this prize to Voix Libres, selflessly active here for the past 12 years. I congratulate you for the efficiency of your very practical strategies in favour of the poor. You have saved thousands of children and sent them to school...
... Thanks to you, so many of our communities benefit from integral support and a new alimentary autonomy from the walipinas   
(semi-buried greenhouses)...

The  Fundación Voces Libres is a real asset for Potosi, as it is for the whole of Bolivia. We commit ourselves to the protection of its institution and to providing it with the necessary means to face ever growing challenges.
An immense thank you to all the Voix Libres teams in Bolivia and Europe, who accomplish their work as a vocation, to Alberto Martinez, national co-ordinator , and especially to Marianne Sébastien, President and Founder, who has been giving her life here for the last 12 years…

To all of you, thank you for the kindness of your hearts, so sensitive to human suffering. "

Oscar Caviedez Uzeda, préfet de Potosi

The Prefect of Potosi Oscar Caviedez Uzeda decorates Marianne Sébastien
18th november 2005.

All the women and children had come down from the mines...