Ana Maria Maranon de Bohorquez

Disabled Advocate for Homeless Children - standing up for human rights

Disabled by polio, Ana Maria Maranon de Bohorquez has devoted 20 years to helping street children in Bolivia. She is the founder of three shelters which offer food, education and formal training in life skills. One of the shelters helps children and teenagers in drug rehabilitation. Another focuses on teenage mothers and helps them resume formal education.

"I cannot use my legs, but I wasn't about to leave my arms crossed, watching how many children live on the streets, in the midst of drug addiction, abandonment and crime," she says. "I had to do something."

Standing up for the principles of the Universal Declaration
Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms the rights of children to "special care and assistance." Children's rights were further strengthened through the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which nearly every country in the world has signed and ratified.

Learn more:
>>Bio: Ana Maria Maranon de Bohorquez
>>Information on Ana Maria's efforts

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