Educate 120 Girls in Cusco for Economic Survival

School History - Chicuchas Wasi (CW) was founded by me in 1987 as an emergency shelter for the abandoned children living on the streets of Cusco. I was a 40 years old nurse alone and soon needed help. Ruth Uribe, a 25 yr old Peruvian public school teacher volunteered on weekends to help manage the 20 resident children. She and I quickly realized that to raise the quality of life for children living on the edge we needed to educate the girls with skills for economic survival and who too often become young mothers. The plan developed and together Rae and Ruth co-founded the CW School for girls. We have come a long way since then! Today CW is a primary school that is free to families of underserved indigenous girls. We have 100 girls enrolled who are safely bused to school every day from their rural locations. More often than not, our girls have very little food at home and come to school half asleep and hungry. We provided a daily nutritional meal and the girls began to thrive. Before 1987, girls rarely attended public school due to the preference of educating boys and leaving the domestic chores to the girls. Girls often sold herbal tea on a nearby corner, for pennies, or anything else that would bring in some money. The inability to read or write was a huge disadvantage. Today, all of our students can read and write by first grade. Our teaching style includes using theater to act out history and Andean culture, something the entire student body enjoys and participates in. Parents are also invited to attend these presentations and enjoy learning about their early history.

Our Past Struggles - in the beginning, we struggled to convince parents the value of educating girls. Ruth is from Cusco and was excellent at recruiting students and knew just where to find them - like under the tables while their mothers sold items in the open market. I traveled back and forth to my home town in California, and created a board of working directors to plan fundraisers like travel with CW to Cusco and Machu Picchu to raise funds and collected clothing for CW girls. My contacts and business skills would help raise the funds to build a school to last for many generations. Today our parents are hands-on participants in the education of their daughters by attending to the maintenance of the school, such as painting classroom doors and performing other minor repairs. Since it’s an agricultural community, they also help prepare the soil for planting potatoes, squash, corn, quinoa and cultivate the land that provides vegetables for our lunch program.

It was soon apparent that to raise funds to build our school we needed a full time fundraiser and that was to be me and grant writing. The years flew by. We (calif Board and CW school team) worked hard but also had fun.

Our Successes - We have had many wins! Most of our alumnae have completed high school, some attend a trade school and others study at the university. One girl had a dream of becoming a teacher, like Ruth, and worked hard to achieve that goal. I’m happy to announce that today she is part of CW’s teaching staff! We are fortunate to have CW girls for 8 years. Our teachers are committed to instilling confidence, and encouraging our girls out of the shadows to become confident community leaders. Among the many skills CW girls learn is how to vote in national elections. Not only that, but they teach their parents and family members how to vote as well. CW girls have found their voices and use them courageously to educate their communities about conserving water and picking up garbage.  

https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/educate-120-poor-girls-in-cusco-for-economic-survival/

Fundraising - I returned to California 20 years ago to be near my family and my grandkids and to focus on fundraising while still managing the administration needs of CW.  The community in Sonoma, as well as other fundraising groups, have helped us create a school library, a computer lab and, more recently, payed for a Satellite antenna for CW internet connection. This last item was donated by Antoine, a member of the Sonoma Rotary Club. Thank you Sonoma Rotary and Antoine! Efrain Valles, a local Cusco tour guide and 30year member and supporter of CW convinced the Cusco Rotary to fund the installation of the antennae for the school. He also uses his tour guiding business to bring tourists to the school so they can see first-hand how their donations are impacting the lives of  our students and their families.

Looking Ahead - I’m not 40 anymore and I feel my role is changing at 83 today. As the years go by, my travels to Cusco are few and far between and my ability to keep up with all the things this job entails are also changing. The Board and I, along with Ruth Uribe, the director and cofounder of CW, are actively discussing a transition from the US based Board to one in Cusco. Our Board President, Greg Stubbs, a lawyer, is providing legal advice and guiding us in this transition and our nonprofit 501© 3. He is also exploring the feasibility of having the donations sent directly to the school, but the fact that the school is under the authority of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Justice poses a problem. We don’t want the money to go through these two entities

.Lastly, I wanted to announce that the newsletter will be taken over by Roberta O’Neill, a friend and retired bilingual teacher who is a great supporter of CW School for Girls and it’s mission. She came to Cusco in 2017, for the school’s 30th anniversary and has also participated in a number of fundraising events. Im still here but letting go of some of the tasks . 

Links:

• Official Chicuchas Wasi web site