Education for children in Ecuador

I hope all is well with you. Thanks to your donations, our regular monthly donors, those getting involved in Charity Challenges this coming year and other fundraising events, the following is what we have planned for 2024 and how all your donations will make a huge difference to the communities where we work in Latin America.

In Ecuador we will pay for six local teachers in the school as we enter the second half of the school year in January. Four of these teachers are University students we are helping with their studies. We will continue to pay for internet in the school and essential materials each month as well as funding cultural celebrations.

Since we started our financial support for local University students studying teaching back in 2016 in exchange for them working in the school to ensure one teacher per class we have helped seven students with their long-term educational costs. Dozens of younger students have benefitted from them being in the classroom over the years receiving a dedicated education. We will continue with this successful programme this year. 

The purchase of cows in Plan Moo will carry on during 2024 as we strive to sustainably cover some of the project's core costs so we can help out with more one-off critical projects in the community, similar to helping the family with their house in December, and also helping other communities over the coming years.  

Plan Moo was resumed in December following the recent unprecedented dry-spell and work has begun on the house for the new family who arrived in the community recently with nothing as they used to live and work on a farm which stopped functionning and left them homeless. Thanks to donations we have brought the materials for the roof with the community getting together and buying the other materials. Kapak Raymi was celebrated in the school in December when the community asks Pachamama for a good growing period for the crops. The school restarts for the second half of the academic year next week.

All the best for 2024 and thank you in advance for your continued support during it!

Cheers

I hope all is well with you. To celebrate Giving Tuesday today all donations up to £2,000/$2,500 will be partially matched with a share of a $1.2 million pot which is a fantastic opportunity for the projects. Last year this amounted to a 25% matching on all donations.

All funds raised today from this year’s Appeal will be put towards our local teachers’ salaries, scholarships, classroom materials and sustainable plans.

Last year's Appeal, launched in September 2022, raised an incredible £21,000/$26,000 towards the £85,000/$106,000 we spent on The Phoenix Projects in Latin America over the following twelve months. As you can see clearly we were able to accomplish one quarter of our work in Latin America thanks to your generous support to the Appeal, including the annual Giving Tuesday partial matching. 

To take advantage of the partial matching today please donate to this page and thank you so much in advance.

With the national elections now over in Ecuador for another couple of years the teachers are getting to grips with any changes the new government is planning to put in. Classes will continue until just before Christmas and restart early in January.

Kulla Raymi was celebrated in the community. This is an indigenous ceremony asking Pachamama (Mother Earth) for fertility for the land and therefore good crops. This year’s celebration was especially poignant as an El Niño/climate change dry spell has hit the communities causing us to pause the purchase of cows in Plan Moo. 

As is tradition we celebrated Day of the Dead at the end of October with colada morada (fruit drink) and homemade bread with the students and their families.

Have a great December and thank you so much in advance for anything you can donate today to the Appeal so we can receive the Giving Tuesday matching.

Cheers