Education for children in Ecuador

It has been a fantastic few months in the school which is gearing up for the final exams and the end of the school year in July. The regional schools’ athletics competition took place and we gained several second places which was a fantastic achievement – next year there will be Gold!

David, our local Phoenix teacher and in charge of sustainable plans has been busy teaching the children about various types of vegetables and how to grow them in the school garden. These are trials as well to see what grows well and what doesn’t and we can expand Plan Huerto (vegetable gardens) in the communities later this year.

Plans are afoot to add to our teachers in September with emphasis on recently graduated teachers to gain experience to be able to secure long-term jobs in the future. Without the education that you, our donors provide each year, this wouldn’t be possible and we thank you all.

Our annual Seven Continent Charity Challenge #4 which raises funds for all our projects across Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador and Perú was a huge success in May, biking, kayaking, hiking and “volcanoing” our way to Lake Atitlán in Guatemala, covering over 75kms. There is still time to support the cause by donating to this page and thank you!

A date for your diary for 2019: The Seven Continent Charity Challenge #5 will be the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu in Perú from 27-31^st May – please contact us if you are interested on dom@thephoenixprojects.org . There are limited spaces so please let us know as soon as you can!

Have a fantastic June and we’ll be in touch in August with another update! Cheers

We are well into the second half of the school year with our new Phoenix teacher David doing excellent work with the 2^nd graders. He, along with Rocio, is heading up the sustainable plans we want to put into place over the next few months, starting with a Plan Huerto (vegetable garden) to provide fresh produce for the children’s lunches. We would like to expand our Plan Moo and Plan Cuy as well, which have been providing funds for further education, including college and University for many families in the surrounding communities over the past few years.

In February the children and the community celebrated Ñukanchi Shimi (Kichwa) - the International Day of the Mother Tongue – with traditional dance and food. It is very important to keep these ancient traditions alive.

Plans for the 4^th Annual Seven Continent Charity Challenge are underway where we ask anyone, anywhere in the world to do a fundraising event for Phoenix during 2018. It doesn’t have to be a huge event; from a dinner or BBQ party at home to walking, running or undertaking something you have always wanted to do though havn’t got round to it! The fundraising can be done through this page with funds going to Phoenix, the schools and more importantly the children.

For those looking for an excuse to head to Lake Atitlán in Guatemala and raise funds for the projects, we are organising a 4-day biking, volcano hiking and kayaking challenge between 21st to 26th May. Please let us know if you are interested in joining us, or even organizing your own challenge and we’ll add you to the list and give you tips to make it as successful as possible.

As ever, thank you all for your brilliant support.

Cheers

Links:

• Get involved in the 2018 Seven Continent Charity Challenge
• Contact us to join the Guatemala Challenge in May