Education for children in Ecuador

I hope all is well with you and you managed to celebrate Thanksgiving in some form this year. With 2020 finally drawing to a close we must turn our attention to preparing ourselves as best we can for 2021.

To help our Covid-19 recovery programme, and as part of this year’s Appeal, GlobalGiving will be sharing $1 million on Giving Tuesday on 1^st December along with donations made on this day. This opportunity is huge for us as we strive to purchase all the necessary supplies (gels, disinfectants, soaps etc) to make each classroom safe for when the children come back to school in 2021. We also want to continue to provide basic daily food so at least they have something in their stomachs to aid learning! If you can donate to this page on 1^st December we’ll receive more bang for your buck and be well-prepared for the months to come – thank you!

In addition to this and to aid our medium-term recovery programmes from the Covid-19 turmoil, GlobalGiving is offering a 200% matching on all new regular donations up to $200 set up between 14-18^th December. The match applies to the first installment paid during this time and the matching will be paid after four payments (in April 2021). This will really help us keep stocks full as well as providing a food programme for the children well into the new year. Please note, the 200% matching applies to new regular donations only set up between 14-18^th December.

You may have seen in the news the destruction wreaked by Hurricanes Eta and Iota in Central America recently. Our communities in Honduras were badly effected and we have started a recovery programme to help them get back on their feet. This coming Giving Tuesday and the regular donations will help a lot with this over the coming weeks and months.

The new school year started up again with classes now held on Mondays and Fridays with work set for during the week. We have taken on two new local teachers, ex-students, bringing the total to three Phoenix local teachers (six in total) who live in the communities themselves and who can help with day to day homework.  

Almost two tonnes of emergency food was provided in our four communities with priority given to the elderly and disabled due to severe shortages due to Covid-19. The supplies included rice, pasta, cooking oil, oatmeal, sardines, salt and face masks. We plan to do further emergency food drops over the coming months whilst the Covid-19 pandemic continues to restrict movement. 

We also purchased protective clothing for the teachers to wear as they travel to and from the school up in the mountains to try and prevent the virus spreading into the rural communities as well as bio-secure items including gels, soaps and sprays for when the children enter the classrooms as well as some food as part of our emergency supply program.

To celebrate Day of the Dead the mothers prepared the traditional colada morada for the children, made from corn and fruits.

Thank you for all your support this year, as in previous years: one more push and we can really start to plan for 2021 with your help.

Cheers

As you may have seen in the news, Latin America is currently a major hotspot for Covid-19. We are putting a priority on immediate vital emergency food supplies to the families, especially for the elderly and disabled, and hygiene products for the school during the current Covid-19 pandemic. Lockdowns, restrictions on travel and isolation have taken a heavy toll in the communities.

To give us a big boost GlobalGiving will be 50% matching all donations up to $50 between 14th-18th September as we aim to provide tonnes of emergency food supplies including pastas, rice, cooking oil, salt, sugar, oatmeal, sardines and other items to hundreds of families as well as boxes of soaps, hand sanitizers, fase masks and disinfectants for all our classrooms in all our countries.  

With your brilliant donations, matched at 50% up to $50 by GlobalGiving, we will be able to make huge inroads into our Covid-19 response across all our communities in Latin America.

Despite the closure of the classrooms our local teachers still managed to provide homework for the students in the communities. With no internet this was all undertaken on foot. Thankfully all the children graduated and the new term starts this week. The classrooms will be open twice a week only. Thanks to donations we have taken on two more local teachers who were once our students from ten years ago! As they are from the communities they can help the children with extra homework. 

Thank you so much for anything you can donate to our immediate emergency food programme. Please feel free to share this with friends, family and work colleagues as every little helps!
Cheers