By Dom Williams | Founder and Director
I hope all is well with you. In Ecuador classes headed into the second half of the school year with a new printer and the house for the new family was finished with the materials for the roof purchased thanks to the Appeal. Work will begin shortly on securing a new area for a playground next to the school with a wall as well as a school vegetable garden for daily meals.
A new sustainable Plan Huerta (vegetables) in a fifth community producing beans has started on a 2½ acre piece of land and aims to provide part-time income for several members of the community as well as income for the management of Plan Moo as the herd continues to grow.
Celebración de la Lengua Materna – Kichwa del Pueblo Otavalo (celebration of the mother tongue – Kichwa) was held in the school. In Ecuador Pawkar Raymi and Muchuk Nina were celebrated giving thanks to Pachamama (Mother Earth) for the flowering of crops and the upcoming harvests of grains. Fanesca was also prepared by the parents for Semana Santa (Easter) which is a soup made from a variety of ingredients including beans, grains, fish, eggs and many others.
The parents got together for a minga this month and the whole school was disinfected, all the windows cleaned and small paint jobs were undertaken. Preparation for the new school vegetable garden was also started with lots of earth removed and new darker earth brought in before sowing.
As you can see we've had a great start to the year and to help us continue our work over the next few months GlobalGiving will be matching all donations up to $50/£40 by 50% this week (Monday 8th - Friday 12th April) whilst available funds last as part of their Little By Little Campaign which is a fantastic opportunity for the projects. If you can donate anything this week to take advantage of the matching, thank you so much in advance.
It goes without saying that you cannot study on an empty stomach though the vast majority of the families where we work cannot provide much more than the absolute basics at home, usually a few boiled or dried potatoes or noodles in hot water with some herbs. Some governments have become more proactive with school meals over the years by providing some supplies like rice and beans though these generally run out well before the next delivery.
We have seen the success of the Plan Huerta that we started in Perú in 2022 with Impington International College. The government sends doctors each year to check on the children’s basic health and whilst most are underweight and anemic the levels of chronic malnutrition have reduced.
Our school Plan Huertas aim to provide sufficient vegetables sustainably for the students on a daily basis with any extra used to barter for other products which cannot be grown or shared with the families to eat at home. Our larger plans, like the one we are starting in Ecuador this month, aim to provide part-time employment for members of the community throughout the year whilst generating income to cover other project costs.
For those of you with Instagram we have started to update our account once again after a couple of years’ hiatus so please do seek us out on phoenix_flying_2020
We are nearing capacity for the Patagonia Charity Challenge (please follow the link below for details and costs) which is raising money for all the projects so if you are interested in joining us in November 2024 please do let us know by emailing info@thephoenixprojects.org
We will also be taking on the London Bridges Charity Challenge again on Saturday 3rd August followed by a reunion in a pub. If you are interested in getting involved with the bridges or just coming to the reunion afterwards please do let us know by writing to the email shown above!
All the best for April.
Cheers
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser