Food & fruit for primary schools in Latin America

I hope all is well with you. To celebrate Giving Tuesday today all donations will be supplemented with a share of a $1 million fund from GlobalGiving. If you can, please donate to this page today to take advantage of this fantastic opportunity from GlobalGiving for the projects with your donation making even more impact!

All today’s donations will be part of this year’s Fly The Phoenix Appeal which will go towards our local teachers, hygiene products for the classrooms, scholarships, educational materials, the elderly, transport and food for the rest of this year and a platform for 2022 across all our countries.

In a bid to neutralize the projects’ carbon footprint from day-to-day activities which include boat travel for the students in Guatemala, pickup transport for the students in Honduras and teachers’ transport up into the mountains in Ecuador and desert in Perú we, Fly The Phoenix, are planting a tree for every $15 raised.

We provided all the ingredients for the mothers to make the fruit-based colada morada and woodoven-baked bread to celebrate the upcoming Day of the Dead in the school. Kulla Raymi was celebrated, giving thanks to Pachamama (Mother Earth)  ahead of the upcoming sowing period. The tradition includes dancing, pampa mesa (communal food) and offerings representing water, earth, fire and air. We also provided food parcels for the children and families in Perú. 

Some of the trees we will be planting will be fruit trees to provide sustainable fruit for years to come. In Perú in 2022 we are planning to build a large covered vegetable garden with drip irrigation as water is scarce in the desert. This will provide fresh vegetables for the school each day.

Many thanks for anything you can donate to this page today to take advantage of the bonus funding.

Cheers

I hope all is well with you. The Covid-19 pandemic continues to cause major problems in Latin America though the rollout of national vaccination programmes are giving some hope for the future “new normal”, albeit slowly. Our local teachers, who have all now been vaccinated, have continued to maintain the education of our students by travelling to the communities to hand out homework and answer any questions. Online teaching is not an option due to lack of internet and devices. Some staggered classroom teaching, with all the protocols in place, has been possible in some countries though normal classroom-based teaching for all is still months away.

This week’s Little By Little bonus donation campaign gives us a brilliant opportunity to build a foundation to work from as we look ahead to the final months of 2021 and into 2022. GlobalGiving will match each donation up to $50 by 50% from Monday 13^th to Friday 17^th September. It would be fantastic once again to rely on your support this week with whatever you are able to donate to this page.

Thanks to your donations during this time we have been able to keep everything going on a shoestring budget, including buying all the necessary biosecure products to maintain safety, though there has been so much we have wanted to do which has had to be put on hold. Restrictions due to Covid-19 have forced the cancellation of usual fundraising events including our charity challenges over the past nineteen months and the economic outlook remains uncertain.

Whilst the main priority is obviously keeping our current local teachers and the education of the children, once more funding becomes available we want to increase the number of local teachers, undertake maintenance, restock the classrooms and invest in more family sustainable income plans for the future which is even more critical during these times. The sustainable plans will provide extra income for the families to buy essential food and medicines as well as helping to fund the schools in the future.

We will also be planting a tree for every $10 raised during this week to help reduce the carbon footprint of the day-to-day activities of the projects. These include boat travel for the students in Guatemala, pickup transport for the students in Honduras and teachers’ transport up into the mountains in Ecuador and desert in Perú.

Our food and fruit programmes have been limited during the pandemic as classrooms and schools have been closed. When the classes are open on a staggered basis we are providing basic food for the children. We have also provided supplies for the families at home with further food drops in Perú over the coming weeks. 

To increase the supplies of fresh food each day we are putting a lot of effort into school vegetable gardens for when the children do return.

Many thanks for anything you can donate this week to the Little By Little Campaign. It is such a fantastic opportunity for us to be able to get back on track after these past eighteen months and build a solid platform for the years ahead.

Also, if you are thinking of doing something different in 2022 please do follow the link in this report to our Charity Challenges in Perú and Ecuador in May and June taking in the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu in Perú and volcanos in Ecuador – you can do either or both!

Have a great month and thank you all once again.

Cheers

Links:

• Charity Challenges Peru and Ecuador 2022