Food & fruit for primary schools in Latin America

I hope all is well. Thanks to your continued support and regular donations to the projects all our schools have had a great start to 2026. A really exciting opportunity for the projects starts today (Tuesday 17th March) with GlobalGiving matching all donations up to $50 (£38) by 50% from 10am EDT until 10pm EDT on Friday 20th March whilst funds last. Please be aware that the matching funds do run out quite quickly so please donate today or early tomorrow to take full advantage. Also, the matching only applies once per individual donor.

Classes in Guatemala are underway for our one hundred scholarship students in secondary school and college and also for our four hundred primary school students, many of whom have varying disabilities, with their classroom materials. 

We continue to hand out the classroom material scholarships as more and more families are identified with needs and the government resources supplied in January run out.

All the families we support with scholarships and educational materials live in extreme poverty. Most have no electricity or running water and zero protection from the elements. With the mid-year rainy seasons becoming more unpredictable and intense this can cause many houses to be washed away leaving the families with nothing.

By being in school they not only receive an education though can also receive school meals provided by the government. The key is to get them in school in the first place which we are striving to do. We hope to enhance the food programme over the coming months if we can. 

Our project manager Gaspar, who is Tz’utujil Maya, has spent the last few months visiting the surrounding communities to talk with families and find out more about their current situation. This was followed by meetings in the schools to talk about parental and student responsibilities concerning education and getting them signed up with our scholarship programme.

We are gearing up to the start of our twentieth new school year in Peru this month and as always we will have our local teacher Edy Luz and also be providing the students with individual text and work books. We will also be giving them daily fruit and extra food when needed, depending on what the government sends each month after last year’s cancellation of the national food programme. We also have the vegetables from the garden. The recent rains thankfully didn't affect the families or the school though did cause chaos in the region.

To celebrate our twentieth anniversary we hope to (finally!) build a school kitchen and purchase the necessary equipment and supplies for the food programme. The kitchen is currently tucked away in a small space at one end of a classroom so by building a separate spacious kitchen it is obviously great for the mums who prepare the food though also for the students who will have a bigger classroom. It’s also good for health and safety obviously and won’t distract the students each day with the tempting smells seeping into the classroom.  

In Ecuador classes are back underway for the second half of the school year which ends in June. We continue to fund three local teachers as well as internet and essential classroom materials. 

Investigations continue to identify new areas of critical need in the region which we will support over the coming years including students with varying disabilities and further education. 

Thank you so much for anything you can donate today as we aim to reach our target and we'll keep you posted on how the school is coming along in the next couple of months.

Cheers