Free education for 60 deprived children in Peru

Summary of the Quarter

There has been plenty of activity at the Picaflor House in this reporting cycle. We welcomed Florian from Germany and Larissa from Brazil, and they will be serving as NGO Assistants until early 2023. During this reporting cycle, your donations allowed us to expand the library at the Picaflor House by buying over 120 books for the children. Additionally, we were also able to hire a librarian to maintain the library and to support other staff with the children’s homework. We also held a teacher’s workshop with the staff at Picaflor on possitive discipline along with child safety classes for the children to learn different concepts of safety. Finally, we held a Halloween party for the children.

Expanding the Library

Thanks to your donations, we were able to expand the library at Picaflor House by buying over 120 books and hiring a librarian who manages the library and also assists other staff members with homework. We were able to buy a variety of books, including history, art, fantasy, and even interactive books. This ensured that we were able to strike a balance between fun and learning with the children. Oskar, the Project Manager at Picaflor, says that any future donations would buy more books, more bookshelves to house the books, books of different genres, and duplicates so that more children can have access to the same books during classes.

Teacher’s workshop

During this reporting cycle we also conducted a teacher’s workshop where we taught teachers about positive discipline with the aim of strengthening the teachers’ ability to address conflict and how to appropriately address misbehaviour by the children. Some positive discipline techniques are reinforcing appropriate behaviors, remaining neutral during conflicts, searching for the root of misbehaviour, and modelling appropriate behaviour.

Positive discipline has numerous benefits including leading to less disciplinary measures being required in the future, and students display a higher level of responsibility and respect, which will make them better people within their communities.

Our Interns

We have two new interns serving as NGO Assistants. Larissa, who will be running child safety and developing the programme on women empowerment, and Florian, who, in addition to his duties outlined here, will assist Larissa in implementing the empowerment programme. The child safety programme is of mention because it aims to teach the children about the different concepts of safety, developing their confidence, and preventing abuse and violence. Children are also taught about having ‘trusted adults’, which are familial and non-familial adults who they can turn to if abuse is being done by a person at home. The children are also taught about ‘safe touch’ and ‘unsafe touch’, which is recognizing where and when being touched by another person is appropriate and inappropriate.

Looking Forward

During January, Picaflor House will remain open on its current schedule and offer holiday activities for the children. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support as we continue to make progress on our goals of protecting children’s rights and promoting their physical, mental, and professional development.

Thank you!

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of our generous donors. Your unwavering support has been the cornerstone of Picaflor House’s success, driving us forward and making our impactful work possible.

Your kindness and dedication have enabled us to make a tangible difference in the lives of the children we serve. Truly, it is not possible without your compassion and commitment. Thank you for making everything we do possible!

In an era dominated by technology, the pure joy of immersing oneself in a book frequently becomes overshadowed.

Many of the children that arrive at Picaflor House have very low levels of literacy and children from rural villages have a lower level of reading than their counterparts in the cities. This is due to a number of factors including the resources available to children in rural villages, the lower quality of education and Spanish not being the first language spoken in Peruvian villages.

Recently, we were so lucky to receive a grant from a UK Charity that allowed us to buy 293 books for our library. This has reignited the children's interest in reading with all these new wonderfully exciting resources. With help from our teachers and volunteers, we can help improve the children's literacy levels in a fun and imaginative way using our new books.

Widening the reach of literacy

Picaflor House also has a mobile library which we use to take books to rural villages. This increases our reach to many more children and allows us to bring resources to children that they would not otherwise have access to books.

The Mobile Library is closely aligned with Picaflor House, striving to enhance educational opportunities within remote rural areas. Commencing its activities in 2022, this library initiative transports books, teachers, and learning materials to five distant communities in the vicinity of Cusco. Over the course of the year, we provided support to youngsters spanning ages 3 to 16 across these five villages.

This undertaking holds immense significance, particularly in light of the pandemic, which starkly exacerbated disparities in educational accessibility. The rural children, hailing from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, were significantly impeded in accessing online education during this crisis.

Eye tests for the children

We have noticed with the latest intake of children that some kids were struggling with their sight. As a big part of our project is ensuring children are properly cared for and pastorally supported, we decided to take them to an optician. Many parents do not have the resources to get their children's eyes tested and to buy glasses so children are left to struggle at the back of the class. In the large classes at Peruvian government schools, children who have bad eyesight may be become quickly uninterested in classes and ignored by teachers just for the fact that they cannot see the board properly.

A high percentage of the children we took to the optician needed some kind of help from just needing glasses to therapy on their eyes due to the issues never previously being identified. Thankfully, all the children that needed glasses now have them and are now able to thrive in classes and catch up with their classmates.

Thank you for your support!

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of our generous donors. Your unwavering support has been the cornerstone of Picaflor Houses's success, driving us forward and making our impactful work possible. Your kindness and dedication have enabled us to make a tangible difference in the lives of those we serve. Truly, it is not possible without your compassion and commitment. Thank you for making everything we do possible!