Free education for 60 deprived children in Peru

We are so excited to be bringing you even more good news from Oropesa, but before we start, we want to say thank you to all of you, our supporters and donors everywhere, for making our work possible and giving the fantastic children of Picaflor House the chance of a better future. So, what have we been up to? Read on to find out:

Our new English Language programme is gathering pace!

Last week we were thrilled to start the next phase of our English language programme with the arrival of Lynn Puzzo our new English language coordinator. Lynn hails from Connecticut in the USA and has more than eight years experience teaching English as a foreign language in Korea, Argentina and Mexico. Lynn will be with us for six months working alongside full-time teacher Luz, making sure that the Picaflor children get the best out of our fantastic new English teaching materials. Improved English language skills will really give our students an advantage in school and in years to come when they are looking for jobs, especially since tourism is such an important industry in the Cusco area.

Picaflor House welcomes some very special visitors

August and September have seen Picaflor House welcome two lovely groups of volunteer supporters from the UK. A group of students and teachers from Pipers Corner Girls School in Buckinghamshire were first to arrive on a two week visit. Students from the school had worked for several months before their trip preparing activities to share with the children of Picaflor both inside and outside the classroom. They also helped our staff to take the children on local excursions up to a nearby mountainside church and to the local dinosaur-themed park.

One of the highlights was definitely the final day when our students wowed us all with their performance of dances that the Pipers Corner girls had taught them. Traditional Andean dance is one of our children's favourite non-academic subjects so it was wonderful to see them learn dances from another culture too.

We were also delighted to receive our third annual visit from students of Durham University and as ever were blown away by their enthusiasm and willingness to get their hands dirty for us! Amongst some of their amazing achievements this year were painting a beautiful new mural on one of the playground walls, remodelling our much-loved (and over-used) sand-pit and moving our office to a new location to make way for another exciting new initiative that we have in the pipeline! Watch this space…

We are extremely grateful to both groups. Not only for the hours of work they put in but also for the amazing fund raising they have done for Picaflor House.

If you are interested in finding out more about fully-managed volunteering trips to Picaflor House then please contact our parent charity Globalteer who organises visits for both individuals and groups.

Someone is going to win a trip to Peru or Cambodia very soon!

Our 2016 fundraising campaign has been going great guns since its launch on June 1^st and has so far generated almost £9,000 (US$12,000) in new donations which is just awesome. Anyone who has donated £15 or US$21 or more since June 1^st stands the chance to win a trip for two to Peru or Cambodia and the final date for entries is now confirmed as September 30^th! So please encourage your friends, family and colleagues to donate - you could even increase your own chances of winning by making another donation! Just donate £15 or US$21 through Global Giving and you could be packing your suitcases and setting off on a trip to visit Picaflor House! Full terms and conditions can be found here.

Next time we hope to be bringing you exciting news about our new initiative – the one that has meant having to move our office - and of course news of who has won that trip!

From everyone at Picaflor House, thank you for your continued support