Fund a teacher and teach a class in Latin America

I hope all is well with you. Thank you so much to all of you who have donated to this year’s Appeal raising £16,000 ($20,000) so far, including the matching campaigns and Gift Aid, which will cover 25% of our budget for the projects over the next twelve months which is fantastic and a huge boost.

We finally restarted the annual beach trip for the students and mothers in Perú in December which for the majority was the first time they had seen (and been in) so much water as they live in the desert at 2,400m. The last trip was in 2019 with subsequent visits not possible due to the pandemic and last year’s protests. The school year came to a close this week and will restart in March.  

In Guatemala the graduation ceremonies were held November and December for the rest of our scholarship students in Business Administration with many already securing full-time work and others starting in 2024. The new school year starts in a couple of weeks.

Plan Moo was resumed in Ecuador following the recent unprecedented dry-spell and work has begun on the house for the new family who arrived in the community with nothing having been left homeless. Thanks to the Appeal we have brought the materials for the roof with the community getting together and buying the other materials. Kapak Raymi was celebrated in the school when the community asks Pachamama for a good growing period for the crops. The school restarts for the second half of the academic year this week.

Thanks to your donations to the Appeal, our regular monthly donors, those getting involved in Charity Challenges this coming year and other fundraising events, the following is what we have planned for 2024 and how all your donations will make a huge difference to the communities where we work in Latin America.

In Guatemala we will continue with the scholarship programme aiming to help one hundred secondary and college students. Thanks to the scholarships even more girls are continuing their studies and we aim to have half and half in 2024.

We plan to expand Plan Costura (sewing business) to help single mothers and University students cover extra costs of their education. Plan Huerto (school vegetable gardens) will provide quality food in the schools and Plan Reforestation aims to offset the carbon footprint of The Phoenix Projects including all internal local teachers’ transport and international flights for Charity Challenges and the Impington International College school trip to Perú.

We aim to purchase school materials for over one hundred primary school students who cannot afford the basics in spite of the government providing some items at the beginning of the school year. Our local teacher will continue to work in the communities, offering help with homework and advice as well as managing the sustainable plans.

In Ecuador we will pay for six local teachers in the school as we enter the second half of the school year in January. Four of these teachers are University students we are helping with their studies. We will continue to pay for internet in the school and essential materials each month as well as funding cultural celebrations.

Since we started our financial support for local University students studying teaching back in 2016 in exchange for them working in the school to ensure one teacher per class we have helped seven students with their long-term educational costs. Dozens of younger students have benefitted from them being in the classroom over the years receiving a dedicated education. We will continue with this successful programme this year. 

The purchase of cows in Plan Moo will carry on during 2024 as we strive to sustainably cover some of the project's core costs so we can help out with more one-off critical projects in the community, similar to helping the family with their house in December, and also helping other communities over the coming years.  

In Perú we will continue with our local teacher Edy Luz who will be holding holiday classes in various subjects before term restarts in March. We will supply individual textbooks for the children and continue to provide daily fruit and gas for the meals the government sends the products for. 

Vegetables from our Plan Huerto will enhance the daily diet of the children with extra produce being shared with the families in their homes. We will also fund cultural celebrations during the year. We will continue to employ a member of the community part-time to look after the garden as well as help with maintenance when it is needed. Mothers will also help out in the garden in exchange for vegetables to take home.  

The Impington International College school trip in June will continue their work on Plan Huerto as well as small construction projects in the school and one-on-one teaching.  

All the best for 2024 and thank you in advance for your continued support during it!

Cheers

Links:

• Charity Challenges 2024

I hope all is well with you. To celebrate Giving Tuesday today all donations up to £2,000/$2,500 will be partially matched with a share of a $1.2 million pot which is a fantastic opportunity for the projects. Last year this amounted to a 25% matching on all donations.

All funds raised today from this year’s Appeal will be put towards our local teachers’ salaries, scholarships, classroom materials, daily fruit and sustainable plans.

Last year's Appeal, launched in September 2022, raised an incredible £21,000/$26,000 towards the £85,000/$106,000 we spent on The Phoenix Projects in Latin America over the following twelve months. As you can see clearly we were able to accomplish one quarter of our work in Latin America thanks to your generous support to the Appeal, including the annual Giving Tuesday partial matching. 

To take advantage of the partial matching today please donate to this page and thank you so much in advance.

It has been a great month on the projects with graduations in Guatemala. Some of our college scholarship students celebrated their graduation in Business Administration early in November. More ceremonies are due at the end of the month. One of the successes of the scholarship programme is seeing so many more girls staying in education past primary school and going on to graduate from both secondary school and then college.

Independence Day was celebrated with various festivities and cultural events at the lake. All our secondary school and college scholarship students played a large part in the day’s events having spent the previous day planting trees.

In Perú we celebrated seventeen years working in Maldonado with traditional dance and food. Our local teacher Edy Luz has been with us from the beginning and must take huge credit for everything that she has achieved over the years with the children’s education, especially during the pandemic. 

The children’s daily food from the government continues to be augmented with the vegetables from the garden. We pay for the gas to heat the food as well as buying fruit each day.

With the national elections in Ecuador now over for another couple of years the teachers are getting to grips with any changes the new government is planning to put in.

Kulla Raymi was celebrated in the community. This is an indigenous ceremony asking Pachamama (Mother Earth) for fertility for the land and therefore good crops. This year’s celebration was especially poignant as an El Niño/climate change dry spell has hit the communities causing us to pause the purchase of cows in Plan Moo. 

As is tradition we celebrated Day of the Dead at the end of October with colada morada (fruit drink) and homemade bread with the students and their families.

Have a great December and thank you so much in advance for anything you can donate today to the Appeal so we can receive the Giving Tuesday matching.

Cheers