Fund a teacher and teach a class in Latin America

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

I hope all is well. 

We are launching the 2023 Appeal today (Monday 18^th September) and GlobalGiving will be matching all individual donations of up to £40/$50 by 50% between now and Friday 22^nd September which is a fantastic opportunity for the projects. All money raised with this year’s Appeal will be put towards our local teachers’ salaries, scholarships, classroom materials, daily fruit and sustainable plans.

The following is an example of how effective your donation can be with the 50% matching using an average of all our local teachers, school materials, scholarships and food.

A £40/$50 donation with the added £20/$25 (50% matching) can help provide an education for a class of children for three days; an £80/$100 donation with the added £20/$25 (the 50% matching is on the first £40/$50 only) can cover five days or one teaching week.

Last year's Appeal, launched in September 2022, raised an incredible £21,000/$26,000 towards the £85,000/$106,000 we have spent on The Phoenix Projects in Latin America over the past twelve months.

As you can see clearly, we were able to accomplish one quarter of our work in Latin America over the past year thanks to your generous support to the Appeal. If we can get close to that figure once again for this year's Appeal we will be able to achieve so much more in 2024 so if you can donate this week please follow the project link on this page.

The new school year started in Ecuador with all our local teachers staying on thanks to our recent charity challenges and Plan Moo beginning to cover some basic costs. After several years we were briefly back in Larcacunga where we worked for several years before the government centralised rural schools! The students and our local teachers were involved in holiday classes for the surrounding area. As with each year a new council of parents was voted in and they held their first meeting.

In Guatemala one of our students was chosen to participate in Riiy Rumaam Tz’utujil Po’p, the election of the community queen - she came second. Work continues on the vegetable garden in one of the communities where some of our scholarship students live and plans are underway to increase our sewing programme.

Classes are coming along well in Perú though there is still a lot of work to do over the coming months before the final exams in December. We are still seeing the fallout from two years of missed education during the pandemic though we are optimistic that gains are being made which is mainly down to our local teacher who is currently taking on extra classes of small groups of students for reinforcement. She will continue this in January during the school holidays.

The children getting more involved in the school vegetable garden and receive classes in irrigation types, planting, the growing process and of course harvest (which is obviously the most popular part!). With the extended Plan Huerto we have been able to provide more nutritious food for the children each day with extra being shared with the local families. 

Have a great rest of September and anything you can donate this week so we can take advantage of the matching and get this year’s Appeal off to a great start would be fantastic and thank you so much in advance.

Cheers