Fund a teacher and teach a class in Latin America

I hope all is well with you. We have had a fantastic few months on the projects in Latin America including two Charity Challenges to raise much needed funds for the schools. We are already planning three challenges for 2024 which can be seen by following the link at the bottom of this newsletter.

The annual community work trip in Perú with Impington International College, Cambridge, UK was undertaken with twenty-seven students fundraising and working in the school. One of the major projects was the funding and building of three more toilets for the children. Before there was one toilet for the teachers and one for the students.

Work was also undertaken to double the size of the school vegetable garden and install drip-irrigation, dig a long trench and seal the bottom wall from dampness and concrete a new pathway outside the classroom that Impington International College funded and built in 2022.

The school’s first orchard was planted with drip-irrigation. In a few years the children should be enjoying avocados, apples and peaches. In the photo you can see the installation of the drip-irrigation system for the extended Plan Huerta.

Fifteen children were also given essential one-on-one teaching in maths and languages as well as art and sport. As is custom, the trip was finished off with a party with the children’s parents and grandparents also invited to enjoy food and folkloric dance.

Besides from the visit of the Impington International College students, the Inca Trail Charity Challenge was undertaken with some great funds raised for the projects in Latin America.

Mothers’ Day was celebrated with a display of folkloric dance by the children as well as gifts and a hearty lunch.

Work has begun preparing the ground for a vegetable garden in a local school in one of the communities where our scholarship students live in Guatemala. The harvests will go towards daily meals in the school and any extra shared amongst the families, especially the elderly.

Communication with the scholarship students’ parents is key to the success of the programme. Regular meetings are held to discuss education and issues. As part of the scholarship programme the parents of the students get involved in community work including litter clearing during the year. The local Police even got involved to do their part in the most recent cleaning day!

Our scholarship students were involved recently in inter-school sports competitions and came out winners in several categories.

Whilst our priority is for secondary school and college education, there is still a huge need for primary school help with school materials. We have spent the last few months seeking out the families in the most need and supplying educational materials so they remain in school.

Our school in Ecuador finished the school year last month and classes will restart towards the end of August. The final exams provided some excellent results with all the students in their final grade of primary school graduating to secondary school.

Parents of all four communities got together to celebrate Mothers’ Day in the school with folkloric dance and food. We provided the ingredients for a full meal for the mothers which was cooked by the fathers and shared with the children.

Over the summer we plan to increase our Plan Moo herd which will help cover the local teachers’ salaries in the future as well as providing much needed income for the local families to help cover secondary school and college education. 

All the best from the projects and we’ll update you again in a couple of months.

Cheers

Links:

• Charity Challenges 2024

I hope all is well with you. From Monday 3rd until the end of Friday 7^th April, GlobalGiving will be matching the first $50 of all individual donations to this page by 50% which is a fantastic opportunity for the projects, the children and members of the communities where we work. Thank you so much in advance for anything you can donate this week helping us continue our work in Latin America with the additional bonus of the matching!

You may have seen mention in the past of the week-long Charity Challenges that Fly The Phoenix undertake each year to raise funds for the projects and have thought about getting involved. This year we will be taking on the Lost City Charity Challenge in Colombia in May and the Inca Trail in Perú in July and it would be great to have you on the team if you are interested. For information on the challenges please follow the link below.

In Guatemala we have expanded our scholarship programme to a new school in Santiago Atitlán on the other side of the lake, concentrating on “diversificado”, similar to college education bringing the total of students we support to one hundred. We also pay for a local teacher to hold extra study classes during the week so the students can receive more attention, as well as have the opportunity to talk in private about any personal issues they may have.

This year we are helping primary school students from very poor backgrounds with extra utensils and workbooks. Whilst the government now provides basic supplies there is always the need for more which is difficult for many families living in rural areas to provide. It is hoped that these students will then become part of our scholarship programme in the future rather than losing interest and dropping out just because they didn’t have sufficient school supplies. With this we aim to reach our goal of fully educating between six hundred and one thousand children over the next ten years.

Classes continue in Ecuador despite the abnormal extreme heavy rains which have caused landslides, breaking the water tubing for the school and destroying some crops. As is custom, Pawkar Raymi was recently celebrated, asking Pachamama (Mother Earth) for a good harvest, made more pertinent this year with the current abnormal climate.

Our Plan Moo purchasing was put on hold during February and March as all the communities in the Imbabura, Carchi and Pichincha departments are taking part in Pawkar Mundiales. These are region-wide football and handball competitions which reach their climax in March with the first prize in the dozens of various categories and leagues being cows. This high demand has caused prices to surge so we will wait until the excitement is over and prices have returned to normal.

One of our local teachers David, who was also one of our first students from when we started in 2005, got married and the whole community turned out to celebrate!

Daily meals are now cooked on the new stove we purchased in 2022 using the limited ingredients provided by the government each month or so. One of our plans this year is to put in place a large school vegetable garden which will provide regular vegetables for both consumption and for sale to be able to buy other ingredients that can’t be grown in the mountains.

Classes got back underway for the new school year in Perú with a small party laid on for the children. As in each year we have supplied each student with their own textbooks which they can work from during the year. The new classroom built by Impington International College in 2022 has been inaugurated bringing our total number of classrooms to four.

Summer school held in January was very successful, despite the political and social chaos, with the children catching up a lot and now prepared for the new school year. The school vegetable garden is ready for its third harvest which will provide daily food for the children this year. We plan to increase the size later in the year.

Have a great April and if you can donate to this page this week to receive the 50% matching on the first $50 it would be fantastic and thank you in advance. Also if you are interested in getting involved in the charity challenges, please do get in touch through the link below.

Cheers

Links:

• Colombia and Peru Charity Challenges 2023