By Dom Williams | Founder and Director
Guatemala was the first school to get back underway this year. It is incredible that we are almost three months into the school year already. Our ten local Phoenix teachers spent the first couple of weeks of the year painting the school and cleaning whilst we also had to replace many of the walls, ceilings, lighting and roofs of the classrooms whilst also building a new playground! Coupled with the monthly classroom materials we provide our teachers were supplied with the teaching materials packs to provide the best lessons they can throughout the year. This year we have introduced a 9th grade. For the first time we have 4 year-olds (below párvulos and pre-school) adding a further year at the start of their educational journey through primary school.
Ecuador restarted the second half of the school year with with our new Phoenix teacher David doing excellent work with the 2nd graders. He, along with Rocio, is heading up the sustainable plans we want to put into place over the next few months, starting with a Plan Huerto (vegetable garden) to provide fresh produce for the children’s lunches. We would like to expand our Plan Moo and Plan Cuy as well, which have been providing funds for further education, including college and University for many families in the surrounding communities over the past few years. In February the children and the community celebrated Ñukanchi Shimi (Kichwa) - the International Day of the Mother Tongue – with traditional dance and food. It is very important to keep these ancient traditions alive.
Up next was Honduras and the Phoenix College and the primary schools started the year with fantastic numbers with over 80 enrolled in the college. Construction continues in our main school in Copán with another secondary school grade added in our satellite school in Barbasco. We hope to add another Phoenix secondary school in La Pintada in the future to allow the greatest number of students from the surrounding rural communities to receive secondary and college education. We plan to add another ex-Phoenix college student as a trainee teacher in San Rafael and as with the others we currently employ, we will cover their University fees and costs.
Emergency maintenance was undertaken to the vehicle to transport the students back up to their communities in the evening from Copán and new school chairs were purchased to keep up with the influx of new students. Teachers’ utensil packs and classroom materials for the primary, secondary and college were all purchased before the start of the new school year to get us off to a great start!
The sustainable plans grow at an encouraging pace with Plan Café almost doubling in size, Plan Huerto increasing to more families in the communities and during the year we hope to add more Plan Pollos (chickens) and Tilapias (fish). Our small business, Plan Tienda, which provides food within Copán is growing fast and we have taken on a full-time worker as well as purchase more utensils to help demand.
Finally, as always each year, classes are the last to restart in Perú following Summer School, led by Ediluz. This year was as ever a great success despite many of the children returning to the Sierra to work with their families; numbers were still excellent. As classes finally get underway in the past week, we intend to supply textbooks for all the children once again and also much needed classroom supplies. We hope to add another Phoenix teacher this year as we strive to cover each classes, which currently have a ration of one teacher for two classes.
Plans for the 4th Annual Seven Continent Charity Challenge are underway where we ask anyone, anywhere in the world to do a fundraising event for Phoenix during 2018. It doesn’t have to be a huge event; from a dinner or BBQ party at home to walking, running or undertaking something you have always wanted to do though havn’t got round to it! The fundraising can be done through this page with funds going to Phoenix, the schools and more importantly the children.
For those looking for an excuse to head to Lake Atitlán in Guatemala and raise funds for the projects, we are organising a 4-day biking, volcano hiking and kayaking challenge between 21st to 26th May. Please let us know if you are interested in joining us, or even organizing your own challenge and we’ll add you to the list and give you tips to make it as successful as possible.
As ever, thank you all for your brilliant support.
Cheers
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By Dom Williams | Founder and Director
By Dom Williams | Founder and Director
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