By Dom Williams | Founder and Director
After a few days of cleaning, we are back up and running for the new school year in Ecuador with nine grades and 100 children walking in each day from four different mountain communities: Urcusiqui, Muenala, Huayrapungo and Achapallas – many walking up to two hours each way. We plan to add at least one more Phoenix teacher over the coming months as we chip away at getting one teacher per class – it is currently one teacher for two grades.
Also, thanks to our sustainable income plans we have implemented over the past few years, including Plan Moo (cows) and Plan Cuy (guinea pigs) many students will start, and continue, secondary education and college. Our long-term goal is obviously to have sustainable education from day 1 to finishing University and we believe we are on the right track. There is still so much to do and thank you all for your brilliant continued support - it's a cliché that is used many times, though we couldn't do it without you!
In Guatemala, we held the election for the Pájaro de Fuego Mayan queen with different Nahual characters. This is Mayan folklore where human beings have the power to transform either spiritually or physically into animal form, most commonly jaguar and puma but also others such as donkeys, birds, dogs or coyotes. The children’s teachers worked extremely hard to get their costumes ready and a beautiful stage back-drop for the event.
With the coronation of the Queen, we were proud to welcome Itzapa's Rumi'al Qatinamit, elected Mayan representatives, to undertake the ceremony. The elected students hold their posts for one year, representing the school. We are into the final month of classes, followed by exams and graduations in October.
A busy couple of months in Perú as the children and teachers got involved with the Seven Continent Charity Challenge #3 with their own hike around the hills outside Arequipa. This is part of our annual fundraising event and it is so great to see the community doing something to help themselves. With all donations to this page going towards our local teachers’ salaries, materials and food, any belated sponsorship for the children and their challenge will be gratefully received!
More recently, Arequipa Day was celebrated with typical food and dress. This is a big event in the Peruvian calendar and it is so great to be able to help them celebrate it as it deserves. In the classroom, our Phoenix teacher is doing sterling work and with four months to go of the school year, the final exam results should be very good.
In Honduras our college students have been imparting adult literacy classes in the various rural communities in the area. This is part of their training for when they graduate in Rural Social Enterprise, the course that the Phoenix College gives.
Construction of the Phoenix College continues. The recent rainy season has been difficult, bearing in mind our school doesn’t have walls, just a simple roof, so this new addition to the project is essential. All donations to this page go towards our teachers’ salaries, materials, transport etc and also we hope to chip away at the construction of the college, which is coming in at around $10,000 to build our six classrooms.
Thank you all for your continued support, as ever, truly brilliant!
cheers
By Dom Williams | Founder and Director
By Dom Williams | Founder and Director
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