Fund a teacher and teach a class in Latin America

I hope all is well and you are keeping safe during these unprecedented times. Despite all schools in the region being closed since March due to Covid-19 our local teachers have been busy getting homework to the children’s houses on a regular basis. Due to the extreme poverty where we work there isn’t internet so all this is done on foot, with obvious precautions taken.

With the school still closed in Ecuador due to Covid-19 our local teachers are heading up into the mountains to the communities (3,500m/11,500 feet) once a week to set homework and answer any questions. Despite the country lock-down the potato harvest still goes ahead. We are also trialling family vegetable gardens as part of our sustainable Plan Huerto. These will allow the families to have constant produce (therefore food) as well as extra to sell. Following beliefs passed through the generations the families in the communities burn certain plants and herbs including eucalyptus, laurel, rue, marco and incense by their doors and windows in the late afternoons to protect their homes from illness. 

We continue to make face masks in our Plan Corte sewing machine project at Lake Atitlán, Guatemala to provide for the elderly and most at risk. As Guatemala makes wearing face masks obligatory due to Covid-19 our Plan Corte in Lake Atitlán so far has made and distributed 1,000 double-layered washable masks to the elderly and 300 families who cannot afford them. We plan to continue producing more to make sure that anyone who needs a mask has one, especially the elderly and physically disabled, including amputees due to diabetes.

Teacher planning was constant in Honduras, trying to come up with ways to keep the children learning from afar and isolated whereas in Perú, with the country shut down until at least the end of June due to Covid-19 our students have to home-school which is difficult without internet and whose parents cannot read or write.

Latin America is now the hotspot for the global pandemic so we could be weeks away from re-opening though that doesn’t mean we have paused our work. If anything, we are more concentrated on coming out the other side and prepared for the future. This includes making hand-sanitizers, thermometers and soaps available for every child and teacher each day when they are finally allowed to come back to school.

To help us through this crisis, GlobalGiving will be holding their July Bonus Day on Wednesday 15^th July with the following matching options.

A donation of $100-$499 will be matched at 15%

A donation of $500-$749 will be matched at 30%

A donation of $750-$1,000 will be matched at 50%

Fly The Phoenix will also be planting one tree per $10 donated in our effort to help offset the problems of deforestation and the effects of climate change as trees help reduce carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. So every $10 donated on 15^th July means one more tree planted. Please note, this tree matching is done directly through Fly The Phoenix and not through GlobalGiving; please send any questions around the tree matching campaign to info@thephoenixprojects.org (and not GlobalGiving!). Brilliant!

During times like these we understand that charitable donations are generally nudged lower down in household budgets as belts are tightened to prepare for an uncertain immediate future so we thank you for anything you can donate.

Bearing this in mind we have come up with an idea where we can all help each other. We recently started a small sewing project in Guatemala to help single teen mothers and they are producing double-layered facemasks with an opening to insert a filter if required. All proceeds from the sales of the masks will go towards materials and postage, income for the mothers, help for the elderly, reforestation and support for our local teachers across Fly The Phoenix. Please do contact me on info@thephoenixprojects.org if you are interested in receiving more information on how to receive these masks.

Please do stay safe during these unprecedented times and be sure in the knowledge that we will do all we can to keep the projects running successfully now and in the future, thanks to your brilliant donations.

Cheers

I hope all is well and you are staying as safe as you can during these testing times. Whilst Latin America has so far not been affected as badly as other continents the governments are taking no chances and have implemented severe travel restrictions, school closures and isolation policies. All our projects are currently closed.

None of our communities have been affected by Covid 19 and they are taking all the precautions they can, though lack of running water is an obvious issue. For example in Perú the families normally only receive water from 5am to 7am to store in buckets for the rest of the day although this has always been inconsistent week by week.

In Honduras the college students, as part of their course, received training in Covid 19 information and were due to make presentations to thirty rural schools in various communities though the government have since implemented a complete shutdown. These presentations will now be made once these rules are relaxed and it is considered safe to do so. As part of our Ecuador charity challenge we will be reforesting 1,000 trees around Tabla Chupa, the natural spring which is the source of water for many families in the region.

Water has always been an issue where we work. Previously we installed water-storage systems in Guatemala and Perú and we will be implementing a program of rain-collection tanks in all our communities to store water for the dry seasons in the future which will help families and irrigation for our Sustainable Plan Huertos.

The projects will continue in the future

During times like these we understand that charitable donations are generally nudged lower down in household budgets as belts are tightened to prepare for an uncertain immediate future.

Thanks to many of you over the past twenty years, which have themselves been extremely turbulent at times, we have been able to continue to highlight the plight of the communities where we work and we have been able to do something about it sustainably through thick and thin. Now is no different.

No matter what happens over the next few weeks and months, we will strive to continue our work as best we can with all the resources available to us during this time and for years to come.

Little By Little Campaign

For all our US donors, GlobalGiving will be matching all individual donations up to $50 by 50% between Monday 23^rd March to Friday 27^th March which is brilliant news and will definitely help us through the next few weeks and months if you can donate, no matter how small.

To put this into examples, a donation of just $5 would be $7.50 for two weeks of gas for school meals.

A donation of $10 would be $15 for one month of classroom materials.

A donation of $20 would be $30 for one month of fruit for a class of children.

A donation of $30 would be $45 for a traditional celebration with food in a school.

A donation of $40 would be $60 for a small sustainable income vegetable garden plan for a family for years to come.

A donation of $50 would be $75 for one week’s salary for a local graduate teacher in charge of between 20 and 30 students.

We as Phoenix will also be matching our reforestation program of planting one tree per $10 donated in our effort to help offset the problems of deforestation and the effects of climate change as trees help reduce carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. So every $10 donated this week means two trees planted. Brilliant!

If you can, please help our communities in Honduras, Ecuador, Perú and Guatemala make the most of this fantastic opportunity and donate whatever you can this week – as you can see, it makes more than a difference and we get much more bang for your buck. Please also feel free to share this link with friends, work colleagues and family!

At this stage we will be undertaking our charity challenges in Perú and Ecuador in May and June still, which obviously depends on advice from local and international authorities (and not social media!).

Many thanks for anything you can donate and please take care.

Cheers