Fund a teacher and teach a class in Latin America

I hope all is well with you. We’re almost at the end of the first quarter of 2019; time is flying by! We are now in the second phase of our 25-year cycle; 1) introducing education, 2) introducing sustainable plans to help cover costs of the projects whilst continuing to cover the costs through donations and 3) with the projects sustainable we will concentrate on employment generation for the graduates.

For many years we have introduced education to hundreds of children and seen them continue from primary school, through secondary school and college so for us now to be in the stage where are adding in sustainable plans whilst continuing to cover costs is a huge advance from when we started. Thank you to you all for helping us get this far and for continuing to support us in the future.

It is Charity Challenge season once again and we will be heading to Perú and Ecuador in May to raise funds for all our projects so please do support the challenge by donating to this page.

In Guatemala, our school got off to a great start in Itzapa with all eight grades of classrooms full and being taught by our local teachers, most of whom came through the system with us from the start (phase 1!). Just the other day we bumped into two of our female students who started with us back in the early 2000’s and who we managed to get experience with a local accountancy firm a few years back: they are both now formally employed with that firm, earning critical income for their families back in the community.

As Guatemala was our first country we are well into the second phase of the cycle with the community taking more control and decision making of the day-to-day running of the school which is essential for future sustainability.

A brilliant start to our projects in and around Copán, Honduras with the main college welcoming more students from seven different communities, many walking hours each day to receive an education. Our satellite school in Barbasco and its new classrooms got underway with three secondary school grades now being taught this year. We will also be supporting a new school in La Pintada, mainly with school materials and hopefully later in the year with more local teachers.

We are well into the second phase in Honduras with many sustainable plans, like vegetable gardens and coffee, helping to cover some of the costs of the projects. There is still a long way to go though we are optimistic in implementing chicken plans in several communities during 2019, spreading the benefits around and most importantly for the students themselves.

The second half of the school year got underway in January with our three local Phoenix teachers doing a sterling job in Ecuador. We are succeeding in getting the local community more involved not just with the school though with sustainable plans for the future, with great success with the upcoming “fiambre” feast being organized which we will be putting some money towards.

Like our other countries, we are into the second phase of our work in Ecuador with sustainable plans, like Plan Moo (cows) and Plan Cuy (guinea pigs) already helping to cover the majority of the secondary school, college and university costs. Donations still cover our primary school costs and we will be working on implementing more sustainable plans during 2019.

In the first week of June we will be undertaking our charity challenge, climbing volcanoes to raise money for the projects. To donate to the challenge in support, please donate to this page and thank you!

Our project in Perú was our last school to get underway this month after the holidays and the number of children is impressive in our project out in the desert around Arequipa. Edyluz ran an excellent summer school during January to help those children who hadn’t gone back to the altiplano and their families with their studies and what they struggled with during 2018 and preparing them for 2019.

We are still in the first phase in Perú though will be implementing sustainable plans for the first time during 2019 so fingers crossed with their success. In the last week of May we will be undertaking the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu charity challenge so please donate to this page.

Thank you and all the best for the next few months and we will update you on the goings on, especially the Perú and Ecuador challenges!

Cheers