By Dom Williams | Founder and Director
As part of their final year in Honduras, our college students make regular visits to local rural communities to give talks over a range of subjects including health, nutrition and the effects of climate change – this is the 4th year in a row the crops have failed. They not only impart useful information it also helps them get used to speaking in public. They must also teach in the local primary schools, providing important individual attention and reducing the class/teacher ratios, as well as adult literacy. These past couple of months they have been involved in reforestation in the surrounding areas of Copán including up near our new satellite secondary school in Barbasco. The students also learned about recycling methods to create indoor vegetable and plant garden s using old water containers. As with every August a lot of time has been spent practicing for Independence Day with the newly improved school band! Photos to come next month!
As our school in Guatemala becomes more self-sufficient and taking control of its own direction we can start thinking about phase three of our work in Guatemala: replicating what we have learned over the past seventeen years to sustainably help other communities. This includes adding recent graduates into rural schools where the teacher/class ratio is often 1-3 whilst helping them with University costs and adding sustainable income plans. We aim to focus on communities in Huehuetenango, Lake Atitlán and the “dry corridor” areas of Chiquimula, Jocotán and Camotán over the next few years.
With the school off for holidays in Ecuador we are undertaking maintenance, including adding water piping into the school and the community is busy laying pipes for their houses in the communities. We are adding another teacher when school starts up again next month, Zoila´s daughter, to bring the teacher/class ratio down even further. To celebrate graduations this year we paid for our first trip to the beach with the graduating students and their parents which was an experience for all! As ever June was Inti Raymi month celebrating the sun (Inti) where the children and the community got involved with dance and tradition. Finally, well done and a huge thank you to our charity challengers who scaled Imbabura and Fuya Fuya and circumnavigated Lake Cuicocha with the local families and teachers back in June. We’re doing it all again in 2020 – for information please see below!
The children learned about different traditions, food and cultures this month to celebrate Arequipa Day – and got to eat the results too! Due to increased seismic activity in Perú we have been doubling up earthquake drills and the children also undertook a nature hunt in the surrounding area of the school; admittedly there were slim pickings! Finally, well done and a huge thank you to our charity challengers who completed the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu as well other day hikes!
Business can play a huge role in education, employment generation and supporting communities and is an area where we, as Phoenix, would like to explore further over the coming years to benefit the countries in Latin America – not just our projects though other communities as well. If you would like more information on how your company could get involved in the future please do contact me on dom@thephoenixprojects.org
Our recent Whole Foods Market trip in Guatemala saw them visiting their micro-credit partners in Huehuetenango, funding and helping to build a kitchen for a family at Lake Atitlán and reforesting an area on Pacaya Volcano.
Following on from our excellent Phoenix Charity Challenges in Perú and Ecuador we will be doing it all again in 2020 with the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu dates from Saturday 23rd-30th May and Ecuador volcanoes from Saturday 30th May-6th June. It is a fantastic way to economically tick off Machu Picchu and volcano hiking from your bucket list whilst raising funds for Phoenix! We will need confirmations of places for the Inca Trail by the end of September so if you are interested please follow the link below and please do contact us soon so you don’t miss out as there are limited places on the trail.
Links:
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