Fund a teacher and teach a class in Latin America

As you may have seen in the news, Latin America is currently a major hotspot for Covid-19. We are putting a priority on immediate vital emergency food supplies to the families, especially for the elderly and disabled, and hygiene products for the schools during the current Covid-19 pandemic in Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras and Perú. Lockdowns, restrictions on travel and isolation have taken a heavy toll in the communities.

To give us a big boost GlobalGiving will be 50% matching all donations up to $50 between 14th-18th September as we aim to provide tonnes of emergency food supplies including pastas, rice, cooking oil, salt, sugar, oatmeal, sardines and other items to hundreds of families as well as boxes of soaps, hand sanitizers, fase masks and disinfectants for all our classrooms in all our countries.  

With your brilliant donations, matched at 50% up to $50 by GlobalGiving, we will be able to make huge inroads into our Covid-19 response across all our communities in Latin America.

Perú has one of the highest mortality rates in the region with case numbers surging each day. Lockdowns, restrictions on travel and isolation have taken a heavy toll in the communities as well. There are currently no plans to re-open the schools in the region where we work and with limited acces to the internet remote learning has been challenging although our local teachers have tried their best. Once Covid-19 allows it is hoped we can double up learning to at least bring the children up to a decent level depending on their grade to be prepared for 2021 and the news school year.

Despite the closure of the classrooms in Ecuador our local teachers still managed to provide homework for the students in the communities. With no internet this was all undertaken on foot. Thankfully all the children graduated and the new term starts this week. The classrooms will be open twice a week only. Thanks to donations we have taken on two more local teachers who were once our students from ten years ago! As they are from the communities they can help the children with extra homework. 

All our scholarship students in Guatemala have been studying remotely with the final exams due in the next few weeks. We hope to increase our scholarship students to over 100 for 2021 including secondary school, college and University. As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to stretch families to the limit, our scholarship programme removes that concern from the families' already tight budget.

Our sewing maching project for single mothers has also continued at pace with face masks being the general order. They have made thousands over the past few months which have been distributed to the elderly and disabled in the communities. Income from the project helps the girls with their studies too if and when they plan to go back to school.

Our local teachers have been able to give the students sufficient homework and worksheets in the communities themselves in Honduras, obviously taking the necessary precautions. With no access to the internet this all needs to be done by foot. It is hoped that classes will resume in the next few weeks on a rota-basis with certain grades coming in on certain days though this is still to be confirmed.

The students have been busy on the sustainable Plan Huertos (vegetable gardens) as part of their hands-on approach to studying. Income generated from these will help the families, the school and provide much need food in the long-term.

Thank you so much for anything you can donate to our immediate emergency food programme. Please feel free to share this with friends, family and work colleagues as every little helps!
Cheers