Fund a teacher and teach a class in Latin America

I hope all is well with you. To celebrate Giving Tuesday today all donations will be supplemented with a share of a $1 million fund from GlobalGiving. If you can, please donate to this page today to take advantage of this fantastic opportunity from GlobalGiving for the projects with your donation making even more impact!

All today’s donations will be part of this year’s Fly The Phoenix Appeal which will go towards our local teachers, hygiene products for the classrooms, scholarships, educational materials, the elderly, transport and food for the rest of this year and a platform for 2022 across all our countries.

In a bid to neutralize the projects’ carbon footprint from day-to-day activities which include boat travel for the students in Guatemala, pickup transport for the students in Honduras and teachers’ transport up into the mountains in Ecuador and desert in Perú we, Fly The Phoenix, are planting a tree for every $15 raised.

Many of our college scholarship students in Guatemala graduated. A fantastic effort as classroom-based teaching has not been possible since March 2020 and they have had to travel from the six communities where they live around the lake to collect homework from the central school.

We plan to increase the number of scholarship students for 2022. Many of our scholarship students have serious underlying health conditions which had previously prevented them from continuing their studies due to economic constraints until now with some just starting their secondary education in their twenties.

The first 150 trees were planted at Lake Atitlán thanks to this year’s Appeal as we aim to reduce the carbon footprint of the day-to-day activities of the projects. More are due to be planted this coming month.

We also purchased several solar-lights for families without electricity which allows the students continue to study after dark. The sewing project for the single mothers continues to be successful. We are opening it up to more mothers and the elderly so more income can be spread around.

In Ecuador staggered lessons continued three times a week in the classrooms. We have continued to supply hygiene products and make sure that protocols are adhered to each day. Covid protocols are publicised in both Kichwa and Spanish, as well as orally, so everyone knows the school is doing all it can to remain a safe place for in-person teaching. The children were vaccinated with their first dose recently with the aim to restart regular classes in 2022.

We provided all the ingredients for the mothers to make the fruit-based colada morada and woodoven-baked bread to celebrate the upcoming Day of the Dead in the school. Kulla Raymi was celebrated, giving thanks to Pachamama (Mother Earth)  ahead of the upcoming sowing period. The tradition includes dancing, pampa mesa (communal food) and offerings representing water, earth, fire and air. The new parent committee was voted in. Their role is critical for communication between the school and the communities especially with health protocols during the pandemic, sustainable plan implementation and decision-making.

With Perú suffering from a severe new wave of Covid Delta infections no classroom based teaching has taken place so far this year and it is doubtful they will resume before 2022. The children continue to learn from home with the text and exercise books we purchased earlier in the year.

Once the classes restart we plan to implement reinforcement classes as many of the children, despite the best efforts of our local teachers, have regressed. With their own parents’ limited education not enough for “learning from home” and the strict rules for transport for our local teachers, it has been a difficult year. If we can we will bring in more local teachers, at least part time, to help out with this.

The school year has come to a close in Honduras with the students graduating despite the difficulties presented by the pandemic with class being undertaken on a staggered basis. Our local teachers have also visited the communities to make sure the students don’t lose out. It is hope some sort of normality will be resumed in 2022.

Work on the sustainable plans has continued with the students learning more agricultural techniques that can be used in their own homes. During 2022 we hope to add more plans.

Many thanks for anything you can donate to this page today to take advantage of the bonus funding.

Cheers