Fund a teacher and teach a class in Latin America

I hope all is well with you. We have had a fantastic few months on the projects in Latin America including two Charity Challenges to raise much needed funds for the schools. We are already planning three challenges for 2024 which can be seen by following the link at the bottom of this newsletter.

The annual community work trip in Perú with Impington International College, Cambridge, UK was undertaken with twenty-seven students fundraising and working in the school. One of the major projects was the funding and building of three more toilets for the children. Before there was one toilet for the teachers and one for the students.

Work was also undertaken to double the size of the school vegetable garden and install drip-irrigation, dig a long trench and seal the bottom wall from dampness and concrete a new pathway outside the classroom that Impington International College funded and built in 2022.

The school’s first orchard was planted with drip-irrigation. In a few years the children should be enjoying avocados, apples and peaches. In the photo you can see the installation of the drip-irrigation system for the extended Plan Huerta.

Fifteen children were also given essential one-on-one teaching in maths and languages as well as art and sport. As is custom, the trip was finished off with a party with the children’s parents and grandparents also invited to enjoy food and folkloric dance.

Besides from the visit of the Impington International College students, the Inca Trail Charity Challenge was undertaken with some great funds raised for the projects in Latin America.

Mothers’ Day was celebrated with a display of folkloric dance by the children as well as gifts and a hearty lunch.

Work has begun preparing the ground for a vegetable garden in a local school in one of the communities where our scholarship students live in Guatemala. The harvests will go towards daily meals in the school and any extra shared amongst the families, especially the elderly.

Communication with the scholarship students’ parents is key to the success of the programme. Regular meetings are held to discuss education and issues. As part of the scholarship programme the parents of the students get involved in community work including litter clearing during the year. The local Police even got involved to do their part in the most recent cleaning day!

Our scholarship students were involved recently in inter-school sports competitions and came out winners in several categories.

Whilst our priority is for secondary school and college education, there is still a huge need for primary school help with school materials. We have spent the last few months seeking out the families in the most need and supplying educational materials so they remain in school.

Our school in Ecuador finished the school year last month and classes will restart towards the end of August. The final exams provided some excellent results with all the students in their final grade of primary school graduating to secondary school.

Parents of all four communities got together to celebrate Mothers’ Day in the school with folkloric dance and food. We provided the ingredients for a full meal for the mothers which was cooked by the fathers and shared with the children.

Over the summer we plan to increase our Plan Moo herd which will help cover the local teachers’ salaries in the future as well as providing much needed income for the local families to help cover secondary school and college education. 

All the best from the projects and we’ll update you again in a couple of months.

Cheers

Links:

• Charity Challenges 2024