"Opportunity to Dream: Yachana Future Builders"

When I returned to the Yachana Training Center in February, I was anxiously met by one of our new volunteer teachers. “I have exciting news to tell you!” exclaimed Lena, a biology student in her senior year at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. She told me how excited she was to be able to work with the Yachana Future Builders [YFB] boarding students. She said that since I was at the center the last time they were able to admit a new student to the program. His admission was possible only because of the recent donations through GlobalGliving to the "Opportunity to Dream: Yachana Future Builders" project. Lena asked me to bring my notebook and camera and come and talk to the newest student, Alcides, so he could tell me (and you) his story.

I found Alcides in the Training Center teaching-kitchen helping to prepare lunch for the day. He had only been at Yachana for slightly over a month and was a little shy but when I asked him how it was, being the newest student and part of the YFB team attending Yachana Training Center, he smiled broadly and started to tell his story.

Alcides is from the community of La Paz which is among one of the many vulnerable Amazon communities in Ecuador; facing severe poverty, limited work opportunities, and significant barriers to education. While education is free to Alcides, his existing, government-built school and classroom experiences were not providing him with an environment conducive to learning or offering him the classes and training skills he wanted to advance personally and to help his community. Alcides was part of the regular “Educacion a Distancia Program” in Ecuador which is partnered with Yachana. Students like Alcides attend government schools two days per week and attend classes at the Yachana Training Center twice a month. [See Yachana GlobalGiving project Build a Classroom, Save the Amazon (#18011) for more information.] Alcides stood out as an excellent student while at the Yachana classes and when funds became available through this GlobalGiving project he was invited to join YFB; the group of boarding students that he so admired. Yachana recognizes that by having students participate on a regular basis in our day-student initiative it allows us to identify the best students and then offer them opportunities to participate in other programs operated by Yachana – like YFB group of boarding students.

For Alcides, working hard is a key to success—and it shows! He was one of the top students in our day-student class and he approaches his studies with dedication and passion, which made him an excellent role model and choice for joining the YFBs. He is in the 6^th year of his secondary school course in public school. He will graduate this year. Sixth year students are required to do a project that demonstrates what they have learned and how it benefits their community.   Alcides chose a watermelon-farming project for implementation in his community of La Paz. He is working with four other students on this project. This is first time watermelons have been planted in La Paz. They are being used for local community consumption and for new sources of commercial sales. At Yachana, Alcides has started his “circulo de banana” cultivation project. Through this project he is learning the benefits of employing tropical permaculture to increase plant production and effective fertilization using centralized composting of organic matter within the circle. He is transferring this knowledge to his watermelon project in his village. He said that insects are his biggest problem with his senior project. Yachana teachers will help him explore solutions that he can apply and demonstrate to his community..

Alcides says his favorite subjects at Yachana are English, cooking and working on all the Yachana projects. Alcides also hopes to improve his computer skills while at the Training Center.

His talents go beyond raising watermelons for food and profit. In the recent past, he taught catechism classes to others in his community. He hopes to teach others the skills he is learning at Yachana. In his free time at Yachana he likes to swim in the river, play soccer, he is the goalie, and play volleyball with the other YFBs. Alcides said “ I like to learn here, I like to come to Yachana!” Teacher Lena told me that Alcides is one of the more quiet students and pensive before he talks, but he is the best tree climber and gathers delicious fruit for the group!

I told Alcides about the GlobalGiving project to raise tuition for students like him. He was surprised to learn that people all over the world were willing to donate money to help him learn. I asked him to tell me why he thinks people should donate to Yachana and he said, “ Please keep donating so that we can keep learning!”

You can see Alcides and several other of the YFBs on our new video at http://youtu.be/Z9wFPG-2IAY . Please take a look and see other students that your donations are helping at the Yachana Training Center.  Share this video with your friends and encourage them to help us continue to invite new students like Alcides to be part of the Yachana learning community.

Links:

• Yachana Foundation Web Page
• Yachana Facebook