TEACHERS are the BACKBONE to EDUCATE GIRLS in Peru

CW Girls will be so glad to be back in school March 1 and learning, even if it is home-school a little longer.

Chicuchas Wasi School Girls cannot return to the classroom- the government order with lock-down prevents it. However, administrator Ruth has a plan for July & how we can return students safely to their CW school classrooms. 

     Many blessings to us all as we sputter through 2021 on the Covid train
                          (PHOTO: Rae on left, Ruth on right). 

CW has managed to climb over big obstacles in our 33year history and we will this time too - with your help. The CW organization fundraising business plan is ready, and so close to opening the just completed 'Maria' school - a CW tuition-based co-ed college prep private school for Cusco children. This is a self-sufficiency funding in Peru plan that is ready and will fund both schools. We are in transition waiting for Covid control to make it safe to open both schools asap. The 'Maria school' construction plan has been privately funded the last 5 years and is now ready to accept students from eager parents seeking international and national university preparation that is lacking in Cusco. 

           Please donate to keep CW girls learning, even while at home.

https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/send-disadvantaged-rural-girls-to-school-in-peru/

The virus is still with us, and vaccines are going into arms as fast as possible in the US; Children will be getting vaccine by late spring in US says Dr. Fauci. Peru has begun vaccinations too. We all want this over, a full year at home with my dog is enough. Ruth tells me the Peru government made an agreement with China for a ton of vaccines and has started vaccinating citizens now. I really hope so! Cusco has been paralyzed economically without tourism since March of 2020, adding more stress to the poor with unreliable work. CW parents are now allowed to work, even though there is little available, therefore, we ended our year long emergency meal program in December 2020.
Our home-school ended well and all of our girls were promoted to the next grade. Private graduation was held with a little ceremony with family in each girl’s home, but it was not the same for the girls. Efrain again gave his annual gift to the graduating class, his special tour of the Andean heritage locals seldom experience, learning about and visiting more ancient sites. Unfortunately, that was all they could manage during CoVid times.

As 2020 closed, Ruth and the teachers gathered on zoom to plan how they might do better in 2021, until girls can return to the CW physical school in July. Until then we are short 15 operating used cell phones, so all the girls can receive their lessons and videos and talk to their teachers as needed from home. A big plea to our CW community to please have a look around your home to see if you might have used cell phones that you could donate to the Cusco girls for home school that begins in March. Please email me if you do. I have received 7 so far and working on finding a business company that ships to Lima to add our used cell phones. Ruth’s sister lives in Lima and can retrieve them for Ruth.

                                              THANK YOU 
                               for your faith in us all these years.

Thank you for your holiday and year-end donations to continue to educate CW's 126 + girls - in home-school. Any amount big or small does help and donations do add up. We are a 501(c)3 nonprofit and there is a tax benefit for all donations. YOUR donations raised $39,000. We now have a shortfall of $101,000 to complete 2021 if a full in school budget. Since the CW school classrooms are not able to open yet Ruth and I are taking serious belt-tightening measures to keep educating our girls. So please donate again if you can, to help us chip away at the shortfall and not lose our teachers.  We are cutting all programs for March to focus on teachers salaries (66% of budget) and supplies for home-school lessons (13%). The teachers salaries total $73,900 (plus $18,200 =$92,100 for school supplies and security) and that makes our immediate shortfall today $53,100 during homeschool. If we are able to open the schools in July, I will add back the programs like transportation and meals. See PIE from last news update.

                    Your support really matters  THANK YOU!

Your donations pay our teacher salaries and school operations. The CW education team has a plan for opening the CW school again in July with a curriculum that will be safe (masked), academically successful and allow the girls to return to their beloved school and resume the meal program we know they need now. By splitting the schoolroom classes the youngest girls in the morning and older girls in the afternoons, two sessions will limit the number of girls who gather together. They all miss the socializing with their friends and it is important to restore the normal development of social skills and time together at school.

I hate to ask for donations, but we won't be asking for them in the future when 'Maria' classes are filled. CoVid has de-railed our train for the moment. By cutting almost all programs to focus on paying our teachers who are working longer hours to manage the education at home school we will need less money. We will still maintain the school supplies, and Simeon will manage school & security at the CW school.

On a positive note: One of my CW grown boys from the early CW shelter project, Efrain, in Cusco is a tour operator and tells me the government will open Machu Picchu Ruins in early in 2021. That means tourism will be able to resume and the Cusco economy will quickly improve. So, this is hopeful.
  

Please see the Maria full primary school images attached below. Doors and windows are being installed between the rain downpours. All safety handrails are also being installed.

              PLEASE DONATE a little extra TO HELP during the Pandemic  

 https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/send-disadvantaged-rural-girls-to-school-in-peru/

We continue to hope and pray for CoVid vaccine to protect all in Cusco; for CW girls to return to the CW school classroom, and that parents can find regular work and be able to feed their families.

CW provided emergency food to our families for 10 months of 2020, and now they are allowed to work again. When the CW school kitchen opens again delivering oatmeal breakfast and a hot main meal - our girls will be healthy again. We realize that being home for 2 months (summer vacation) with little nutritious food to eat will have health consequences -severe anemia and possibly more cases of TB. 

Links:

• Official Chicuchas Wasi Website

Chicuchas Wasi School Girls send you BIG hearts full of love and gratitude for their education.
May you be blessed with much love, good health and abundance for 2021

Chicuchas Wasi School did not close down in March 2020 when CoVid-19 Pandemic hit Cusco, Peru, as almost all schools did. Our teachers and staff put their heads together and organized a home school method what we could manage - with only limited cell phone technology to work with. We have an amazing dedicated team of teachers committed to educating poor girls. The teachers created a plan to teach, as if in the classroom, with their homemade videos the girls could see on the tiny cell phones and written assignments that we delivered to them in a safe park and collected completed each week. Our teachers vowed to keep the girls learning and that not one girl would quit or be held back for poor achievement. All would learn. Parents and older siblings were engaged to support the girls with their assignments and their teachers were available by cell every day to provide one on one instructions. We did well. The girls did well and student confidence grew with the CW experiment of home school.

The first thing we realized when CoVid hit was that when poor parents cannot work, their family will not eat and our CW school meals were now unavailable. There was no alternative; CW team created a life line - an emergency food program to deliver staples to each family to prevent malnutrition that is too common in this community. We asked for help and gratefully donations came in to provide the funds to buy food through 12/31/20 this year. The parents show their gratitude and loyalty buy helping the school and their daughters in many ways. For example: they plant, cultivate and harvest the food production around the school that is now given to our families. The prior CW news updates have explained the creative delivery system we used during Peru's Marshall Law to control the virus spread. Our families have remained healthy and the teachers also-a few did get the virus and have recovered. The CW food life-line has exhausted the funds needed to buy food.

Chicuchas Wasi is facing a financial crisis.

 All remaining funds have been sent to the school. We really need your donations now. We are a 501(c)3 nonprofit and there is a tax benefit for all donations before Dec. 31,2020. 

The emergency food project costs $1800 a month - on hold now. Your donations pay for our teacher salaries and school operations. CW education team will begin the end of January to create a plan for opening the CW school again in March with a curriculum that will be safe and successful and allow the girls to return to their beloved school that was created just for them. Ruth plans to split the school sessions to youngest students in the morning and older girls in the afternoon to limit the number of girls who would gather at once. They all miss the socializing with classmates and it is important to restore the normal development of social skills and time together at school.

CW 2021 school budget of $140,000. (see 2019 PIE below before CoVid) includes our high protein hot meal program (up to 16% of PIE for 2021) at the school. Since cancelling all fundraising events due to CoVid, we have exhausted our funds. CW California hopes to begin the CW fundraising events as soon as possible when safe to do so. During our 33 years we have come through some very difficult times, but CoVid has taken the wind out of our sales. 

Your donation of any amount is appreciated to continue the food program the next 2 months and help us chip away at the school budget. We will cut programs and staff if we absolutely must. We believe in miracles and trust we will be blessed with one now.  

    Please DONATE link GG donation here: 

 Educate Girls in Cusco for Economic Survival

                            THANK YOU

US Vaccines have begun and we should start to notice improvement as more are vaccinated. Ruth tells me that Peru will be receiving the vaccine sometime in 2021, since it is a huge tourist destination it might be sooner than later. One of my CW grown boys from the early CW shelter project in Cusco is a tour operator and tells me they will open Machu Picchu in January. So, this is hopeful.

We continue to hope and pray for CoVid vaccine in Cusco, for CW girls to return to the CW school on March 2,2021 and that parents can find regular work and be able to feed their families. When the CW school kitchen opens again in March delivering oatmeal breakfast and a hot main meal - our girls will be healthy again. We always worry that being home for 2 months (summer vacation) with little nutritious food to eat will have health consequences -severe anemia and possibly more cases of TB. We plan to continue our emergency meal program through March, if possible.

CW Students have suffered from malnutrition due poverty over the summer months, but when our school is open they are supported nutritionally with a balanced daily hot meal, vitamins are also given to girls who have anemia. Since the girls did not attend school due to COVID lock down this year, the school meal program was not available to them. CW was immediately aware of the consequences to their health and created an emergency food program for each family. We recognize that when school resumes in March we will immediately need a health evaluation of each girl. 

Links:

• Official Chicuchas Wasi website