Gender Equality Peru Project #19343

TEACHERS are the BACKBONE to EDUCATE GIRLS in Peru

by Chicuchas Wasi

TEACHERS are the BACKBONE to EDUCATE GIRLS in Peru

Project Report | Jun 26, 2018
Simple Baking Skills Will Help Girls Education

By DianaRae Lewis | Founder & President

Future business women to support their education

Bakery goods are not found in our community that does not use ovens, so we have discovered an affordable hit?

CW school has a big kitchen and dining room and where after school and weekend baking classes will be taught to help girls fund their education. Here are our first CW Girls standing in front of our new electric commercial oven ready to learn how to make a cake. They are proudly all decked out with official baking gear to help get the message out to the community that CW has an official school bakery to support girls education. Every CW student, from 4 to 12 years of age, will learn to bake cakes, cookies and small finger treats and also how to market them, manage buy ingredients and managing money to earn the much needed funds to pay for school beyond Chicuchas Wasi Primary School. CW eduction for our girls is free to them but public school is not free and the girls will need a way to stay in school that doesn't burden their families already exhausted small income.

The families and the community that we serve use wood fueled rammed earth burners and have no experience with an oven. One of the simple small business ideas that came up was baking affordable cakes, and finger foods to sell. This was the brainstorm of Alejandro, the CW school psychologist, to keep our CW Alumnae girls in high school, reduce the student and family financial stress and to prepare our primary school girls to earn enough to stay in school also when they leave CW.

PLEASE DONATE TO EDUCATE GIRLS

https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/educate-110-poor-girls-in-cusco-for-economic-survival/

The first batch of experiments were a big success with the students happily providing the taste test. The girls then went out with trays of cookies and finger cakes to try to sell them. They made more than 100% profit on the first try and sold out in a few minutes. What a perfect idea for this rural community where families never get to have baked items other than bread. Real city bakeries charge a lot more than CW will and the girls will still earn enough to save for their education. We plan to have the CW Alumnae girls also attend classes on weekends to earn the funds for their education. These products will cost just pennies to people in rural Cusco, but for this region it will make the difference of girls being educated or not.

Parents were quick to see the value of this Bakery class and have joined together to build a small room to house the hot oven when being used. Traditionally cooking is done outside of the main house in a small structure. The CW staff is purchasing the materials while the parents organize to do most of the work. The school kitchen will be where the prep is done and then carried to the oven. Please come visit us and we will offer you a taste. We are so grateful for the donation of this fabulous baking oven and baking equipment from Martin Currie that will hugely enable the girls future education.

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"The importance of teaching a marketable skill to the girls of Chicuchas Wasi School for Girls." - CW School Administrator Ruth Uribe

The experience of working with our former students teaches us that when leaving CW school and entering the public high school, students have fees. To say that public education in Peru is free, is not true; students must make payments to enroll, for the acquisition of a uniform, entry exam fees and educational materials The difficult economic situation their parents face often can not afford these expenses.

It is why we made the decision to teach our girls from the 1st grade, pastry and bakery, that is, a "productive skill", but what is it? It is about learning practical knowledge that our students can put into play to build their journey through high school. A "know-how" that is built throughout her school career and is very different from her experience of being a student at the primary level. And they will not require a large budget or a local, it will give them the possibility to earn money to support their studies.

This will be the importance of the support they will provide. It is one more tool for our girls to achieve their goal of studying and achieving a career."

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THANK YOU for YOUR Support and Donations
To MAKE THIS CW SCHOOL PROGRAM POSSIBLE.

PLEASE DONATE ON LINK HERE

https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/educate-110-poor-girls-in-cusco-for-economic-survival/

Teaching girls to make finger cakes to sell

First batch of cookies to sell

This is how to make a delicious cake to sell

student cake ready for a birthday party

Little bakers are ready to go, make and sell cakes

Links:

Official updated Chicuchas Wasi website

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May 29, 2018
Why does CW work with Parents? It's Girls ED no?

By Diana Rae Lewis | Founder & President

Smiling happy parents with their huge harvest

Why does CW work with parents? when it is their daughter we are educating?

CW has struggled for over 30 years to educate parents on the life-changing value of educating their daughters and all the opportunities that will open up for them.
Since the CW school opened, our parent meetings attracted only a moderate attendance, until the last few years. The skill of the CW school psychologist to energize and motivate parents to participate in the school activities today demonstrates improved family support for their daughters and reveals healthier family relationships.

During the February heavy rains early this year, parents again organized themselves and came to the school to plant potatoes and vegetables to supply the daily kitchen menu for their daughters. Just weeks ago in April they came again in mass to harvest the school potato crop. The photos in this issue show the proud and tired but happy parents with the enormous potato harvest they grew at the school for the CW School Daily Meal for 2018.

We see more big smiles and a tremendous pride for their daughters achievements today. Parents also show their personal pride in being able to share what they know best: knowledge of cultivating for a big potato harvest without chemicals.
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If we do not work with the mothers and fathers we will not be successful with their daughters. Parents are showing up to lend a hand to grow food, paint the school, build guinea pig cages and more, plus they attend the parents meetings with the psychologist. The relationship with their daughters is getting better.

THANKS TO CW PROUD PARENTS - HELPING THEIR DAUGHTERS

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In response to the prior indifference that the parents demonstrated about their daughters and education, they are now organizing projects that the school needs help with and showing up in full view of their daughters to show they do care. This parent show of support has united the families, daughters and the school staff into a supportive family and is improving all the time.

CW PARENTS grew the potatoes and helped with 2 sheep (both grown at the school) to support this meal program. Annually we raise 2 sheep and about 100 guinea pigs for animal protein for the mid-day meal program. The parents built the the guinea pig house and cages out of adobes they made, again happy to share how to do what they know well. We have had great improvement.

Visitors Review

"La mejor escuela ... Para niñas y padres ... Una experiencia unica e inolvidable ... Con las mejores maestras y una Directora muy amable con toda la familia de CHICUCHAS WASI ... Que viva siempre la escuela querida" - Celso

"The best school... for girls and parents... a unique and unforgettable experience... with the best teachers and a very friendly director with the whole family of chicuchas wasi... That this beloved school will live always." - Celso

PLEASE DONATE

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

THANK YOU for YOUR Support and Donations
YOU MAKE CW SCHOOL POSSIBLE.

The hard work of potato harvest after only 5 mos

Sorting the best potatoes for their daughters meal

WOW! what a harvest - will last all school year

These farmers know how to store too Andean style

Lunch time-never an Andean meal without a potato

The Girls say THANK YOU

Links:

Official updated Chicuchas Wasi website

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Mar 23, 2018
CW Girls grow up but still need more CW support

By Diana Rae Lewis | Founder & President

Meeting of 46 CW Alumnae at Dr Alejandro's home

CW has 46 grads who still need us...

Last year we at the Chicuchas Wasi School for Girls were abruptly alerted, with the death of 15 year old Alumna Xiomara, to the reality that our 36 CW Alumnae girls attending public high school were ALL experiencing serious emotional stress and parental pressure to quit school and earn money for the family. Some told us they suffered physical abuse and felt very alone without the immediate go-to CW support and mentoring they received before they graduated. They came to us in mass asking for help and to become part of CW in a deeper way - specifically they asked for a psychologists help. We mobilized immediately and created a new program to address these issues.

Dr Alejandro is a wonderful and sensitive psychologist who joined our team created the 'Xiomara Program' for our Alumnae that has proven very effective. We are also working more with the CW girls and parents to better prepare them for the issues the older girls have revealed. For more than 20 years working to bring gender equality in education to underserved girls, this is a slow process with an undereducated and poor rural population with severe dysfunction in their domestic lives.

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*PLEASE DONATE TODAY*

"It is a proven fact that educating girls makes a difference and CW does an amazing job. I met Rae when I moved to Peru in 1982 and have been following the progress of the school and am a monthly donor." - Donor review

Dr. Alejandro, the school psychologist, meets every Thursday after school in his home with the Alumnae girls first for a snack. They then present and discuss the most pressing problems they are facing. Dr Alejandro has come up with several small business ideas to relieve the financial pressure on them to contribute to the family economy and still stay in school. The girls have learned to make fabric dolls to sell while discussing smaller issues as they work. A volunteer pastry chef is teaching the girls to make cakes to sell and with the sale of the cakes and their hand-made dolls they will be able to earn some money to help their families. The domestic dysfunction is covered in weekly/monthly meeting with parents and more often with the girls in small groups or individually as needed. Dr. Alejandro has given each girl his private cell number and is on call 24/7 for them in an emergency.

We now have 46 Alumnae girls with the addition of the 10 new grads. The CW school girls are also benefiting from Dr Alejandro's work with the high school girls and better able to prepare the younger girls for future hurdles in public high school. We will soon have to split the growing Alumnae group into smaller groups to be able to give voice to each girl.

PLEASE DONATE TODAY

https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/educate-110-poor-girls-in-cusco-for-economic-survival/
Our younger CW school girls also have their time with Dr Alejandro to confront their family problems and to prepare them in advance of graduation for the reality of public school. He meets with the parents of the CW girls monthly or more often if needed to address any issues that come up in one-to-one private meetings or group talks with the students. He is on-call to address any urgent problem that Director Ruth is concerned about.

Dr Alejandro's various programs (for the primary school girls, the Alumnae girls and both sets of parents) has made a huge difference in the school, for staff, parents and especially for the girls. Our girl have been able to open up to each other and to Dr Alejandro about any serious problems and they are being addressed by him with the parents. The student bond and support for one another and CW staff continues to grow stronger.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR DONATIONS
YOU MAKE CHICUCHAS WASI SCHOOL POSSIBLE.

Excitement gather together meet with Dr Alejandro

Dr Alejandro meets with Alumnae parents

CW girls graduate in 2017 -8 of the 10 girls here

After school meeting begins with snacks -Dr Alejan

Links:

Official website for Chicuchas Wasi school for girls.

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