TEACHERS are the BACKBONE to EDUCATE GIRLS in Peru

CW sends LOVE and GOOD HEALTH to YOU our loyal friends and supporters,

Cusco opened up 3 weeks ago and quickly the people flooded into the streets. Like us they could not wait to get outside, hunt for work and see their friends - unaware they were inviting the aggressive CoVid to spread. Cusco is seeing more people ill now with the virus. Director Ruth, teachers and staff contacted all the parents, and girls to tell them to be extra cautious and stay home using the protocols they have all learned - it is too fast to open the city again to crowded streets and huge gathering to celebrate their Independence Day the 28 of July.  Rural Cusco is a poor community and people are desperate to find work so the warning often falls on deaf ears. Fathers (and mothers) are out looking for work to survive and Ruth tells me the city is going to close down again. 

Our students are staying home alone now and gratefully all are well. We continue with home schooling since the school year in Peru won't end until December. Our families do not have technology at home, only a family cell phone for most. We depend on this family cell phone - some have screens, but some do not so neighbors help out and take pictures of the assignment to send to the teachers. A family will have just one phone and now that the father is looking for work he is gone all day and has taken the cell with him. So, we move to plan B for the second stage of home schooling during CoVid. 

The teachers meet on zoom every Friday to problem solve CW rural home schooling and agreed to work on Saturday (plan B) to prepare their grade level assignments for their students. Ruth then prints them out, a copy for each student, so that on Monday they can be delivered to the lead parent per grade. Each mother will go to her daughters grade lead parent and designated home to pick up their daughters lessons. There are still two additional pick-up points for more isolated girls to receive their assignment closer to their homes. There is no limit to how far the team will go to educate CW students. They will not have cell phones for a while. Ruth and I are trying to see what the cost might be to buy cheap simple phones in Peru just for the student home study as no other communication is available.

A year ago I hauled 2 suitcases full of my stash of fabric to the school for school projects. While in lock-down Ruth was able to make masks with this fabric for all 130 girls, their parents and the teachers to keep them safe. All safety measures are constantly reinforced to our families, as if still under Marshall law.

Ruth says:  " We cannot begin our teacher home visits as we planned, the situation in Cusco is getting ugly. I cannot risk exposing the teachers and the parents. Thank God we do not have a single child or parent infected. We created an awareness campaign for the parents to protect them and the girls. With more virus cases in Cusco now, all will return to mandatory shelter-at-home again soon. Our new system of printed assignments for each girl, plus the videos and audios that the teachers prepare every day and can be watched on the family phone late at night when the father returns we hope, shows the plan is very good. Already in this third week we have had excellent results, plus the girls do not have to read from the tiny cell phones.  When the parents return home the girls make them sit and listen and see the teachers videos. 

The Pandemic has upset the Andean life our families were used to, but Andean people are always adapting. We hope CoVid will ease up soon so that family bread winners can find work. Most are day laborers or domestics and so it remains to be seen when work will open up again. Cusco is a tourist town and economy that needs to work; foreign tourists are not allowed yet, but local tourists from Lima have flooded the city, a frightening thought for new infections, after opening the city too fast. We will keep reminding our girls to stay home however, and will keep you posted in the next news update. Sadly we can not return to our school as ruled by the Ministry of Education in Peru in 2020. All schools will be closed until the 2021 March school year.

If possible.. Please visit our CW Facebook page for new stories and great videos too big to put in this update.           https://www.facebook.com/chicuchaswasi/

Our dedicated Teachers, Cooks, and handy-man/bus-driver are an impressive display of solidarity. We ARE grateful and proud of their willingness to problem solve with thinking out of the box together to get through this Pandemic for the CW girls. We count our blessings every day.

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SUPPORT

Please BUY the CW STORY
"JUMP ON THE LOVE TRAIN"
a fundraiser to EDUCATE GIRLS
WWW.chicuchaswasi.org/book/
100% of the proceeds go to the school
Thank you

My birthday reminds me again that after 35 years of depending on donations and grants to fund Chicuchas Wasi organization, we are seriously well on our way with our self-sufficiency plan to fund the CW school going forward. Ruth and I promised the girls that CW school would continue into the future for poor girls still unborn, and we are keeping that promise.

The CW plan for the future is almost completed. The Maria school construction workers were just allowed to return to finish building the ramp to the third floor of the school. Hopefully they will finish before being shut down again and fill the open spaces of the walls with windows and doors for the classrooms. All the workers are in hazmat suits and use caution and are instructed by Ruth to protect the them. We hope to have the final details, and colorful paint job by the end of this year and be ready to operate next school year - depending on CoVid.  We will keep you updated. This is an amazing achievement for any non-profit and we could not have realized our plan without our forward-thinking supporters who realize most small nonprofits do not out live their founders. We are all grateful to YOU who have stepped up to help build the Maria school. To be honest, if I am able to really retire next year I doubt I will do so completely. I love our work, the CW girls, teachers and staff who have become one large family and the many supporting friends everywhere and the California Board and retired board who still weigh in often.

 PLEASE DONATE TO HELP US -if you can- THROUGH THIS TIME:

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

                        The CW Emergency Food Program
 The survival challenges for our unemployed families during a pandemic are huge. Lock-down (Marshall Law in Peru) opened up 3 weeks ago, but appears it will need to resume again soon. Curfew from 8pm to 4am is still in force. Impoverished families under normal times barely get by, and CoVid has shut down all work since March. We have always been concerned of the risk of malnutrition and the need for basic nutrition for the children in our care during their critical years of growth and development, therefore, will continue the food program through the end of the year. We harvested the produce that our parents planted around the school and will replant the gardens on the school grounds again around Sept with the onset of rain. The next harvest will help fill the school pantry again this year to divide up for the families. 

Ruth now shops in bulk after turning a classroom into our food distribution center for sorting and packaging up food for delivery. The photos below show the food sorting team, bagging up to load the bus for delivery to families. The whole team participates in this mammoth project in full protective gear to avoid potential risk.

For every food delivery, the CW bus is loaded up with the emergency food packages to deliver to our parents who are waiting at the gate of the food market on market day. We are all adapting to the rules as they change to assure we can deliver the emergency food to our families. 

The CW emergency food program will continue the rest of 2020. By purchasing food in larger quantities, Ruth is staying away from the high risk for CoVid open market. This type of bulk shopping from a food staples-store deals only in bulk so no families shop there eliminating the risk of contagion for our team. Chicuchas Wasi Org and all staff voted to do the right thing and help our families during this crisis trusting that the funds we need to do so would be there. Miraculously donations have come in specifically to feed the CW families at home. We plan to continue until this crisis is controlled.

                  THANK YOU SO MUCH

for sticking with us to EDUCATE and FEED HUNGRY GIRLS during this Pandemic crisis. 

Links:

• Official Chicuchas Wasi website