By Diana Rae Lewis | Founder and President
The school registration is in full swing and incoming little girls are hardly able to control their excitement. March 1 is the first day of school and the next report will update you more.
************We Promote Quechua Pride***********
By Rosa, CW Board of Director
"A few months ago, one of our CW students had questions about how we used the word indigenous to refer to the Quechua people of Peru. Not sure if it was a misunderstanding of the context of the message or her feeling of being looked down upon. Her concern made me realize how our Quechua and mestizo (mixed race) still faces a social and economic imbalance in Peru. This sensitivity is due to the discrimination that indigenous groups, such as Quechua, are worth less and not treated well. I believe the lack of education and understanding play a role in this. Many girls initially come to CW school speaking only the Quechua Language.
In other parts of the world indigenous people today, such as the Native Americans in North America celebrate and honor their uniqueness and beauty of their people, after years of oppression.
It is time for the indigenous Quechua to recognize the beauty in our culture and take pride and ownership of our blood. One of the ways of doing that is through education and embracing our culture and its traditions.
The picture of our girls speaks volumes. They have Quechua in their blood and should be proud of it. It is our facial features and pigment that makes us stand out. It wasn't until the recent years that I began to pay attention to my race and background and began to embrace myself. Growing up in Peru and having experienced the discrimination first hand I understand the inequalities in races that still exist to this day. In a country where the majority of the population is of mixed race, there is a lot of discrimination against us. We are treated as a second class citizen and its upsetting. One of the biggest culprits of maintaining this racial prejudice is the media and lack of education and understanding. Most of the media portrays white people who make up a small percentage of the population. This is because the bulk of the power in Peru is located in Lima where the "white elite" live and have established power. Not long ago people who spoke Spanish as their second language were ridiculed by the Spanish speakers, however, the views are changing and slowly being embraced. Today, many schools and colleges teaches Quechua as a second language and in some colleges it is requirement to speak Quechua in order to graduate college. In a country where 57% of the population is mixed race, it is time to wake up and embrace our native blood."
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CW is blessed to have global supporters from many countries that cheer on the girl's progress and keep in touch on Facebook, emails and write reviews on www.greatnonprofits.org
YOUR DONATIONS provide the quality of education and personal guidance that our girls receive.
THANK YOU
***DOUBLE YOUR DONATION MATCH STARTING MARCH 1***
A generous supporter of Chicuchas Wasi has put up $5000 to MATCH 100% of your donations until the $5000 runs out. Please mark your calendar. You will receive a reminder for this rare event.
We are raising funds for a school bus desperately needed to deliver girls safely to and from our distant school. No public transportation is available and no school bus = no school for our girls. This is a private Match event for CW.
Click here on March 1 for this school bus campaign and double your donation.
https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/send-disadvantaged-rural-girls-to-school-in-peru/
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What Kristen, a college volunteer, has to say about Chicuchas Wasi School for Girls.
"..I taught English to“initial” (4 and 5-year-old girls), helped with older English classes, created a pen pal initiative between CW and my Lower School in the US, and connected CW to a sports organization that runs sports classes for girls in Cusco, Peru. Chicuchas Wasi is having a very strong impact...I was so impressed by the collaboration and care between the girls. They all help each other so willingly and this leads me to think that this foundation of helping one another will stick with them and they will continue to help each other as they grow older and graduate from CW. Not only do the girls work well together and help each other, but also the professors work tirelessly for the girls. They work so well together and work as a team and I think that this fosters a great atmosphere for the girls. While in Peru, I was working at a few other schools so I had a great opportunity to compare CW to other schools. The professors at CW were so much more invested, energetic, and committed than I observed at some other schools where professors seemed exhausted and sometimes uninterested.
Furthermore, the girls’ eagerness to learn was incredible and contagious. This was something that I especially noticed when seeing girls from other schools- CW’s distinct culture. One of my favorite memories from my time at CW was with the 4 and 5-year-old girls that I was teaching. I had taught them the song “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” so that they began to learn some body parts in English. I cannot put into words how proud and happy I was when the young girls ran up to me at the bus stop early in the morning to show me that they knew the song and that they had even taught it to their families, especially to their mothers and younger siblings. This reminded me of the importance of cultivating the love of learning in education, something that CW does VERY well."
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SPECIAL NOTICE
Would you like to participate in Chicuchas Wasi a bit more? Love the school and our success? We have an opening for an additional board member and the best place to find the right person is among our supporters. No board experience-our seasoned team will train you to love this work. Please contact me (Rae) for more information chicuchas_wasi@sonic.net
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