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Despite all the continued uncertainty in the world, our projects have been able to move forward at last in Peru and Cambodia. 2021 has been another tough year, but as it draws to a close, everything seems to be taking steps in the right direction!

CAMBODIA

The biggest news in the last month is that our Helping Hands School in Cambodia has finally reopened! The school is offering a full schedule of academic reinforcement sessions, English classes, art sessions, nutritious meals, health and hygiene lessons and other support. Our key focus for the coming year has to be on helping the children catch up academically. Schools have been closed for the best part of the last year, so most children have fallen significantly behind. Luckily, our dedicated team is on hand to help get them back on track!

With schools reopening, our Sports Programme is back in full swing now too! The children are happy to be back to a normal routine of PE lessons, games and training drills. Our coaches have been working on their own fitness, as well as sports knowledge and skills, over the last few months so they have lots of new tricks up their sleeves.

PERU

Picaflor House continues to operate on a reduced schedule, as the government has yet to provide clear guidelines about a blanket reopening of schools. We do expect his to happen at the start of the coming academic year (in March 2022) though. Even on a reduced timetable, children are still getting a couple of hours every day at the project, to receive support with their homework and have time to play or do some craft projects. With the rainy season approaching, we are having to move more activities inside and this will be facilitated with the building of new classrooms. We received a grant that will cover the materials and construction costs of two of the planned classrooms and we are about to break ground!

We are looking forward to expanding the reach of Picaflor House’s education programme, with the launch of our Mobile Library! Thanks to the fundraising efforts of our dedicated supporters, we have been able to purchase a vehicle which will start taking books, qualified teachers and other learning resources out to five of the rural villages around Cusco. We will be ready to set off at the beginning of January, to help get the children ready for their return to school.

Having learnt a lot about our communities over the last 8 months, through our visits with the PAWS programme, we have realised that animal welfare needs to be the key priority for next year. We're restructuring the project so that we can continue providing all-important veterinary care and neutering surgeries, but also focus more on helping owners understand what their pets need to be healthy and happy.

TRAVEL UPDATE

Most countries are starting to open borders and lift travel restrictions - even in the light of new variants - so we are able to welcome volunteers to our own initiatives and most partner projects. We already have three interns booked to arrive within the next month and volunteers are starting to book in again too!

A huge Thank You for your support, especially through such a tough year. We hope that the rest of 2021 is filled with positivity and joy and that 2022 brings new opportunities for everyone. Happy Holidays!

Links:

• Learn more about Globalteer on our website
• Follow Globalteer on Facebook
• Sign up to our Newsletter for regular updates

With mass vaccination programs starting to take effect in the US, the UK and Europe, life has been returning to "normal" and it’s easy to think that the pandemic is “over”. Unfortunately, that’s not the case for the countries we work in. However, things are looking up, especially in Peru and we’ve been able to continue supporting our communities in both countries.

Peru

Despite a slow start with vaccinations in Peru, case numbers have been dropping consistently for a while now, and the government has changed the rules to give people more freedom, while maintaining distancing and mask usage. That means that we've been able to do much more in the communities again!

Picaflor House: These last few months were busy for Picaflor House! We had to move to a new property, as the family we’ve been renting from for the last 10 years weren’t able to extend our lease any further. We were sad to leave, but the new place is bigger and has more space for the children to play and for us to expand! Schools are still closed, but outdoor activities are allowed to operate, so having built a toilet block and roofed outdoor space, we were finally able to invite our children back to Picaflor House! For safety reasons, the children are coming for two hours at a time, in groups of 20. While longer would, of course, be better, it’s enough time for the kids to let off some steam in the playground and get some help with their homework from our teachers.

Picaflor House Mobile Library: We realized that there is a need for education outreach in many of the rural communities outside Cusco. Not only are schools closed, but most families in these places don’t have computers or internet and home (and some villages don’t even have mobile data!) so receiving and handing in homework has been difficult. We ran a pilot mobile library day back in May, to take books, teachers and other learning resources to children in two rural villages and it was a roaring success. We are now seeking funds to set up a permanent mobile library, which will offer access to books and help children catch up with school, while schools are still closed, as well as once they open again.

PAWS Mobile Veterinary Clinic: This project has been fully operational since April and our team has been hard at work. We continued registering animals and delivering basic healthcare, as well as starting our neutering program. By the end of our first quarter in July, we had registered and administered routine treatments to 1,376 animals, administered 180 vaccine doses and sterilized nearly 100 dogs and cats. We have now started revisiting animals for their second quarterly health checks and treatments, while continuing to neuter as many animals as possible. Read more in our quarterly report (link below).

Cambodia

While Cambodia has made a great start to its vaccination program, with 45% of the population now vaccinated, the country is still struggling to control case numbers. Case numbers are particularly high in rural areas, where vaccination programs are yet to really take off. The safety of our children, their families and the community is our main priority, as always, but we have been finding safe ways to continue supporting them.

For most of this time, we’ve been able to invite the Helping Hands students to school in small groups, so they can pick up homework packets and have a quick workout with the sports team. Our sports field is big enough that 20 children can exercise while maintaining distancing protocols and mask usage. Our team has also been able to continue the food program, either having a cooked breakfast ready for the children when they arrive to pick up their homework, or sending them home with fresh fruit and vegetables from our garden, along with other nutritious supplies.

We were also able to distribute this year’s school uniforms, so everyone’s ready once the schools eventually open. Concern was mounting about the additional waste created by disposable masks, so we also made sure all our students have reusable fabric ones.

Patience is proving to be a virtue everywhere - but particularly in Cambodia - and everyone is maintaining good spirits and making the best of things.

Thank you for your continued support of Globalteer's project around the world!

Links:

• Learn about PAWS first quarterly achievements in our report
• See the full news from Picaflor House here
• Get the full Helping Hands lowdown by reading the newsletter