Economic Growth Guatemala Project #18404

Sustainable Income Plans in Latin America

by Fly The Phoenix

Project Report | Sep 13, 2021
Little By Little for Latin American Education

By Dom Williams | Founder and Director

Watermelon trials complete in Honduras

I hope all is well with you. The Covid-19 pandemic continues to cause major problems in Latin America though the rollout of national vaccination programmes are giving some hope for the future “new normal”, albeit slowly. Our local teachers, who have all now been vaccinated, have continued to maintain the education of our students by travelling to the communities to hand out homework and answer any questions. Online teaching is not an option due to lack of internet and devices. Some staggered classroom teaching, with all the protocols in place, has been possible in some countries though normal classroom-based teaching for all is still months away.

This week’s Little By Little bonus donation campaign gives us a brilliant opportunity to build a foundation to work from as we look ahead to the final months of 2021 and into 2022. GlobalGiving will match each donation up to $50 by 50% from Monday 13^th to Friday 17^th September. It would be fantastic once again to rely on your support this week with whatever you are able to donate to this page.

Thanks to your donations during this time we have been able to keep everything going on a shoestring budget, including buying all the necessary biosecure products to maintain safety, though there has been so much we have wanted to do which has had to be put on hold. Restrictions due to Covid-19 have forced the cancellation of usual fundraising events including our charity challenges over the past nineteen months and the economic outlook remains uncertain.

Whilst the main priority is obviously keeping our current local teachers and the education of the children, once more funding becomes available we want to increase the number of local teachers, undertake maintenance, restock the classrooms and invest in more family sustainable income plans for the future which is even more critical during these times. The sustainable plans will provide extra income for the families to buy essential food and medicines as well as helping to fund the schools in the future.

We will also be planting a tree for every $10 raised during this week to help reduce the carbon footprint of the day-to-day activities of the projects. These include boat travel for the students in Guatemala, pickup transport for the students in Honduras and teachers’ transport up into the mountains in Ecuador and desert in Perú.

The sewing project in Guatemala continues to be a great success for the single mothers and parents of the scholarship students as well as some of the elderly population eager to learn new skills. The extra income they have been able to earn through the project has been crucial during these times. Like the scholarships, we plan to increase the number of sewing machines in 2022.

The centralized Plan Huerto vegetable garden in Honduras has been successful as part of the college course in agricultural techniques. They are now learning about and planting sweet-corn which yields in three months and can be sold to restaurants in urban areas and export. Having a large centralized Plan Huerto also will provide income to cover some school costs over time and the students can learn how to manage their own plan huertos in the future to help with extra income within the families for medicines and extra supplies.

Work and investment has continued with implementing sustainable income plans in Ecuador, including our Plan Chancho, Plan Pollo, Plan Cuy and Plan Huerto which aim to generate regular income specifically for the elderly population so they can buy medicines and extra supplies. Over the next year we plan to increase the herd in Plan Moo as well.

Once the “new normal” starts in Perú we can concentrate on implementing sustainable family income plans which are now more critical than ever. These may include agriculture in the limited irrigated chakras (fields) in the desert, alpacas for wool and sewing projects.

Many thanks for anything you can donate this week to the Little By Little Campaign. It is such a fantastic opportunity for us to be able to get back on track after these past eighteen months and build a solid platform for the years ahead.

Also, if you are thinking of doing something different in 2022 please do follow the link in this report to our Charity Challenges in Perú and Ecuador in May and June taking in the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu in Perú and volcanos in Ecuador – you can do either or both!

Have a great month and thank you all once again.

Cheers

Sweet corn trials for export in Honduras

Plan Chancho house in Ecuador

Feed

Links:

Charity Challenges Peru and Ecuador 2022

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Jun 25, 2021
How the projects have coped so far in 2021

By Dom Williams | Founder and Director

Sewing project in Guatemala

Latin America continues to struggle to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic with cases remaining stubbornly high, hospitals close to breaking point and a slow vaccine rollout delaying a return to some sort of normality. Classroom-based teaching, apart from staggered teaching in Ecuador, has not been permitted in the countries where we work since March 2020 and the students have been unable to receive virtual classes due to lack of internet or devices. Our local teachers continue to make regular visits to the communities to hand out homework and answer questions individually. Due to their parents’ lack of education or basic literacy, in most cases non-existent, these visits are the only opportunity for the students to ask questions and get feedback.

As part of the agricultural course in our college in Honduras the students undergo hands-on learning with all types of agricultural techniques from start to finish including soil, irrigation, fertilizers and different vegetable cycles for local market and export. By having a centralized Phoenix Plan Huerto the students can learn the process from start to finish and set up their own businesses, with our help, for their future. We plan to increase these plans in the second half of the year.

We also started a communal sustainable plan in Ecuador, involving chickens, guinea pigs and chanchos (pigs) which will provide regular income for emergency supplies over the coming months, particularly for the elderly and vulnerable. We will be making substantial investment in more sustainable plans for the families this year and into 2022.

The sewing business we implemented last year in Guatemala continues to be a success and we have added more single mothers over the past few months, including mothers of the recipients of our scholarships. We even have some elderly members of the community keen to learn new techniques to be able to generate their own income.

This year’s GlobalGiving Bonus Day will be celebrated is on 14th July where donations between $100 and $1,000 will be matched at varying levels whilst funds remain from 9am Eastern Time. The following matching structure will apply:

Donations of $100 - $499 will be matched at 15%

Donations of $500 - $749 will be matched at 30%

Donations of $750 - $1,000 will be matched at 50%

With fundraising events having been put on hold for the past year and half this is a fantastic way to help us raise the extra funds we need to keep the projects and education going in all our countries. If you can, please do donate early from 9am ET on 14^th July to take advantage of the matching bonusses as the extra funds tend to go quite quickly and thank you so much in advance!

We are also looking for partnerships with businesses as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility programs as we look to implement more sustainable income plans in all our communities over the coming years. If you know of a company looking to expand their own CSR program and wanting to support projects in Latin America, please do email me on info@thephoenixprojects.org By using the tax benefits for all US taxpaying companies by donating through GlobalGiving it is a CSR program which is beneficial to all parties, especially if the donation is made on the July 14^th Bonus Day!

Thanks again for all your support and all the best for the second half of 2021

Cheers

Central Plan Huerto

Cucumbers

Plan Pollo for the elderly

Plan for potato crops in H2

Links:

Corporate Social Responsibility

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Mar 8, 2021
A 50% boost for sustainable plans this week

By Dom Williams | Founder and Director

Plan Moo

I hope all is well. The Covid-19 pandemic still rages in Latin America though vaccination programmes are beginning to be rolled out with front-line health workers slated to be the first recipients. Many restrictions are still in place and full-time classroom-based teaching is still some way off. Work continues on introducing more sustainable plans in our countries, especially in Honduras and Guatemala with vegetable gardens, fish farms and sewing projects. We plan to do much more in the next few weeks...

This week – Monday 8^th to Friday 12^th March - GlobalGiving are 50% matching all small individual donations from $10 to $50 as part of their Little By Little Campaign. We want to take this opportunity to add one of each of all our sustainable plans with your 50% matched donation going towards the total cost of setting up each plan. These plans will then provide sustainable income for the local families and the schools in all our countries well into the future.

Many of you were extremely generous in the recent Appeal so we understand if this isn't possible right now though if you do have some spare change rattling around please do donate to this page to help us take full advantage of this fantastic matching campaign.

Please note, the matching will only be applied once per person though feel free to share this with friends, family and work colleagues and club together to fund your own plan.

The amounts shown below are the total costs of each plan to give you an idea of how your 50% matched donation plays a vital part. For example it could be used for seeds or piping in Plan Huerto (vegetable gardens – the total cost is $200 with rain-capture irrigation and poly-tunnels); chicks or feed for Plan Pollo (chickens - $200 including coop and feed); gas or hobs for an industrial stove in Plan Negocio (cottage industries from $250); needles, thread and materials in Plan Costura (sewing machines - $250); a hoof or leg in Plan Moo (milking cows – from $500 for each young cow); a male & female starter pack in Plan Cuy (guinea pigs - $600 including house) or hundreds of fry for Plan Tilapia (fish farms - $800 including pools and feed).

Despite Covid restrictions being lifted slowly this year the thought of international travel is still far from many people's plans though when that itch demands to be scratched it would be brilliant if you could join our Charity Challenges in Perú and Ecuador in 2022.

The dates for the Inca Trail in Perú are Saturday 21st to Saturday 28th May with the itinerary for Ecuador still to be confirmed. There is still plenty of time to decide though feel free to get in touch on info@thephoenixprojects.org

Thank you all for your amazing support as ever and have a great March.

Cheers

Plan Huerto

Plan Costura

Plan Tilapia

Links:

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