Project Update: Ibiato-Pata de Aguila – October 2015
Project Update: Ibiato-Pata de Aguila – October 2015 Click here to read the most recent update from our Ibiato-Pata de Aguila project. (Text is in Spanish).
From the Field
A Special Lunch
In Patabamba, the air is scented with eucalyptus and munia, a mountain mint. We are about 3000 feet above the valley floor, 13000 feet above sea level, and across the valley the clouds disclose white, crisp, and mineralized Andean peaks. Between clouds, the sky is blue like a promise. The hills around us are […]
Happiness is…
Happiness is riding in the back of a pick up truck with the kids from Pacopata! I was out in Paruro valley yesterday (5 hours from Cusco) visiting our projects. School was cancelled in Cochirhuay but that didn’t stop kids from walking for up to 90 minutes to come to our biblioteca project. Seeing their […]
Working with Young Indigenous Girls in Cusco
Rocio, 18, has spent 12 years of her life in an orphanage because her mother was/is incapable of raising her. She and her brothers were living alone in a small apartment in Cusco when they were noticed by neighbours who alerted the police. They were all put back into an orphanage but then later released […]
Ian’s Guide to Packing Light
My work with Alma means I spend quite a bit of time traveling. The majority of the time these are one or two day trips to visit the communities we work in, throughout the Cusco region. However, we also have projects in the Peruvian Amazon, the Bolivian Amazon, and in La Paz. Wherever I […]
Strike Shuts Down Cusco
At the airport in Toronto we got news that Cusco had been shut down by a general strike: everything was closed and the roads were to be blocked for the next 2 days. President Ollanta decided to privatize the management of the archaeologic sites in Cusco province which upset everyone in this part of the […]
Ruben
*Ver abajo texto original en Español Ruben David Condori Yujra is 10 years old, in 5th grade in the educative unit “Urkupiña II”. His family is composed of 2 girls and 1 boy and he has a father and a mother. Unfortunately his dad was diagnosed with acute renal failure, classified as a handicap and […]
Reflection
“Our program director Ian Mcgroarty and his wife Maria de la Gracia (Gata) were in Toronto for five days last week for our annual Board of Directors strategy session. Because Ian is only here once a year, the 5 days cram meetings with supporters, advisors, a potential remote technology partner, a fundraising lunch and a […]
Paku
A few weeks ago I was heading to Huadhua to check in on the Biblioteca project. I was set to arrive much earlier than normal, so I decided to stop and enjoy the view of a nearby lake from which the community gets its name. I parked the truck and stepped out into the cool […]
Sirionó
I was in Bolivia last week, in part to check in on two of our new projects in the Bolivian Amazon. We are working with the Sirionó people to create textbooks in their native language, Sirionó, in their primary school in the village of Ibiato and their secondary school in Pata de Aguila. This year, […]
Luz from Sariry
*Ver abajo texto original en Español Luz E. Condori Huanca is a 6 year old attending first year elementary school. She has a family of four, her parents and her siblings. Luz is a calm girl who is eager to learn, she likes to take responsibility in her every day activities. She has started to learn how […]
Assembly in Huadhua
The 2015 Biblioteca Project is, academically, the most complicated project we’ve implemented to date. We are not only reinforcing regular curriculum subjects outside of the classroom, but more importantly we are creating a space where students’ creative and critical thinking skills can flourish. Getting to the point where students are sufficiently comfortable, and teachers are […]
Children of Sariry
*Ver abajo texto original en Espanol Some of the youngest kids in the community, less than 6 years old, who attend the Sariry program, have parents who, out of economic necessity, have had to leave for other places in search of work, leaving the young children in the care of their grandmothers. When these kids […]
Student Portfolios
On the last Friday of every month, all the teachers working in our Biblioteca projects throughout Cusco come together for a day to exchange experiences and training. During our latest training workshop, we discussed a very important, but often overlooked, aspect of our Biblioteca projects: the student portfolio. The student portfolio is a tool […]
Kites
*Ver abajo texto original en Español To benefit from the winter winds, kids from the Sariry Foundation, and the community, interacted in the holidays, constructing kites (also called comets). It was fun because they had to recover traditional games and make use of their creativity, imagination, perseverance, and independence in order […]
Obstacles
There are many obstacles to improving the quality of education in rural Peruvian communities. What we try to do, in partnership with students, teachers, and parents, is find paths around those obstacles. Nevertheless, as it is with everything, each solution leads to new obstacles, new possible solutions, etc. Our biblioteca projects offer a fun and […]
Annie Reflects on Her Visit to Peru
Kids are kids no matter what! I recently had the opportunity of visiting some of the Alma projects in Cuzco and interacting with many of the kids. Some of them were shy, some were very excited and spontaneous, some had special needs, and some were super smart! I have 2 young kids myself, and the […]
A truck ride with Vilma in Huadhua
It was unlikely that I would become close with Vilma. She is one of the more shy students in Huadhua, where we run a biblioteca project. On the opening day of the project, the entire community held an inaugural event and everyone was in attendance. All the children were so excited to start that once […]
The Power of Fun
On the first day of the Biblioteca project in Huadhua, after speaking with the teachers and parents and playing some games with the students, the first thing we did was divide the students into groups and give each group an unopened digital camera. We then proceeded to open the boxes together and search for each […]
Preserving an Indigenous Culture
One of our newest projects is called Cultura Sirionó. The Sirionó people are an indigenous people in the Bolivian Amazon. Ian was there recently, to finalize the details of two projects we’re starting in the communities of Pata de Aguila and Ibiato. Like all of our projects, they will have a lasting impact on the communities. But this […]