It’s rainy season here in Cusco, and that means if you haven’t planted your wheat, barley, or potatoes yet (depending on the altitude of your community), you are late! These mountains are volatile, and you never know when the rains will suddenly stop and you’ve missed your chance at a strong harvest. Actually, you almost […]
Wherever two ecosystems meet, there will be life. So it is where the black waters of the Juanache River meet the muddy waters of the large Ucayali. At that bend, I often see the pink river dolphins breaching for air while fishing, and we often end up with one or two fish in our peque-peque […]
I was in the Peruvian Amazon recently to attend the final “achievement days” with the students, teachers, parents, and community members of our projects along the Ucayali River. It was the beginning of the rainy season and the river was already rising quickly, but was still not high enough to get into the community of […]
We have been working in Tucsa for four years. Filomena started attending our project three years ago, although she was still in pre-school, and she has always made her presence felt. All of our teachers remember Filomena because she is the student who will not sit down; who cannot stay on task; who, now that […]
Maria Elena graduated from high school last year and was an outstanding student in one of our pre-university academies. She is the youngest of three children and studied in an alternative-schedule school, where she spent two weeks in school and two weeks at home, and therefore could have access to secondary education although she lived […]
Ever since I have been coming down here I have heard stories of sexual violence in communities. I had a shocking experience very early on with Alma. We were supporting an outreach program with a facility for children with special needs. I went out for a day on family visits with the social worker and […]
We slept in Trini last night which gave us the chance to buy Saltenas for the drive. Saltenas are an empanada type pastry filled with meat, potatoes, egg and lots of juice/gravy. Bolivians eat them for breakfast, you can only buy them before 11AM. The first time I had one I was warned; they are […]
The road to Las Palmeras is almost always wet and often impassable. This year we got lucky, it was dry and we arrived late in the evening, had a sandwich and fell asleep in our tents. I was awakened by men yelling “aqua aqua”! Their well had gone dry and they had been drilling around […]
We set out from Trini at 3 AM in a pickup truck owned by the Municipality. Our group for this road trip is our project manager Kathe, our program director Ian, and two staff people from the Municipality – Raquel and the driver “El Chino”. One of the reasons we have had success here is […]
The hot, dusty community of San Martin feels empty and forgotten and a million miles away from anything (in fact it is only a four-hour drive from Trini but somehow feels even more remote than our other communities). When we arrived we saw no one. I managed to get sick last night so I am […]
I had thought that sleeping in the jungle would be restful. I was wrong. It’s noisy. We slept on the floor of the school room in Manguita and between the insect noises, the roosters crowing (funny, I didn’t notice them during the day but heard them all night), the pigs and horses rooting around outside […]
It’s day one in Bolivia and already I feel like I’m in one of those Garcia Marguez novels where time stops and sleep doesn’t necessarily happen. My one and only day in Lima started at 1AM when I arrived but my taxi driver didn’t (he had fallen asleep in his car at the airport parking […]
Melani is a five year old girl who is currently in the first grade of primary school. She attends our partner project Tahuantinsuyo. She is creative, loving, and has a good sense of humour. Melani has six siblings all of whom are cared for by her mother Doña Julián. Mrs. Julián is a cook at the Tahuantinsuyo Community […]
Heidy is seven years old and is in the second grade of school in Tilata. She is a very affectionate girl. In her family, she has her mother, stepfather and two sisters. She can get in fights with her sisters. Her older sister is a teenager and her younger sister is only three years old. […]
I left at dawn towards the province of Canchi – Sicuani district of Combapata to the community of Tucsa. Tucsa is a community far away from the city where car traffic is almost unheard of. But for the Alma Foundation it is not impossible to reach these places as we are always eager to bring […]
To read the progress update for our Chumpe project, please click here.
To read the progress update for Huathua Lagunas, please click here.
The read our June 2017 project update for Villa Alba, please click here.
Edison is a 5 year old boy in the first grade of school. He comes from a family which is separated. His father works in the department of Cochabamba and his mother is in Brazil. Because of this, Edison and his three brothers live with their aunt. Edison entered Sariry with malnutrition. Now, he has […]
As technology becomes ever more integral in all levels of education and in every aspect of daily life, children without access to technological education are increasingly disadvantaged. When added to the many economic and social obstacles already present for children from rural indigenous communities in Peru, the lack of access to technology is detrimental to […]