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NEWSLETTER - MARCH 2005

This month the volunteers:

registered all of the children for the academic year,
initiated woodwork classes for parents and children with the help of MINIKIDS from the UK,
started development work at our second project - Juandar, Pisaq,
enjoyed salsa and Peruvian cooking classes, and
donated materials for the schools and organised some great fundraising.

All smiles for the start of the school year

I don't know if it was the attention from the volunteers or the promise of a great year ahead for the kids, but I have never seen so many smiling faces at the start of a school year.

Class numbers have doubled since last year with an attendance of nearly 90 children.

Last year we had one teacher for Grade 1 and 2 but this year we have had to hire another teacher and split the class in two as year grade has over 25 children.

Thanks to the volunteers donations of notebooks, pens and pencils, each of the kids received a school pack for the beginning of their year and the classrooms have newly painted chairs and tables.

How talented our Minikids are!

In March, Peru's Challenge was honoured with a visit from MINIKIDS which is a UK organisation that assists in setting up wood workshops for children.

Wilfredo, our trusty assistant took on the role as head teacher under the direction of Roy, the Founder of Minikids, who was able to visit for two weeks to implement the workshops.

"The aim of these projects is that by the end of two weeks I become redundant and with Wilfredo's skills this has happened. I couldn't be more pleased with the progress," said Roy.

Although Minikids mainly deals with children, we decided together that we would also run workshops for parents. Our aim is always to work with the whole community and have them involved in everything that Peru's Challenge starts.

Little by little the skills of both the kids and parents will develop as will the crafts they produce. We aim to sell these crafts to tour groups that visit our projects and also at local markets in Australia and the UK.

A big thanks to Roy and Alison from Minikids and to Sammy, our UK Coordinator, for organising this opportunity.

Ready, set, go at Juandar

This month we started development work at our second project in Junadar, Pisaq.

The community has been involved from the start and have organised a work schedule so that at least five fathers and mothers are working with us for free every day.

Already, we have cleaned up the existing building. We have laid wooden floor boards in the classrooms, rendered the outside walls, built new path ways and planted fresh grass for the assembly area.

Mina one of our volunteers from Australia has written an overview of what the volunteers have experienced. Click here to read it.

Delicious flavours and some not so smooth dancing moves

When we first organised for a cooking class we have 10 volunteers interested, but by the time the first smells came wafting through the volunteer house, the kitchen was full with 18 people learning how to cook Aji de Gallina (chilli chicken).

Thanks to Adrianna and her amazing talents. We can't wait for you to cook another dish just as delicious.

The volunteers also enjoyed a two-hour class in Salsa dancing. First prize went to Mina who had the technique down pat. We later found out that she had taken salsa classes back home!

What an amazing group of volunteers - with a few tears

This was the first month where we have had two separate volunteers groups of seven in two separate houses. We could not have asked for a better group of people.

All of you were here for different reasons, with the main reason being for the kids. You all showed amazing initiative and had fantastic ideas to better the projects and help the kids and their families.

I want to give a special mention to every one of you as you have all participated in your own way and made a big difference to the communities.

Pete for you generous donation of tools for the Juandar project and a weaving machine for the mothers, which is soon to be named Sheila after your mum. We are all so glad that you got to enjoy your birthday here with us and at Juandar.

Mina for your constant enthusiasm and your project overview of Juandar - you summed it up perfectly.

Hannah for keeping Peru's Challenge in your mind for the last 2 1/2 years and for your amazing fundraising efforts at Macquarie Bank - please pass on our thanks to all the generous donors.

Todd for also keeping us in your mind for the last year and finally getting over here to Peru. I know we will see you back here again for a longer time.

Theressa for keeping everyone laughing, for your down-to-earth personality - you are already very missed - and for your little presents to Santosa, Wilfredo and your assistance to help start a library at Picol School.

Jen, Sascha and Tom for finding the time to come and volunteer with us. I know it was short but we appreciate your help. Sasch, the karaoke has stopped, you need to come back!

Ron for coming over for two weeks to start up Minikids, Peru. What a great project.

And Sammy, our volunteer coordinator in the UK. It was great for you to come over to see all that we have done with the project, I just wish you had longer with us. What a great honour for you to become a godmother to Wilfredo's daughter.

It was very sad to see all of you go and I know most of us shed a few secret tears including the mothers.

There are so many things that happened this month that I can't mention all in the newsletter so we now have a special photo page for all the great things that happened during the month.

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For more information on all the work done by Peru's Challenge volunteers in the past, read previous newsletters.

For an overview of our plans for both projects this year, click here.