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To date, the funds we receive via our volunteer travel program assist in covering our fixed running costs; including wages and salaries, transport, necessary learning materials and resources, marketing, necessary construction materials and emergency assistance to community members.

Have a look at all of the Pumamarca School projects that we have already completed since we started working there in September 2005.

But we cannot continually rely on our volunteers for developing sustainable projects for the future of the communities in which we work. We need to find additional support.

How to HELP

By making a one-off or monthly contribution to any or all of the Peru's Challenge Funds, you will be directly supporting the local communities of Peru and helping us develop schools and communities for their future sustainability.

If you cannot contribute cash, you can still help by donating in-kind materials that we urgently need.

Or how about purchasing from a range of local hand-made products that are produced by the Pumamarca Talleres (Workshop) Group.

• Cash donations are the most effective and are greatly appreciated.
• All administration costs are covered by our volunteer travel program therefore your total contribution (minus bank transfer fees) goes directly to the nominated cause.

For details on how to donate, please send an email to jane@peruschallenge.com

In-kind donations:

• Peru's Challenge can accept all types and sizes of in-kind donations.
• If you would like to send an in-kind donation, please send it to:

• Mildred Carñedas

  Urb. Ingenieros D-2-12

  Larapa, San Jeronimo

  Cuzco, Peru.

CONSTRUCTING FUNCTIONAL SCHOOLS

Aim: Complete construction projects to ensure that the Pumamarca School is functional, attractive and safe.

Fund target: To be advised

• Build a covered eating area.
• Build and equip a library and computer centre.
• Build and equip an art and craft room.
• Build and equip a music room.
• Build an open stage area for theatre and presentations.
• Build and equip two additional classrooms.
• Provide safe drinking water to the school.
• Develop a vegetable garden to supply the lunchtime meals for the kids.
• Build a chicken coop to supply eggs for meals for the kids.
• Build beehives to supply honey to the kids.
• Construct two new classrooms.
• Build hot-water showers so the kids are cleaning themselves at least once a week.
• Build a complete sports area including a football field, basketball and volley ball courts with equipment.

In-kind materials needed:

INCREASING EDUCATION LEVELS

Aim: The Education Department of Peru does not have sufficient funds to provide necessary education resources and learning materials, therefore we will.

Fund target: To be advised

• Equip each of the five existing classrooms with materials and learning resources they are lacking.
• Provide up to three teachers salaries and over the next five years and then organise for the Department of Education to provide teachers salaries and curriculum materials.
• Help those parents who cannot afford to register their children for the school year and provide learning materials.

In-kind materials needed:

IMPROVING HEALTH AND HYGIENE LEVELS

Aim: The levels of good health and hygiene within the communities in which we work are extremely low. We will increase these levels.

Fund target: To be advised.

• Continue the teaching of general hygiene to the kids.
  Continue teeth and face washing to also include daily cream for their faces.
• Organise more regular specialist visits throughout the year ie. optometrists, dentists, nutritionists and pediatricians.
• Provide a motorised water pump with filtered piping to transport water from the mountain reservoir to the community.
• Construct water reservoirs to hold an ample water supply to last through the dry season.
• Provide a banana a day (or other fresh fruit) to each of the children attending the Pumamarca.
• Provide the food needed for the mothers to prepare a nutritious lunch every day for all children attending school.
• Provide gas for the kitchen at the school.
• Maintain a health clinic within Pumamarca.

In-kind materials needed:

SMALL LOANS FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Aim: The key to a better future is long-term sustainability, therefore we will develop a number of small business ideas within the communties and provide small loans to be paid back interest free within three years.

Fund target: To be advised.

• Finish the construction and equip the community workshop.
• Build and equip a technical education room and provide classes and materials for the teaching of agricultural, mechanical and technical fields.
• Continue to develop the Talleres Group project and provide education in marketing and finance.
• Initiate more projects under the Small Loans for Community Development program:
  • Fresh cut flowers.
  • Fruits and cakes.
  • Agricultural and dairy products.
  • Cattle breeding program.
  • Dairy and meat products.

In-kind materials needed:

HOUSE CHALLENGE PROGRAM

Aim: To ensure each family within the communities we work have a safe home and can provide for their family.

Fund target: To be advised.

• Continue to run the House Challenge program, which includes:
  • Renovating houses.
  • Supplying cooking utensils
  • Providing beds, sheets, blankets, tables, chairs.
  • Providing food packages where needed.
  • Assist with social and welfare issues.

In-kind materials needed:

PROJECT FOR LIFE

Aim: To create better futures for children, teenagers and young adults through a long-term life plan.

Fund target: To be advised.

• Continue to provide afternoon classes in English to teenagers and young adults.
• Continue to provide information sessions on hygiene, nutrition, pregnancy and family planning.
• Continue to organise counseling sessions for victims of alcoholism and domestic violence.

In-kind materials needed:

EMERGENCY SITUATIONS

Aim: Often emergency situations occur within the families of the Pumamarca and Huandar communities which requires Peru's Challenge to assist immediately. Peru's Challenge needs support to build up funds for such circumstances.

Fund target: To be advised.

• A child or parent needing urgent medical attention.
• Extreme weather conditions: below freezing temperatures, floods and mudslides, resulting in children and animals dying, valuable crops being destroyed and homes being lost.
• A death of a parent with a family of children being left behind.
• A cow being stolen which provided milk and a daily income for a family.

EXAMPLES OF CHALLENGES WE NEED TO OVERCOME

The living conditions that many of our kids from Larapa live in are appalling. These photos of the house of Paul*, one of our new students.

 *Name has been changed.

It was the first time we visited this family. As you can see from the photo, the four children and their parents live inside this mud brick room (4 metres x 5 metres) filled with filth (dirty clothes, rotting food, flea invested animals, dirt, rubbish and junk).

When Paul first came to our school, he was very shy and now we know why. When driving him to his house, the closer he got to home, the more reserved he became.

When we got to the outside gate, he disappeared within his house and would not come out again. We waited at the gate and asked a little girl who was sitting outside the house to ask her mum to come outside and talk to us.

The little girl came out again and said that mum was not there. Iris then opened the gate, walked up to the house and knocked on the tin door. The mother then came out and Iris immediately realised she was drunk.

There was not much that we could do with the mother in the condition she was in, but Iris asked the mother to clean up the house, make sure all of her kids (not just the one) came to school, and that she came in the afternoons to learn weaving so she could earn some money for her family.

We will continue to visit Paul's house and ensure that the mother improves its state for her children's sake.

We will also ensure that she comes to afternoon weaving classes. Where she can talk with other mothers about their situations, constantly talk with Peru's Challenge to provide and develop better living conditions and become proud of herself and her family again.

We have over 300 families that we need to continually visit, which is a huge job for our volunteers. But little by little (that is our favourite saying) we are seeing improvements to the houses and families we visit.

I am absolutely certain that if our first group of volunteers were to visit again, they would see a remarkable difference with the families, the school and most importantly, the children. Their smiles just keep getting bigger.

*************

Iris received a panicked call from the oldest daughter of a 45 year-old mother of 11 children. The mother had passed out and been taken to hospital by her husband. Three days before, she had been pregnant with her 12th child and miscarried.

When Iris reached the hospital, the mother was in a coma. She had a terrible infection. The doctor told us that if someone did not pay S/.100 (US$30) for medicine immediately, she was going to die. In Peru, you will only receive medicine if you can pay for it up front.

Immediately, Iris rang us and we spoke to the volunteers. Tanya from Ireland had done an amazing job fundraising before she left home and she offered to pay for the necessary medicine. The mother is now safe and well but three days after being in hospital was out working in the fields again.

 After, Iris spoke with the husband in depth about not getting his wife pregnant again. She made it very clear to him that if she got pregnant again, she would not live and he will have to look after the eleven children.

This is a constant struggle we have with the fathers of most of the families in Larapa - contraception.

The outside of Paul's 'house'

The inside of Paul's 'house'