Projects

Developing a Library

With the aid of the Milford Presbyterian Church and Scholastics Literacy Partnership we have established a library for Huilloc School and mini libraries for Yanamayo, Chupani, Chaullacocha and Quelcanca. We have shipped over 200 books geared for pre-school through adolescence. For the remote villages, we hired portors to deliver the books. The books are in Spanish and are culturally sensitive. The children do not have access to books nor does the school have text books since these are luxury items. Along with some dedicated volunteers we wanted to expose the children to the world of reading and learning through books.

Three New Classrooms

We recently supplied materials so the villagers could construct three additional classrooms to the existing school. Many more children will be attending the school. We are also providing electricity to the school and the pre-school building. The villagers take great pride in working with us on these projects. An engineer was hired to overlook the contruction while the local villages pitched in to build the three-classroom building.

Annual 6th Grade Field Trip

The graduating six grade students are sponsored on a cultural trip outside of their village. They visit museums, historical sites and other cultural enrichments as a supervised group. We would like to continue this field trip to all future graduating six grade students. The students return to their village with a zest to continue their studies past the sixth grade. The first trip was December of 2004 and we continue every year. Now, we have added Chupani and Chaullacocha to the Annual Promotion trip.

Weaving

The children with their teachers are making dolls, bags, scarves, and other small items. They weave with alpaca/lama wool and use local plants for dye. Some of the artwork have Indian stories woven into the materials. We are currently selling these items locally. The proceeds received from these artworks are given back to the families and the village for ongoing projects. This gives the children a sense of pride. The children work on these items outside of school time and during their summer break.

Lunch Program

Huilloc has a lunch program of oatmeal and canned milk. The teachers (and parents) prepare the meal during the school day and each child receives a tin cup full of oatmeal. We are incorporating this program to the surrounding villages of Chupani, Chaullacocha, Yanamayo and Quelcanca. When we arrived in Chuallacocha with sacks of oatmeal and sugar, they did not have utensils to cook the food nor to serve the children. Now we have a program for these children to receive one hot meal while at school.