Long-term Coronavirus response in Latin America

As 2021 draws to a close we would like to thank first and foremost all our local teachers for continuing to teach the students to the best of their ability with the resources available, whether this was in limited classroom-based environments or heading out to their homes when they could to give out and collect homework and set topics in the students’ textbooks. Only Ecuador and Honduras resumed staggered group teaching during 2021 with Guatemala and Perú set to resume actual classes in February and March respectively in 2022. Thank you also to everyone who has supported the projects this year in what has once again been a very difficult time all round.

We managed to keep the classrooms which were open fully stocked with biosecure products each day and once all the schools re-open in 2022 we will continue to do so. We managed to provide food parcels for families this year and will look to increase family sustainable plans in 2022 to help them generate much needed money for household requirements as economies slowly grind out of the pandemic.

By keeping the classrooms secure we plan to do the following in 2022:

Our first priority is obviously to keep the projects going and the students educated. Once this has been achieved we can start implementing more sustainable income plans with the families which will provide them, and the schools, with continued income into the future.

In Ecuador we will continue with our seven local teachers as each class now has a teacher which was our aim from when we started back in 2005! Over the coming months we hope to invest in many new sustainable plans in the four communities where we work to help cover the costs of the school, in particular in Plan Moo and Plan Cuy which have already helped to cover secondary, college and University costs for the past several years.

We are increasing the number of secondary, college and University scholarship students in Guatemala to one hundred from seven different communities. Many are mature students with serious underlying health conditions who couldn’t continue studying without the scholarships. We will be building a bigger area for our Plan Costura sewing business for single mothers as demand is outstripping available space! More mothers are entering the programme as the income helps them with any extra costs for their children in primary school, like textbooks. As with Ecuador, we are now helping to cover education from primary school to University through scholarships and sustainable plans, which was our original aim.

Our priority in Honduras will continue to be secondary and college education in rural areas with more emphasis placed on the latter. More support has been made available for primary schools in the area over the last few years so we can dedicate all our funds to further education and continuing to implement sustainable plans, in particular Plan Huerto and Plan Tilapia. With migration an often dangerous and serious issue in the communities due to lack of opportunities it is paramount we create these opportunities through further education. Due to the broad-based and hands-on curriculum in our college the graduates are sought-after with local NGOs and businesses which is a great start.

Our work in Perú has been hit the hardest by restrictions put in place due to the pandemic with the school not due to be re-opened until March next year. The teachers have travelled to the community when allowed and we have supplied textbooks for the children to work with from home. Once the school re-opens we plan to help local University students with their studies in exchange for part-time help in the school to bring the children back to the appropriate level per grade. Funds permitting we will then add more full-time local teachers to have one teacher per grade (currently one for two grades). We also plan to start investing in sustainable plans to help with further education.

Thank you all once again for your continued support and all the best for 2022

cheers