Ayacucho update June 2009

I've been back from Ayacucho 6 months now, and I thought you'd like to know that there has been some more progress with projects that we supported:

Firstly, the SOS Children's Villages charity that supports poor communities has recently been in touch to tell me that the money we left for the 'La Florida' community project has now been spent and the roof project completed. They have finished building the roof for the kitchen and dining room which means that the children now have somewhere to eat when it's too wet or too sunny.

First they had to make adobe bricks - this took longer than planned as the rainy season was particularly rainy this year! And then they completed the building of the rest of the walls, and finally added the beams and the roof.

SOS have sent their thanks for our support and say that the community is extremely grateful for our help.

And secondly, I've heard in the last month that the kitchen at the primary school did eventually get finished!! I've asked for some photos, but nothing so far.

And Gil at the children's home is in touch regularly and as far as I can tell they are all doing well, and are still busy raising money for the new house project. Gil tells me they won't be able to start this year as they now don't have time before the next rainy season, but they hope to make a start next year. For more news on Los Gorriones, see: http://www.casahogarlosgorriones.org/english/

So, good to see how much our contibutions have helped. A big thank you to all who've been supporting these projects!

Yanamilla Primary School - another update!

Well, I said I'd probably never write another update, but Marisol from CCS has persuaded me otherwise!! There have been some positive developments at the school, so how could I refuse? Here's a slightly edited version of the e-mail I received from Marisol this weekend ... plus some photos! Let's hope the kitchen will get finished next.

Hola Hazel
After you left Ayacucho I was very disappointed and frustrated with everything but I had a dream that someone told me not to give up because to get our goals it is not easy ... it is a hard work but we can make the difference.

So I went to the school to see how everything was there, it was closed for a while and then one morning when I was going with Alejo to the prison I saw profesora Carmen at the door and she stopped me and she apologized about everything and about the way they treated you and she told me also that there was going to be a new principal. So I told her that I was going to come back to meet the new one and talk about many things. To our surprise the principal was Augusto the one who worked there a year ago. I set up a meeting with him and we talked for a long time and I explained how we should work from now on.

Then with a group of CCS volunteers we set up a meeting with the Yanamilla community board and we talked about their problems. There were lots of people at the meeting at the communal house. Then with the volunteers we visited the mayor's office and other municipality people who have helped us. They also visited Yanamilla area and the school.

One morning some of the parents came and also with all the kids and teachers we cleaned the school. There is no more dirt next to the latrines and all the garbage is gone. The municipality helped us with their tractors to take all the dirt out and now it is clean. The parents helped and the kids too and I told the new principal to make sure the kids pick up the garbage from now on.

Then we planted some trees and flowers, supplied by the municipality, and we cleaned the gardens. Now we are trying to get the municipality to go at least twice a week to collect the garbage so we are working on that and also to see how we can control the dog population.

The new principal is supporting us and I have hope that this year is going to be different.

Take care,

Marisol

Picking up the rubbish in the playground

Cleaning up the gardens

Clearing out the rubble

Municipality diggers come to help

Digging out the rubble near the latrines

Yanamilla Primary School update 10

This is my last update on the school, as I´ve decided I need to draw a line under this project - it´s been incredibly frustrating this time, and I don´t think the school really deserves to be helped any more, not until they decide they want to do more to help themselves! There are a huge number of very poor people in Ayacucho and some of them are really working hard to improve things for themselves, and these are the people I want to work with in future.

After another very slow week last week, with just a little progress made, Marisol and I went to the school´s closing day, pretty sure that they hadn't finished the work, but with just a tiny bit of hope that they had ... and I´m afraid we were right. A bit more work had been done to the floor, with the first layer of concrete down, but the work was not finished - a second chimney was still to be delivered and fitted, all the painting was still to be done, no table or shelves had been built, and no windows fitted, and so we were pretty disappointed! We'd been told it would all be done in three days easily and that the parents would then clean up the playground area too.

And what was worse, as I do think the kitchen will get finished in time, so money not wasted ... was that the parents just ignored us and so did the teachers. None of the promised cleaning up of the playground had been done either - in fact the parents had done no work whatsoever in the two weeks, nor had the teachers done anything to encourage any cleaning up of the school, so we just left in disgust. I just walked out as I really couldn't cope with it, and Marisol told them what she thought of them and that she was not going to work with them anymore.

I hope the money we spent on materials for the new kitchen will eventually prove to be money well spent, but I must admit this has been a most disheartening and frustrating project, and if I ever do this kind of thing again I will find people who really want to get involved and who relish the opportunity to use a donation to make some really positive changes. I also think that it would be better to work with an organisation here, as doing this on my own most days was way too much of a challenge!

So sorry that this is a bit of a sad ending, but time to move on to other things, and let's hope they are more positive


Work in progress, December 2008


The sink outside - not quite the right way to use it, but at least water now connected!

Christmas in Ayacucho

This was a very low-key Christmas! On Christmas Eve I spent some time at Los Gorriones, playing with the kids and handing out some of the goodies that our contributions had helped to buy for poor families in the neighbourhood - chickens (live ones!) and other food - rice, milk, paneton ...

Late afternoon I went to the main square to join some other ´gringos´ for some carol singing in English - this bemused the locals, but we drew a nice little crowd! We were in competition with a live nativity scene parading round the square though, so I´m amazed anyone stopped to listen to us really!

Then back to the hostal for yet more hot chocolate and paneton with the carol singers, and things quietened down after that as there was nothing else to do. I walked round the centre a bit to see the Christmas lights and things were buzzing with all shops still open and packed until about 9 o´clock. Later, a lot of people were at home with their families for more hot chocolate and paneton and getting ready for the mad firework frenzy at midnight. I managed to stay awake until just about midnight, watching the fireworks from my window.

On Christmas Day I went back to Los Gorriones - in the morning the children and senoritas exchanged Secret Santa presents, though none of them were a secret so I didn´t quite get it, but it was nice! And I was very touched to receive a Peruvian rucksack from Gil as a thank-you present!

The children were very well behaved and played happily with their presents - they´ve actually received a lot of presents over the last few weeks and Gil has only allowed them to keep a few each - the rest got collected to give to other children who have none.

Our contributions helped fund the Christmas lunch - meat, which only happens on special occasions - three pigs, plus some turkeys that had been donated. Then lots of potatoes, other vegetables, and the ubiquitous corn. It was a tasty Christmas meal, and the first one that I´ve eaten with my fingers! I had suggested some cake or dessert too, but nothing materialised, so I reckon they probably felt that was too much and will spend the rest of the money on other meals over the next few weeks. The children certainly tucked in and enjoyed the meal!

Christmas meat the day before ...

The Christmas meal

I then left the children to play with their presents, and enjoyed a quiet all the way back down the hill to the hostal. I normally take the bus, but it was such a lovely sunny day, and it was downhill - my lungs can cope with that!!

Chocolatada for 500 children!

Yesterday at Los Gorriones was the day of the chocolatada - when the home invites children from the neighbourhood to join them for fun, chocolate, paneton, and presents. It is something of a tradition and Gil doesn´t even have to advertise it - they just seem to know! Gil collects donations and presents for this during the year ... and some of our contributions helped towards this too.

When I arrived at 2 o´clock, there were already about 50 children outside the gates, and I was pretty much mobbed trying to get in! By 4 o´clock when the gates was opened there were hundreds of children eagerly waiting to get inside. All the tables and chairs were cleared from the patio and the Los Gorriones children sat around the edge, and then the rest of the children were let in slowly. There was a whole routine - get hand stamped, then get shown where to sit ... otherwise there would have been Peruvian chaos!!

Then the fun started, with a clown warming up the crowd with dancing and games. And hundreds of cups of chocolate were poured and paneton distributed. At the end, the childrern queued to receive a present - probably the only one they´ll get this Christmas! There must have been 500 happy children - quite a sight!

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and all the best for a great 2009! It would be lovely to hear from you! Hazel x

Los Gorriones

At Los Gorriones on Gil´s birthday ...

Los Gorriones (‘the sparrows’) is a home for children who have special needs or have nowhere else to go – for more information see website link on right-hand column. I visited the home a couple of times when I was last here, and met Gil and Chantal, who set up the home – they moved here from France about 6 years ago, specifically to come and help children in the poorest part of Peru. Very sadly, Chantal died of lung cancer last year and now Gil is running the place on his own, and so it’s a very sad and tough time for him.

The children are very special, and it also takes a special amount of patience and determination to work here! I’ve been helping out two or three afternoons a week and I’m starting to get to know the children and the routines now.

Gil employs permanent local staff and there are also a number of volunteers who come and go, but with 27 children to care for, he has his hands full! Gil relies on donations to fund the home, and receives some regular support from an NGO in Belgium, but there’s no funding from the social services here in Ayacucho, though there is now talk of paying for three employees, so fingers crossed.

Gil rents out a small house, but it’s far too small – many of the children have to share beds, and apart from the four bedrooms, there’s only one communal room, and it’s very small. There’s a little kitchen with a wood fire across from the house, and there’s a covered patio outside which is great when it’s warm and dry, but wet and cold days must be a bit miserable inside. There’s no sign of any hot water source (other than the fire); no washing machines or fridges, and there’s only one proper toilet, though several other holes in the ground – all very basic, but clean! Gil is hoping to build a new house in the next year or so if he can collect enough money. He’s been given some land, so that’s a start.

There’s a lot more information about the home and the children’s backgrounds on the Los Gorriones website (see link on right-hand column).

The children are divided into three groups, each with a set of ‘senoritas’ who come and look after them in groups on a shift basis, and the volunteers are assigned to a group on each shift.

There’s ‘Los Lupes’ (‘Lupe’ is the name of one of the first handicapped children who was looked after here) – these are the severely handicapped children. There are six children in this group and they need the most specialist care and attention – they can all hear, but only one, Maria Jesus, can see ... and only one, Eberson, can talk and walk a little, though he can’t see. I’ve only worked one full shift with this group, and I must admit I found it very tough – partly because you don’t get a lot of information from the ‘senoritas’ as to what to do and asking lots of questions in Spanish is quite tiring – especially when you don’t have the vocabulary for nappy changing, etc. Also, you have to carry and lift the children and I wasn’t really strong enough to do it well. But I enjoyed talking to Maria Jesus, and trying to get her to respond with an ‘hola’ and when she did, it was very satisfying! And Eberson is delightful, he talks continually, and loves strumming his guitar and getting cuddles!

Eberson got very excited when the guitarist came to visit ...

Annette, reading to Diego who is blind

‘Los Pequenos’ (the little ones) are aged 3-8. I’ve spent most of my time with this group. Really this group is for up to 5-year-olds – but Fermin, who’s 8, has stayed in this group. He looks more like he’s 5 and has a mental age of 3. Fermin doesn’t speak, and his favourite activity is eating – he tries to eat anything he can get his hands on so he needs constant supervision. He also likes to walk around a lot and loves rucksacks - he gets very excited when he sees mine, but when we tried to put it on him, he keeled over! Fermin’s story is heart-breaking – apparently he was shut away in a room for about 6 years with no clothes and hardly any food as his mother didn’t know what to do with him. It’s hard to know how many disabilities he was born with, and how many were caused by such an horrendous start to life. Little Cristofer is the baby of the group – he was born smashing his right side onto a nightclub floor and cannot use this side properly, and never uses his right hand. He can walk though, and he’s starting to speak now. Then there’s the only girl of the group, little Sheyla, who has mild cerebral palsy; she can walk a little, but has trouble speaking. She loves attention, and we’ve spent quite a bit of time together colouring – she loves colouring flowers, and now I’ve managed to move her on to fish, but not much else. And that then leaves the ‘terrible trio’ – Sergio, Freddy (who calls himself Fleddy as he can’t pronounce his ‘r’s), and little Luis – they are a handful, but I love playing with them. They are a lot of fun, until they start fighting! I’ve taken ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ to read to them – well I have to make it up in Spanish, and they know they story now and tell it back to me – funny hearing my Spanish being repeated by real Spanish speakers! And they love the caterpillar puzzle that came with the book and ask for it whenever they see me. They also love playing with Bear, and like his cuddles and the way his nose twitches.


Luis with Bear

Cristofer in his cot

Luis and Fermin

The ´terible trio´having an unusually quiet moment just before bed

But it didn´t last long!

Sergio and Freddy tackle the puzzle ...


Sergio took this photo!

The last group is ‘Los Grandes’ (the big ones), and the biggest group, of 15, but as they are older they need less supervision. Though you can really tell that they lack parental love and attention, as they are really quite demanding of individual attention. They range from age 6-20, but all but one are still at school. Sabrina is 20 and has chosen to stay on at the home and helps too– she’s a little deaf and has mild learning difficulties and probably couldn’t live independently. All the other children are still at school, so a lot of the work in the afternoon consists of supervising homework, and then playing with them once they’ve finished – they come and go, and sometimes just do their own thing. I’ve taken colouring activities – spot the difference, dot-to-dot, etc. and they like these; we’ve also had a go at making Christmas decorations, but the little ones wanted to join in too and I got a bit mobbed. The ‘senoritas’ don’t help out much – they tend to leave us to sink or swim; not very collaborative! Though are a couple of lovely exceptions, and I try to work with Nancy or Rosa when I can.

Abel and his work of art

More colouring and drawing ...

When the guitarist came to play ...

The home provides a safe and homely place for these children and I am so impressed with the work that Gil and Chantal have done here. But Gil desperately needs funding to keep it going and to have any chance of achieving his dream of building their own home. Unlike the school, I have faith that any money I leave here will be used wisely and so I’d like to contribute some of our money towards running costs and the construction project before I leave. I’ve also given Gil some money to fund a special Christmas meal for everyone at the home on the 25th, and to buy some food for about 25 very poor families in the neighbourhood who Gil tries to support. More on this once the money has been spent!

Promocion 2008

When 5-year-olds finish pre-school and are ready to start their 1st year of primary school, they have a party called ´la promocion´. It´s a big thing here to finish pre-school, and there was a party for the 5-year-olds at the school this Thursday. It took most of the morning to prepare and then carried on until early afternoon.

There was a presentation of framed school photos and I took photos of each child receiving their photo and will print out for them. I even got to present one, but I didn´t feel dressed for the part and the photo didn´t come out too well!

And there was food - lots of jelly and mazzamorra morada (more jelly, made with black corn), crisps, sweets, and a huge cake donated by someone. And some clowns came to entertain too! Lots of the children came dressed up in their best clothes - quite impressive and somewhat bemusing, considering they can´t afford pencils for school ...

I was asked if I could donate a ´pinata´ and I used our contributions for this - it´s a parcel of sweets and presents that gets hung up and is then bashed to pieces to get all the goodies out - great fun was had by all!