Yanamilla Primary School update 8

It´s nice, finally, to be able to write another update from Ayacucho. I´ve visited the school a few times now, and I´ll be helping with the five-year-old class every morning for the next few weeks until the end of term, when summer holidays start. As well as giving the teacher a welcome hand with about 25 wild kiddies, it´s also a good way to just spend time at the school, to get a feel for what it´s like there day in day out ...

It´s been so great to see the completed and painted wall with my own eyes! Even though I´d seen lots of photos of progress after I left - the mural, the tiles on the top, the main gate, etc. - it was still so good to see the kids playing in the playground, with the playground equipment in place, little gardens outside the classrooms. It´s a more wholesome place and it actually looks a bit more like a school now, with an entrance and an enclosed, safe space for the kids to play.

There are a few more improvements too - there´s electricity in some of the classrooms, and more of the classrooms have chairs and tables. And I think there are more proper windows too; only a few seemed to be taped up with plastic or blocked in with adobe bricks. And both the cupboards that we donated two years ago are still there and very much in use!

The US marines came earlier this year (not entirely sure why) and they built two more classrooms. They also added two new latrines. The older latrines are in a sorry state, and although I haven´t yet ventured too close, it looks like they are all blocked up and could do with a clean up. But it´s better than before as at least all the latrines have doors now and there´s somewhere for the kids to pee, other than right in the middle of the playground, though that habit hasn´t gone away entirely!

But there´s so much more that could be done. There´s still just one water source, a tap now on a wooden platform so more practical than when in the mud. But it´s a long way from the kitchen on the other side of the school. There´s still no proper sink, as the materials we bought for the sink got stolen before it was built. If we do any more work while I´m here, we´ll have to find a way of getting the materials used and fixed to something before anyone gets tempted to take them home!

The kitchen seems to be an obvious place to improve, and we have a meeting planned for this Saturday (second time date has been changed!) to discuss how we can improve the school with the parents - I only want to help where they think help is needed, and with their involvement. But at the moment the kitchen, which is used to provide the state-funded hot drink for all the children at break time and lunch or all the five-year-olds, is just a dark, smoky room, with a fire on a muddy floor.


Inside the kitchen

The kitchen is the room at the end of the classroom block - pots outside as too dark to see inside

Outside the kitchen - sheep on left and dog in rubbish behind!

The whole school could also do with a big clean up - most classrooms now have rubbish bins which is an improvement on two years ago, but all the rubbish goes into the corner of the playground where there was once a pit, but it´s brimming over, and unfortunatley it´s right next to the kitchen - great! Kids still drop rubbish in the playground and I seem to be the only one who bothers to tell them not to! And there are loads of dogs wandering around the playground because the school gate is left open during school hours. And of course the dogs love all the rubbish that the kids drop - who can blame them?!I´ve been chasing the dogs away with exaggerated expressions of horror, hoping that somebody might realise that it´s not nice to have them in the school. I think the kids just think I´m a bit mad, especially as my other obsession is with the rubbish bins.

Lunch being served from the floor outsdie, dogs looking on ...

There is a very general problem with sanitation in this area and it´s not just in the school - there´s rubbish everywhere, animals roaming about eating the rubbish. Not enough of the children wash their hands properly before they eat. CCS has been working with another NGO specialising in public health and they´ve been giving the children medical examinations. The results are just in and 78% of the children in the school have parasites. They can get free medication from the local clinic, and at the meeting on Saturday Marisol will tell the parents all about it and encourage them to take their children to the clinic and talk about how to prevent it happening again. But with all the rubbish lying around and dogs everywhere, the problem isn´t going to go away unless there´s a huge change of lifestyle. Marisol wants to work with the local government to get them to come and take the rubbish away and although the mayor has agreed to help, we are yet to see any action ... it´s a bit of an uphill struggle!!

The rubbish in the street about 5 mins´walk from the school - don´t fancy eating lamb or beef here!