Guarantee education to 120 kids in Huaycan, Peru

Kids in Huaycan are getting used to a new, enjoyable tradition: IBO volunteers visiting each year for a working summer camp. A three weeks’ full immersion with kids 5 to 16 (and some young men and women hosting their own inner child, too) filled up with lots of fun and hard working.

This summer’s schedule was hectic: hands-on craft workshops, soccer and volley with both kids and their parents, a field trip to Lima Archaeological Museum, a leisure everyone-in-the-pool-day, a cooking contest, and much more!

The most rewarding activity? Organizing the play “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, starring the younger kids of our community, and involving older kids and youths in staging, lighting, set designing, costume making.

What about the hardest? Surely flattening a portion of the steep terrain where our casita is placed, to create adequate space for children to play. It has been a whole day of hard working for everybody: parents, afterschool tutors, cooks … and even some really small kid who would not abide to be put aside!

IBO volunteers have come back home “tired but contented”, their luggage full of multicolored letters for our supporters, pictures, memories of their young, new friends.

Over all, the awareness of how important has been being there, having lunch together, sharing every moment of happiness or even frustration. The privilege of having dedicated those precious days of their life to a good cause.

Stay tuned, more news and pics are coming from Huaycan!

I have been in Huaycan for a week only, yet I had the chance to sit down with the kids in the afterschool program. Some of them need little help, others struggle with letters and numbers and need a continuous tutoring .. others try to sneak out before completing their assignments, but are promptly sent back in to work!

On Friday afternoon, as soon as homework was done, I had the opportunity to participate in a great activity: each kid was decorating a cardboard frame, which was meant to house her/his photo.

At the “Casita de los niños” in Huaycan, kids get support in their academics, but also find artistic and craft workshop, to develop their innate talents and creativity. I could see kids any age 3 to 16 work hard to create the most colorful pattern or decorative subjects, wait patiently for crayons to be available (there are NEVER enough of red pastels), keep 3 or 4 in one hand to secure the loot, and then proudly show the result of their effort.

It took about an hour, spent in chatting and examining and erasing and copying, the buzz of small talk and hard work harmoniously merging under the roof.

I am always amazed at how rewarding the simplest activity may turn, when you are doing it with kids. They can add an enormous value with their questions, their surprising views, their happiness when an adult tells them “good job!”.

What kids in Huaycan need to learn is more than doing good homework: self-esteem, overcome one’s weaknesses and sometimes accept them, respect for others and themselves … there’s a lot of work to do, and we are happy to do it, together with our supporters. Stay tuned! More exciting news are yet to come!