Education for 600 children in rural Latin America

I hope all is well with you. As we enter the final month of a very successful year here in Latin America we are pleased to launch the 2025 Phoenix Appeal today to coincide with GlobalGiving’s part-matching campaign which is now live. This year’s Appeal aims to raise funds for our local teachers' salaries, secondary school and college scholarships, classroom materials and food programmes in Guatemala, Ecuador and Perú in 2026.

From now (2nd December) until 1200 EST, 1700 UK tomorrow, 3rd December (0400 Eastern Australia on 4th December) all individual donations up to US$2,500 (£1,900) will be enhanced with a proportional share of a half million dollar pot. Last year this proportional share equated to 25% extra on donations so it is an excellent opportunity for the projects.     

Donations to last year’s Appeal contributed to almost a third of the $50,000/£35,000 day-to-day spending on all our projects so far this year helping us provide access to education for over five hundred children in Latin America.

With your generous donation to this year’s Appeal, we aim to increase the number of students to over six hundred in 2026 across all our projects including 500 in Guatemala, 75 in Ecuador and 50 in Peru. You can donate directly to this page and thank you so much in advance. 

Thanks to last year’s Appeal four hundred children from several communities in Guatemala had access to primary, secondary and college education with scholarships and classroom materials this year. Four of our 2024 graduates who excelled in their final exams earned places with a national bank as part of their apprenticeship scheme.

We started supporting fifty students with varying disabilities in a small school on the lake where we helped with eye tests and glasses for one partially sighted student. We aim to increase our support for the school in 2026. 

All the children and families we support from different communities around the lake live in extreme poverty. They are unable to purchase even the simplest classroom materials, never mind the monthly costs of further education. Weeks are spent visiting different communities to identify the families in most need to make sure all our scholarships are awarded to the students who really need them.

As part of the scholarship programme the parents of the students got involved in litter clearing around the lake during the year. Several tonnes of litter were collected from the shore which was then sent to the local government for recycling and landfill.

The scholarship students were also involved in our annual reforestation programme planting hundreds of trees which helps offset Phoenix’s carbon footprint in all our countries.

Work was undertaken on building a new centre for our Plan Costura (sewing business) which aims to provide training and income for dozens of women, especially single mothers.  

Finally, we celebrated Day of the Child for all the students which included plenty of food and games that everyone could enjoy. The mothers got together to prepare and cook all the food. It was a great day in all the schools which up until now had rarely celebrated to this extent and we will now aim to celebrate their day each year.

In Ecuador we continued with three local Phoenix teachers this year thanks to the Appeal whilst also paying for monthly internet, gas and other supplies for the daily food, cleaning products for the toilets, educational classroom materials, cultural activities and other maintenance. Over seventy children from four communities receive an education at the school.

The school vegetable garden we introduced in January produced cabbage, beetroot and carrots which can grow well at high altitude. These will be essential for the children’s daily food programme.

Harvests were also successful with our large-scale Plan Huertos (beans) which we introduced in 2024 which help cover some costs of our sustainable plan management whilst helping local families.

We paid for various cultural events throughout the year including Fanesca, a soup made during Semana Santa (Easter) and made from a variety of ingredients including beans, grains, fish, eggs and many others. Other events included Day of the Child, graduations and colada morada to celebrate Day of the Dead.

Thanks to the 20th Anniversary Volcano Charity Challenge we purchased all the materials to build a large Cuy House where guinea pigs will be reared and sold with the income raised going towards some of the monthly costs of the school. 

In Peru we continued to fund one local teacher and daily fruit as well as celebrating cultural events. At the start of the new school year we handed out the personalised text and work books to the forty students in all grades for the whole year. These include maths and literacy. The school has one teacher for every two grades, one of whom is the head teacher who often has meetings with parents or the authorities, leaving their two classes unattended. Having personal text and work books allows the children to continue their work when they don’t have a teacher. 

Large parts of the government food programme were cancelled in July so we provided the shortfall for the rest of the year. With the vegetables from the garden the children weren’t affected as we know that the food they receive in the school is often their only meal of the day.

The annual Impington International College trip from Cambridge, UK, was a great success in October with so much achieved in the few days they were up at the school including resurfacing and extending the playground, one-on-one teaching in maths, English, art and language, a mural depicting the three geographical regions of the country and theatre when a group of students spent time designing and making costumes for the children to perform a short history of Peru, including the Incas, the Spanish colonisation and finally Independence.

Our 19th Anniversary working in Perú was celebrated in November with the big 20th Anniversary being celebrated next July with the Colca Canyon Charity Challenge and a big party in the school! More information about the challenge and getting involved can be found following the link below.  

Thank you so much for anything you can donate today to this page to take advantage of the part-matching. Your donation will help make a tangible difference for hundreds of families in 2026 and thank you so much in advance.

Have a great December. 

Cheers

Links:

• Peru 20th Anniversary Charity Challenge 2026

I hope all is well with you. It has been a great few months on the projects thanks to your continued support for which we are extremely grateful. 

In Guatemala our secondary school and college students have had a great school year so far and hope to emulate last year’s graduates who have secured employment. Four of our graduates who excelled in their final exams have earned places with a national bank as part of their apprenticeship scheme. 

Our primary school students continue to remain in the classroom thanks to the materials scholarships we provided this year. Being in school is not only about education though also getting involved in cultural events and being recognised for their efforts.

The headmaster of one of the primary schools we support was personally congratulated by the President of Guatemala for his work and dedication with rural communities. Our reforestation plan continued with our scholarship students getting involved in planting hundreds of trees in the surrounding area to offset our carbon footprint from our work in Latin America. 

Work continues on the Plan Costura sewing business centre which will provide training and income for dozens of mothers in the future. Progress has been slowed by some intense days of rain over the past month though the electricity has been installed.

Graduations in Ecuador took place at the end of the school year in July for the students finishing primary school. Thanks to our local Phoenix teachers working in the classrooms the children were able to receive a full education. All eleven students graduated! 

With the holiday now over, classes are back underway and we will continue to pay for three local Phoenix teachers, classroom materials and internet as well as cultural events until Plan Cuy (guinea pigs sustainable plan) starts generating income to help cover some of these costs.

The guinea pigs have been introduced to get our Plan Cuy sustainable plan up and running. Alfalfa is grown in land around the building for their feed. After a shy start they seem to be getting on really well and we should see increased numbers over the coming weeks. The aim is for the plan to produce five hundred guinea pigs in cycles with the income covering costs in the school.

The 20th Anniversary Ecuador charity challenge was completed including a very festive day in the community! Three volcanoes and a hike in the area surrounding Otavalo were undertaken. As part of the 20th Anniversary celebrations we spent a day in the school. All members of the families from all the communities were invited for plenty of dance and food. We got to see the Plan Cuy construction as well which has been built thanks to fundraising from the challenge.

We will be celebrating 20 years working in Peru next year with the Colca Canyon Charity Challenge in June or July 2026 (we have two dates in case people can’t make one though can make the other!). For more information please follow the link below and if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch, either by replying to this newsletter or emailing us on info@thephoenixprojects.org  

Large parts of the government school food programme nationwide in Peru have been cancelled until further notice so we will be providing the shortfall over the coming months. We will continue to provide the gas for the cooking and daily fruit as always. With the vegetables from the garden (especially the bumper potato harvest earlier - see below) the children shouldn’t be affected as we know that the food they receive in the school is often their only meal of the day.

To celebrate environment month the children have been learning about the current human threats to the planet. This involved walking around the community with placards and telling neighbours to pick up and recycle their rubbish. They then took part in a mass litter-clearing around the school which also included putting up signs telling the local drunks to take their glass bottles with them and not leave them broken by the school.

The harvest was undertaken of the potatoes which were planted at the end of the school year last December in the school vegetable garden. It was a bumper crop and will help bolster the daily food programme over the coming weeks and months. New vegetables will now be planted which are faster growing to add more to the meals during this school year. 

Once again, thank you so much for your continued support to help us make all this happen and we’ll update you once again in the next couple of months.

Cheers 

Links:

• Peru 20th Anniversary Charity Challenge 2026