Happy New Year to you all! 2018 was a great year and we look forward to 2019 with relish, as do all our elderly members of the communities as we are now starting to see the fruits of our labours from the education projects with the children from when we started now all grown up with jobs and providing extra income for the family. This is what we hoped for when we started back in 2002. We cannot rest on our laurels, there is still so much more to do though by making this sustainable with the youth of today it is hoped that for generations to come the elderly will be cared for by the young.
Thank you so much to everyone who has donated to this year’s Appeal, raising funds to go towards the $100,000 we plan to spend during 2019 on local teachers and materials. One final push by donating to this page and we can reach our targets so please do dig deep if you can or even crowd fund with friends, family and co-workers in your office or school and aim for one teacher's salary for the whole year!
Examples:
$3,725 1 teacher for 25-30 children for one year
$1,860 1 teacher for 25-30 children for six months
$930 1 teacher for 25-30 children for three months
$310 1 teacher for 25-30 children for one month
$180 1 child for one year
$90 1 child for six months
$45 1 child for three months
$15 1 child for one month
Thank you to everyone who has signed up to the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu Challenge from 26th-31st May raising funds for all our projects. There are now no spots left though we will be taking on the Ecuador Challenge, including volcanoes Fuya Fuya and Imbabura the following week. A great group is forming for that one too so please do get in touch with dom@thephoenixprojects.org if you are interested!
Thank you so much to all of you who have helped us continue our work this year with regular donations, charity challenge participation and one-off donations. To coin the old cliché, we couldn´t have done it without you!
Have a great 2019!
Cheers
Whilst the elder generation continue to benefit from the plans we implemented years ago with the medicinal plants and fruit trees we would like to speak this month about their grand-children. It has been an excellent few months in Guatemala with final exams done and dusted and the results showing vast improvements in many areas. The children learn a very varied curriculum including three languages (Kaqchiquel, Spanish and English), math, sciences and dance giving them an all round primary education. During the year our ten local teachers (many of whom were once students in the project) taught over 200 children. Our sustainable plans we have implemented over the years also helped many children continue their studies due to the added income. This is an area we would like to continue building on in the future – it’s in the community’s hands!
Our Appeal this year, in conjunction with Giving Tuesday on 27th November, aims to raise funds towards our local teachers’ salaries and materials for 2019. On average each teacher will educate between 25-30 children per class and will often teach more than one class so the more teachers we can bring on board for 2019, the more children we can give a vital education to whether this is primary, secondary or college.
Our local Phoenix teachers are the backbone of the projects. Their daily dedication to hundreds of indigenous children in Guatemala cannot be commended enough. They are the future of the projects as well as their communities and we must guarantee this future with funding, both through donations in the short term and through sustainable income plans over the medium to long term.
In Guatemala for example, Ana was one of our first students when started our school in Itzapa, Guatemala back in 2002 and has been teaching in the school for the past few years. Her grandparents have benefited from our programs for years, since the start.
Over the next two months we hope to raise a large proportion of the $100,000 we plan to spend during 2019 on local teachers and materials so please do dig deep this Giving Tuesday on 27th November if you can and donate to this page or even crowd fund with friends, family and co-workers in your office or school and aim for one teacher’s salary for the whole year!
Examples:
$3,725 can cover 1 teacher for 25-30 children for one year
$1,860 can cover1 teacher for 25-30 children for six months
$930 can cover 1 teacher for 25-30 children for three months
$310 can cover 1 teacher for 25-30 children for one month
$180 can cover 1 child for one year
$90 can cover 1 child for six months
$45 can cover 1 child for three months
$15 can cover 1 child for one month
On behalf of all the communities where we work, thank you so much in advance for anything you, friends and family can donate for the communities and their future!
Whilst we are supposed to be in the wet season, climate change has been rearing its ugly head once again with a sustained dry spell wreaking havoc with the crops. This will have a serious knock-on effect in 2019 when the households run out of food and prices rise, leaving the families to decide between education or food – the latter being the only choice. This has now gone on for years and highlights the importance of our free primary school education and also our Sustainable Income Plans for the families, including alternative businesses and agricultural techniques, which help towards their further education costs. We will be monitoring the situation over the coming months.
The best way to maintain regular food for the elderly generation is to remove the barriers that hinder this; these being additional costs the families face with education for their children. No-one should have to chose between education or food so by supplying the former in our Phoenix school, the latter should take care of itself, which also includes the elderly.
As mentionned previously, the sustainable plans we introduced with medicinal plants and fruit trees for the elderly are still "bearing fruit" and take away another barrier: the cost of everyday non-essential medicines.
This year’s Phoenix Appeal aims to raise funds towards our local teachers’ salaries and materials for 2019. On average each teacher can educate between 25-30 children per class and will often teach more than one class so the more teachers we can bring on board for 2019, the more children we can give a vital education to, whether this is primary, secondary or college. Please donate to this page to help us reach our goals for 2019. Alternatively you can crowd fund with friends, family and co-workers in your office or school and aim for one teacher’s salary for the whole year!
GlobalGiving will be offering a donation bonus day on 12th and 13th September, a fabulous start for this year’s Appeal!
Also, a date for your diary for 2019: The Seven Continent Charity Challenge #5 will be the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu in Perú from 27-31st May – please contact us if you are interested on dom@thephoenixprojects.org . There are limited spaces so please let us know as soon as you can!
Have a fantastic September and we’ll be in touch later in the year with another update! Cheers
Links:
Our work in Guatemala wasn't affected directly by the tragic recent volcanic eruption by Fuego; indirectly crops will be affected by the ash that fell in the region. For now, the incredible goodwill of the neighbouring local communities for those in San Miguel los Lotes, El Rodeo and others, aswell as the local emergency services, highlight that basic humanitarianism is alive and well in Guatemala.
The sustainable plans that we have been implementing these past years continue to provide benefits for the elderly population, especially with Plan Moo which provides daily milk and future calves. A few years ago we handed out medicinal plants to the elderly population - these are now fully grown and they use them personally for ailments or sell them in the market to raise funds for other medicine or food. It has been a huge success.
Our annual Seven Continent Charity Challenge #4 which raises funds for all our projects across Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador and Perú was a huge success in May, biking, kayaking, hiking and “volcanoing” our way to Lake Atitlán in Guatemala, covering over 75kms. There is still time to support the cause by donating to this page and thank you!
A date for your diary for 2019: The Seven Continent Charity Challenge #5 will be the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu in Perú from 27-31st May – please contact us if you are interested on dom@thephoenixprojects.org . There are limited spaces so please let us know as soon as you can!
Have a fantastic June and we’ll be in touch in August with another update! Cheers
With 2018 up and running we continue to strive to make the lives of the elderly population more comfortable and for them, this means daily food and medicines. By removing the worry of financial costs for education from the families by running our own school and providing free education any extra money saved can go towards the necessary costs of the elderly. Coupled with this, the elderly benefit with the sustainable income plans we are putting in with the families as they all benefit from these - not just from the physical produce they provide, though also through the extra income. This year we hope to provide medicinal plants once again to all our elderly as well as fruit trees which will provide vitamin C for years to come!
Plans for the 4th Annual Seven Continent Charity Challenge are underway where we ask anyone, anywhere in the world to do a fundraising event for Phoenix during 2018. It doesn’t have to be a huge event; from a dinner or BBQ party at home to walking, running or undertaking something you have always wanted to do though havn’t got round to it! The fundraising can be done through this page with funds going to Phoenix, the schools and more importantly the children.
For those looking for an excuse to head to Lake Atitlán in Guatemala and raise funds for the projects, we are organising a 4-day biking, volcano hiking and kayaking challenge between 21st to 26th May. Please let us know if you are interested in joining us, or even organizing your own challenge and we’ll add you to the list and give you tips to make it as successful as possible.
As ever, thank you all for your brilliant support.
Cheers
Links:
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