The Road to Education

This might be a long one, but this dusty road to proper education is longer and too important to disregard.  

When Peru's Challenge first started out, Jane and Selvy wandered into the mountains to find a community, Picol, that had a school. This school had one classroom. Inside of this classroom were 12 children, running around and dirty, not being taught by a single teacher--a man who was drunk. 

This school, along with 600 others, had just been abandoned by the Department of Education because the schools were seen as poor and hopeless and unattended, and the Dept. doesn't have the funding or resources to waste. You see, in these mountains, there is an evil cycle. The Department leaves the school, and the parents in the community see no reason to send their kids to a school that isn't supported when the children could be working in the fields. Therefore barely any children show up to the school, and the Department of Education nods their heads and says, "see?"

Peru's Challenge addressed the community and, in a little under three years, had built six classrooms for 170 children and six teachers. Eventually, the organization came to Pumamarca, where there was also one classroom that had a ceiling about to fall in and no windows, door or floor. Jane and Selvy went to the Department, asking for their support and were quickly denied. You can't change the community of Pumamarca. You can't get 100 kids to go to school there. If we can, Jane and Selvy asked, will you support us? Laugh, chuckle, sure. 

At a community meeting, it was decided Peru's Challenge would pay 10 fathers to work on building the school. Also, Peru's Challenge would buy all of the materials from the community. On the first day of building, every person in the community showed up with willing hands and said, do not pay us for our labor, only for materials. They wanted their kids in a school. Within three weeks, there were two classrooms. Jane and Selvy knocked on doors with a banana as a gift, asking if the parents would send their children to school--where they would be looked after and fed. On the first day of school, 140 kids showed up with ready minds and an eager energy. The Department of Education now didn't have a choice. 

Today in Pumamarca, there are now seven classrooms- each brightly painted and decorated with art the students have made. 150 children, kindergarten through Grade 6, attend, each class with its own teacher. Peru's Challenge used to pay for four teachers' salaries, while the department covered the rest but now is only paying for two.  The children, who before were coming to school having had a cup of tea, now get a small breakfast, fresh fruit three times a week and a hot meal for lunch. There are two kitchens that mothers work in to make these meals; they bring food from their homes, use the vegetables from the school's multiple gardens and use eggs from the school's own chicken coop. Self-sustainability is key. 

I go up to these schools and see children in the classrooms perfecting the cursive G and taking turns with the jump ropes. They know English phrases and sit in desks where they get their own pencil and notebook. At PE, they would rather skip and play futbol than our silly relay races. They brush their teeth at the new sinks with filtered water and can excuse themselves to use a proper toilet. The teachers make them mind their manners and stand in line. It's school, just like what I would expect, except I wasn't surrounded by mountains and green when I jumped rope on a playground. And it breaks my heart because these kids love to go to summer school. And it breaks my heart to think of what school used to be like for them and still is like two communities over. That community is farther down the road, but definitely still in our sight, and children retaining a proper education makes it worth traveling down.

*Thank you, Jane, for help with this information.

(Pumamarca School)