Reports – Posts

LOS QUINCE AÑOS – THE 15th BIRTHDAY is probably one of the most important moments in every family in Perú and throughout Latin America. As a kind of initiation ritual into adulthood, it is always celebrated with great fanfare and the children and young people look forward to this day long in advance.

On October 3, 2024, Yachay School was also able to celebrate this moment. And of course, this was also done with more effort than in previous years. The teachers and children of Yachay School organized three whole anniversary days with various activities and events with great joy and – rightly – great pride in what they had achieved so far.

We are delighted and proud to publish impressions of this fantastic anniversary week here.

Monday, September 30- 2024 – Presentación de Murales Cooperativas

Together, each class created a mural – a large wall poster. The posters are impressive and arouse anticipation for the coming days. The pupils clearly enjoyed the creative work together.

Impressions of the children designing and creating together

Tuesday, October 1 – 2024 – Concurso de sombreros de reciclaje

On the 2nd day there was a big competition with self-made hats from recycled material. Enjoy the pictures:

Wednesday, October 2 -2024 – Pasacalle en la comunidad

One of the highlights was the big parade through the streets of Ocopilla. Here, the students were able to show off their talents to the residents of the neighborhood and the school’s bond with the local population was strengthened once again.

Thursday, October 3 – The big closing party

On the last day of the festivities – the official anniversary of the school – the highlight was a dance performance by all classes followed by a big party, for which the parents organized a small fireworks display. Yachay School well deserved this wonderful 15th BIRTHDAY.

We were particularly pleased that many former pupils and their families attended the celebrations and congratulated the school with beautiful memories and great gratitude.

The celebrations were rounded off with fireworks and cake in the evening.

Happy Birthday, Yachay

Due to new requirements from the state, but also because of the teachers’ own convictions, it was time to supplement and expand the educational material at Yachay School.

Equipment for teaching in the classroom, in the Taller Productivo (home economics) and in physical education

Purchase of materials and arrival at the Yachay school

On the first weekend in August, our director Giovanna and our financial officer Kati went to Lima for a major shopping trip.

One day after the “bulk purchase” in Lima, the materials arrive at the Yachay school.

The pupils are happy to help with unpacking, sorting and distributing the materials.

Use of the new material in lessons

Educación física – Sports

Our sports teacher José is excellent at motivating the children and boosting their self-esteem through the fun of physical activity. The new material will benefit him greatly in his lessons.

Home economics lessons in the school kitchen

The joy about the new material for home economics lessons is written all over the faces of the children and our fantastic teacher Emilia.

Classroom lessons

The wide range of new teaching materials helps the pupils in communication, mathematics and science Thanks to the globe, they will soon realize that we cannot travel from home to Huancayo by bus. They ask us every year how long we have to travel by bus from Switzerland to Peru ;-).

Costs

The costs for the new material amount to the equivalent of almost 2500 francs and significantly exceed our normal budget. The unbudgeted amount of 1800 francs is generously covered by the Friends of the Embolo Foundation – Children’s Aid Peru/Cameroon. 

There is a busy bee at our school since June. The Peruvian Ministry of Education stipulates that integrative education projects are to be carried out at all schools. Each school can choose and design the project itself. The student council, elected by the student body, decided on an environmental project in collaboration with the two parent-teacher groups responsible for education and well-being at the school.

The project was planned, designed and implemented together. The beehive in the schoolyard is a visible symbol of this. Pupils, parents and teachers are now diligently collecting plastic bottles. Families and neighbors are thus made aware of the need to treat their environment with care.

The student council has created a short promotional video:

This is how the collaborative process works: collecting – sorting – harvesting

On the International Day of Children’s Rights you will find here a contribution about the current situation of two Yachay students.

The Right to Education

Since the beginning of the Peruvian lockdown, Yenco and his family have been in his original, remote home village in the Andean province of Huancavelica. There he defends his right to education with great commitment. Every day he climbs a hill to follow the classes sent via WhatsApp and then completes the tasks with enthusiasm. For the live online lessons, he contacted the local authorities, where he was allowed to use the Wifi. Impressive!

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The same applies to Franco, who also shows great effort to be able to study. He, too, sets up his workspace on a hill every day.

The Right to Basic Needs

In this harsh pandemic period, Yachay tries its best to ensure the children’s rights to food and health by distributing free food and hygiene products to the families of the Yachay children on the Day of Children’s Rights.

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A big thank you to all our friends and supporters for making this possible with their donations and to the Yachay staff for their relentless work and commitment.

For several years now, it has been the custom at Neuheim School for the children of the 3rd and 4th grades to bake “Grittibänzen” (sweet doughy boys) on Children’s Rights Day and sell them to benefit our project.

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Due to the Corona pandemic, Children’s Rights Day at the elementary school was different than usual. This year, not only the 3rd and 4th grade students participated, but also the 5th and 6th grade students. The teachers organized a sponsored run in favor of our project.

During a gymnastics lesson, the children completed an obstacle course where they could prove their fitness. All the children sought personal sponsors who gave them a certain amount for each completed lap.

On the official day of children’s rights, the Neuheim youngsters learned about the Yachay school and the everyday life of the students of the Peruvian elementary school by means of a PowerPoint presentation.

The Swiss youths were very impressed by the extremely narrow and poor living conditions of the children in Peru. With the help of the photos they were able to get an exact picture of the difficult situation, the distance learning and the food shortage of the families in Huancayo.

They were very motivated to activate the search for more sponsors and of course, they gave their best in sports, so they collected a lot of money.

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We are very proud of their sporting achievements. With their irrepressible energy, the children collected the incredible sum of 7’300 francs, which is equivalent to one years’s salary of a teacher. In other words, this sum means that 12 children can attend Yachay elementary school for one year.

We would like to thank the teachers, children and sponsors for their great commitment.

For several years, the Day of Children’s Rights has also been the subject of Karin Baur’s kindergarten class.

The above image tells the following story: The Condor, the Puma and the Snake are fighting over a piece of chicken meat. Thanks to the help of Yaku, who attends the Yachay Elementary School, the three squabblers come to an agreement and finally decide to give the piece of meat to the little boy in the background, who needs it more than they do.
Through this story, the children learned about the most important children’s rights.

After the storytime activity, they were able to apply what they had learned by playing a follow-the-path game. We created a station for each of the children’s rights covered in class. In each station, students could explore children’s rights more in detail and collect the corresponding sticker at the end until they completed their collection. In the meantime, they could also color the two images included in the activity sheet.

The children did very well despite having to learn about a somewhat complex subject. In the end, they were really happy about their work. As a reward, they received chocolate truffles to sweeten their znüni, or morning snack.

I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the children for their great work and, of course, to their devoted teacher, Karin Baur. Every year she gives me a little bit of her class time to educate children about children’s rights and raise their awareness on this subject so they can experience a first impression and subsequently learn about the situation of disadvantaged children in other countries such as Peru.

Simone Gysi