December 2005

Greetings from the Peruvian Amazon to all of our Adopt-A-School Friends!

This month marks the end of our school year in Peru.I thought this would be an ideal time of year to look back at some of the things that we have been doing throughout the year in the communities.I’m sure that many of you think that our work ends with the delivery of school supplies in April but that is really just the beginning!

Service Projects – In 2005, 14 villages hosted students from the United States and England for anywhere from 1-5 days.The students provided funding and labor, along with help from the villagers young and old, for a number of projects in the villages.Some of the projects were:

  • Construction of playgrounds in the communities of Timicurillo I, Timicurillo II, Santa Teresa, Santa Isabel, Santa Rosa del Amazonas, Santa Lucia, Yarina Isla and Llachapa.
  • Construction and painting of latrines for the schools in Timicurillo I, Iquique, Santa Teresa, Santa Isabel, Yanamono II, Tamanco, Nuñez Cocha
  • Painting of the schools in Timicurillo I, Timicurillo II, Timicuro Grande, Iquique, Santa Teresa, Santa Lucia, Sapo Playa andSanta Elena
  • Construction of community gazebos in Sapo playa, Santa Isabel, Santa Teresa
  • Construction of covered community bridges in Yarina Isla
  • Construction of port access stairs in Llachapa
  • Planting of ornamental gardens and construction of fences to protect the gardens in Timicurillo I, Timicurillo II, Timicuro Grande, Santa Rosa del Amazonas, and Sapo Playa
  • Construction of a perimeter fence (to keep cattle out) around the schools in Timicurillo I, Timicurillo II, Yanamono II, Santa Lucia, and Santa Rosa del Amazonas
  • Construction and painting of ecology and conservation message boards for the communities of Timicurillo I, Timicurillo II, Timicuro Grande, and Yanamono II
  • Reforestation of fruiting trees around the perimeter of schools in the communities of Timicurillo I, Timicuro Grande, Yanamono II, Iquique, Santa Rosa del Amazonas, Santa Rosa del Napo, and Santa Lucia

    Many thanks to all of the students visiting the rainforest who decided that just a “visit” wasn’t enough!

Workshops for Teachers and Community Leaders -During the school year, CONAPAC sponsored 4 workshops in centrally located villages providing transport from Iquitos for leaders at the workshops and food for all of the participants and leaders.Each workshop had over 100 teachers and villagers attending for three full days of seminars.The hosting villages, San Luis, Tamanco, Nuñez Cocha and Sapo Playa, provided a place for everyone to hang their mosquito net and a committee of women to help with the cooking.Leaders for the seminars came from the State Board of Education, the Office of Rural Education in Loreto, CONAPAC and INIA, the Peruvian Institute for Investigation and Agricultural Extension.Topics for the seminars included Teaching Self Esteem, Human Relations, Human Rights and Responsibilities with emphasis on Children, Roles of Parents, Teachers and the Community in Education, and Environmental Education.

Productive Projects – Traditionally, farmers in rural communities along the Amazon and NapoRivers live by the extraction of natural resources from the surrounding rainforest.As soils are depleted, farmers must clear more and more land to extract the same amount of crops and hunters must go farther and farther into the rainforest to find meat to augment their basic diet of plantains, manioc, rice and beans.In 2005, CONAPAC and our partners at INIA, sponsored 12 workshops in centrally located Adopt-A-School villages, inviting farmers from neighboring areas, to learn about the following topics:

  • Avoidance of monocultures
  • Addition of nitrogen-fixing crops mixed with other standard crops to maintain an equilibrium of soil nutrients
  • Adding new strains for better production rates of crops that are already being grown
  • Cultivation of citric trees and grafting
  • Raising rainforest animals in captivity for conservation, education and as a renewable food source

The following projects have been implemented in Adopt-A-School communities:

  • Integrated farms with manioc, peanuts and hardwood trees in Timicuro I and Timicuro Grande
  • Integrated farm with Caupi beans, citrics and hardwood trees in Las Palmas
  • Continued support for agouti farms in Iquique, Santa Rosa del Amazonas and Yanamono
  • Peccary farms in Santa Isabel and Nuevo Jerusalén
  • Capybara farm in Iquique
  • Continued support for fish farms in Pucallpa and Palmeras II
  • Restoration of fish farms in Urco Miraño and Puinahua

    During school vacation months, young people in the rainforest often lack work and orientation.The lumber industry takes advantage of this labor force to extract trees.Also many young people migrate into Iquitos looking for work and are quickly disillusioned.This “summer” vacation we have decided to start a pilot program in the village of Iquique.Marcos has formed an association of 23 young people between the ages of 14-25 years old and has organized a club which will work on productive projects for their benefit.The community has ceded land to the club for their work.We are hoping for really positive results so that the project can be reproduced in other villages in the future.

Logistical Support for Pre-Professional Teachers – Most teachers graduating with teaching degrees in Iquitos look for positions in the city schools.All but a very few were born and raised in Iquitos and are intimidated by the unknown of rainforest life along the rivers.As city teaching positions have become scarcer, the Teaching Colleges have begun to add mandatory practice teaching in rural schools.In an effort to recruit some of the best new teachers for the Adopt-A-School communities, CONAPAC has for the second year coordinated with the largest TeachingCollege in Iquitos to provide logistical support for student teachers doing their rural training in Adopt-A-School communities.This year CONAPAC provided a package of food supplies and transport to and from their practice teaching communities for 125 student teachers in kindergarten, elementary and secondary Adopt-A-School communities.

Adopt-A-School 2005 – During the last week of April and the first week of May, along with the help of a group of great volunteers led by Shawn Stinton of the Detroit Zoo, CONAPAC delivered over 4,000 packets of school supplies to students and teachers in 62 communities along the Amazon and NapoRivers.Every year we break a new record with this program, a dream come true.During the last week of November and the first week of December a team of evaluators from CONAPAC, the State Board of Education, the Office of Rural Education in Loreto, and INIA visited each of the 62 Adopt-A-School communities to evaluate their school’s progress in 2005.A written report is being composed which will be given to the Board of Education for their yearly teacher evaluation process.

During this last visit for 2005 we also brought the ingredients for an end of year Christmas party for the 10 winning communities in our competition for the best artistic work for the Adopt-A-School program correspondence.Artwork was judged by the Detroit Zoo volunteers.Ingredients for the party included milk, cocoa, and sugar for hot chocolate (a real treat for rainforest children), local Christmas bread called panetones, and candy for the kids.This year we had a tie so there were 11 winning communities!Congratulations to Centro Unido, Iquique, Juancho Playa, Llachapa, Palmeras II, Santa Rosa del Amazonas, Santa Teresa, Sapo Playa, Tamanco, Timicuro Grande, and Timicuro I.

CONAPAC is very lucky to have the logistical support of Explorama Lodges.Explorama provides room and board for the Adopt-A-School delivery crew and evaluation teams free of charge.Explorama also provides all of the transport to and from communities for leaders for the workshops and for the evaluation and monitoring teams free of charge.For anyone interested in donating for many of the other needs to keep these projects alive, the following are guidelines for program costs, apart from travel costs:

  • Student Service Projects – $400 covers the cost of supplies like paint, brushes, wood, and nails which are used for student service projects.Most student groups cover the cost of their service project but others who would like to provide the labor for the project are unable to cover the cost of supplies and cannot participate in this program.
  • School Latrines - $400 covers the cost of supplies to build latrines for a community school.Currently only about 10 of the 62 Adopt-A-School communities have latrines.
  • Teacher and Community workshops – Approximately $900 per workshop
  • Productive Projects – Approximately $500 per project although new fish farms including fry are about US$700 each
  • Student Teaching Logistical Support – US$3000 or approximately US$25 per student teacher
  • Adopt-A-School 2005 – A donation of US$350 provided school supply packets and classroom supplies for approximately 20 students and teachers in an Adopt-A-School community.Supplies for each Christmas party cost US$90.

    Many thanks for your continuing support!