We were busy in 2006!
Greetings from the Peruvian Amazon to all of our Adopt-A-School Friends!
As we begin our purchases of supplies for the 2007 Adopt-A-School program, it is appropriate to first remember all of the great things that we were able to accomplish during 2006.  Remember that our work, and fun, just begins with the delivery of school supplies in April.

Service Projects – During the year students and adults visiting Explorama’s Lodges on tourist programs took the time, anywhere from 1-5 days, to work in river villages on projects which included building playgrounds, latrines, and community gazebos, painting schools, planting trees, and building bridges and fences among other things.  Visitors provided funding for supplies and worked hand-in-hand with community members to make these projects possible.  Many thanks to everyone who felt that just a “visit” to the rainforest wasn’t enough!   
In total 19 communities along the Amazon and Napo Rivers benefited from the 2006 Service Projects.  Projects and communities were:

• Construction of playgrounds in the communities of Nuevo Paraiso, Timicuro I, Timicurillo III, Salazar Bondy, Capironal, Las Palmas, Nuevo Horizonte, Puinahua, Nuevo Jerusalen, Iquique, Juancho Playa, Yanamono II, and Ramón Castilla.

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, food for all of the participants and leaders and materials for the workshops.  Each workshop had over 100 teachers and villagers attending for three full days of seminars. The hosting villages, Palmeras II, Lago Yurac Yacu, Juancho Playa and Iquique, 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.  Some of the topics for the seminars included Interculturalidad in the School and Community, Orientation for the formulation of a Community Development Plan, Development of Self Esteem in Students, Importance of Early Education, Management of Natural Resources, Role of the Parent Teacher Organization and its Leaders, Technical Orientation for the Elaboration of Projects such as the production of organic fertilizers and the process of grafting and how to incorporate productive projects into the school curriculum.  One of the best parts of the workshops was the opportunity for the interchange of experiences and ideas between teachers and community leaders from various communities.  At the workshops each school’s Principal was presented with a manual mimeograph machine for the school and supplies to be able to make their own copies.

Productive Projects – Traditionally, farmers in rural communities along the Amazon and Napo Rivers 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, beans, fishes, and wildlife. In 2006, CONAPAC and our partners at INIA, sponsored 22 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
• 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 as part of this program:

• Installation of starter beds for the cultivation of citrics in Timicuro  I.
• Elaboration of Organic Fertilizers in Yanamono I.
• Harvest of Manioc in Timicuro Grande.
• Disease Control in the cultivation of Caupí en Timicuro Grande & Iquique.
• Planting of Camu Camu & Caupí in Timicuro Grande.
• Planting of Manioc associated with Chiclayo beans in Timicuro I.
• Cultivating of vegetables in Yanamono II.
• Organization & Installation of parcels of corn in San Alejandro.
• Planting of peanuts and corn in Timicuro Grande.
• Monitoring of agouti farms in Iquique, Santa Rosa del Amazonas and Yanamono, peccary  farms in Santa Isabel and Nuevo Jerusalén and capybara farms in Iquique.
• Monitoring of fish farms in Pucallpa and Palmeras II.
• Enlargement of agouti farm in Santa Rosa del Amazonas.
• Building of a fish farm in San Luis.

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 started 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.  One of the projects for these young people is the start of a carpentry center to teach them how to build furniture, tables, chairs and carving.  We are hoping for really positive results so that the project can be reproduced in other villages in the future.

Adopt-A-School 2006 – We started our school year off during the last week of April and the first week of May delivering school supplies.  We continue to have the extraordinary luck of having Shawn Stinton of the Detroit Zoo and his group of great volunteers to make possible the delivery of over 4,200 packets of school supplies to students and teachers in almost 120 schools in 70 river communities along the Amazon and Napo Rivers.  Every year we break a new record with this program, a dream come true.  This year we upgraded some of the contents of the student packets and also provided some instructional books for the kindergarten teachers to use in their classroom. 

In late November/early 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 70 Adopt-A-School communities to evaluate their school’s progress in 2006.  A written report of the evaluation was given to the Board of Education for their yearly teacher evaluation process.  During this last school visit for 2006 we also brought the ingredients for an end of year Christmas party for the 12 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 and they had quite a task in picking out winners.  In the end although we intended on 10 winning communities, the volunteers convinced us that there had to be at least 12 winners.  Congratulations to the communities of Las Palmas, San Luis, Nuevo San Juan del Amazonas, Palmeras II, Yanamono II, Centro Unido, Leon Isla, Juventud Yarina, Tamanco, Nuevo Jerusalen, Llachapa and San Antonio de Marupa.  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. 

Explorama Lodges continues to provide logistical support for all of the Adopt-A-School programs including 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.  Your help to provide materials for their work would be greatly appreciated!
• School Latrines - $500 covers the cost of supplies to build latrines for a community school.  Currently only about 12 of the 74 Adopt-A-School communities have latrines. 
• Teacher and Community workshops – Approximately $1,000 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.

     The Teacher’s University in Iquitos had their student teachers in rural schools outside of
     Iquitos in 2006.  They are planning on having teachers in Adopt-A-School communities in
     2007.  We look forward to their enthusiasm and new ideas!

• Adopt-A-School 2008 – A donation of US$350 provides 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!