Seeds of Hope - Q2 2008

All seems to be ticking along very nicely with Seeds.  The café is coming on well and looks great as you can see and our contribution bought all the furnishings; tables, chairs, curtains and paint. They still need a little bit more money before it is finished and they are planning to do some fundraising for this in the next few months. I have no doubt that they’ll do this with ease as their fundraising skills seem to be well practiced at the moment.

Thanks to the fundraising efforts of their volunteers they have now opened a travel agency - “Peru Seeds Adventure”. It will be run by a local guide who is professionally certified and has 12 years of trekking experience in the Huaraz region. They are hoping that in time he may be able to work with some of the older students with a view to them finding employment in the tourism industry. They plan on taking the first tourists into the mountains this month when the agency officially opens.

The children have also been learning how to play chess and also how to make friendship bracelets and belts as part of Seeds initiative to teach the children some new skills. These handmade items will be sold in the café when it opens giving the children a little pocket money and hopefully taking away the need for them to work on the streets. Seeds aim to help the children and their families in all aspects of life not just education.

Over the last few months they have been raising money to help build some of the children a better house. Most of the Seeds of Hope children live in very basic conditions: 1 room adobe (mud) houses often with no electricity or running water. However, Seeds have 3 children whose house is in an even worse state – just 4 sheets of corrugated iron with another piece on top for a roof. One of the older students, together with his father, is currently making adobe bricks in readiness for building the house later this month. This will obviously give the family a much better standard of living and provide the children with a suitable space in which to study and do their homework.

As I mentioned in the last newsletter, I'm also really keen for us to have some more direct contact with the children. I am sure they would love to receive letters from us and it would also be a great excuse for them to practice English. Seeds have given me some information and a picture of each child and have said they will set up an email address which we can use to send mails to individual children. Every few weeks or so they will help the children to read the emails and to reply. If you’re keen send me an email on spannaray[at]hotmail.com. 

Anna Ray - October 2008