Round the World with Us

QUICK FACTS:

Location: Tierra Prometida, Ica, Peru

Project Type: Community Development, nutrition and economic opportunity

People Served: 80 Families (may grow over time)

Project Cost: USD $5,000

Timeline: Being constructed during May and June 2010

Community Contribution: volunteering all labor for the construction as well as to staff the facility once it is complete.

Government contribution: The government will provide some of the food for the kitchen and will likely approve an application to pay the salary of one preschool teacher for the day care.

Project Description:

About 120 families call the village of Tierra Prometida “The Promised Land”, in the province of Ica, Peru home.  Many used to live in mud brick homes that were destroyed by the earthquake in 2007.  Now most live in small shacks made of woven grass.  But they are a cheerful and hopeful group of people.  They organized their own community association to pool resources and find ways to provide for the village.

One problem is that not everyone can afford a means to cook and enough good food for their families.  The association built a makeshift kitchen and applied to the government for the food it provides to such facilities.  They got the food, and the kitchen is used by about 80 families take turns cooking for one another.

But the facility is very small, poorly constructed, with a leaky roof and only one working burner that is alarmingly close to the dried grass walls.  They also need some type of day care so that the many single moms in the area do not have to make the horrible choice – to go without a job and income, or to abandon young ones during the day and hope they make it through the day with no one to care for them.

A local NGO, Tierra y Ser connected to the community association and drew up plans for a permanent building with a large kitchen, a day care room for infants, and a preschool room for children ages 3 to 5.  There would be a garden in the back and a couple of latrines.  The Peruvian government will usually provide a teacher for preschool rooms, and they are already providing food for the kitchen.  The association signed up 60 volunteers who agreed to provide the labor necessary for the construction, and volunteers who would take turns working in the facility.

Now all they needed was a way to buy the $5,000 worth of materials for the building and to pay a construction supervisor.  Round the World with Us has agreed to raise the money to pay for the materials.

We are just getting started with fundraising, so we fronted the money out of savings, so we could start the project immediately.  You can help make the project a reality, by making a contribution to it today.  Please see further posts about the construction and a video of some of the construction process created by one of our Trustees, Anna Davis, who traveled to Ica in June.