August, 2017
Dear STRIVE-Peru students, interns, parents, and supporters,
First off, we want to extend a huge THANK YOU from all of us at STRIVE and from all the people to whom you helped provide support this summer in Pisaq. Between the fundraising that was done before and the hard work done on the ground in Peru, we were able to have a positive, lasting, and sustainable impact on the community. So, thank you and congratulations on a job well done!
As you know, informed philanthropy is a cornerstone of the STRIVE philosophy, so we want to give a clear breakdown of how our groups spent both our person-hours and funds on projects this year. We’ll outline the projects we worked on with the total cost of each and attach a spreadsheet with a budget for all our service work.
Before our first group of high-schoolers arrived, STRIVE staff and college interns hit the ground running. Our group of interns began by learning about service ethics and philosophy, reaching out to local organizations to see where we were qualified and needed, and planning the work to be done the rest of the summer. By the second week of the program, the group had begun a regular schedule of helping as teachers’ assistants at the Tambo de Gozo primary school, offering free after-school English classes hosted by STRIVE in partnership with the Pisaq Community Museum, and even starting a youth running club. In exchange for providing a space for STRIVE’s afterschool programs, bilingual STRIVE interns also helped the museum with translation work so that their informational signs could be displayed in English and in Spanish to encourage increased visitorship in the future.
With the arrival of the high school STRIVErs, we first reviewed the same lessons of how to responsibly serve others before continuing our work at Tambo de Gozo School, helping with pronunciation and reading alongside the school’s English teacher.
Both high schoolers and college interns also had the unique opportunity to help at an archeological site called Huayrac Punku. This Inka and pre-Inka site was almost entirely overgrown within the past few years and the caretaker – Dr. Daniel – has an ambitious plan to uncover the entire 5 kilometer valley and restore the site to its former glory. STRIVE groups spent a total of 4 days helping to develop a new path through the site. The group also donated $155.56 worth of tools (for our groups to use and to be used by the project once we’d gone) and $370.37 on transportation to and from Pisaq.
Each afternoon, STRIVErs were still working hard in our free after-school programs. With as many as 30 local students coming to some of our classes, it could be a lot to handle, but our high school students and college interns did a great job of assigning new students to a class section and making sure that they had the necessary worksheets, notebooks, and pens. A total of $104.26 was spent on materials for these initial classes (mainly photocopies and notebooks).
Since these afterschool programs have been going on year round since 2014, the group decided to use a portion of their fundraising money to continue paying a teacher to come and lead classes after our groups had left. Thus, a total of $3,772.53 was allotted for a teacher’s salary during the 10 months of the year that our volunteers won’t be in Pisaq. An additional $308.64 was set aside for materials for the classes (notebooks, worksheets, pens, etc.) over those months.
In part, because of the amount of money raised this year as well as the generous donation of space from the Pisac Museum we were able to increase our offerings at the STRIVE Center this year and will offer 3 English classes per week to children aged 6-18 as well as 2 English classes per week to adults in the community. Since we’ve been gone, our professor has reported that he’s had a consistent group of 15-25 kids and 10-15 adults for their respective classes. We’ll be in constant touch with him to see how things are going and will report on the blog as the year goes on.
STRIVErs also spent two days working with the Ccochawasi Animal Sanctuary, a small, private rehabilitation center for animals that have been rescued from illegal trafficking. The group divided our labors between helping to clean animal pens, digging holes to plant trees, helping to finish an overdue animal enclosure, and erect a large fence to help relocate the sanctuary’s large vicuña population. The group spent $377.16 on tools and transportation for these days.
Lastly, as has become tradition, STRIVE hosted two sports-themed events for the local people of the Sacred Valley. First, the group put on our annual “Field Day”: a morning of fun athletic-themed games and activities held at the running track/soccer field of the local public school. STRIVErs split up into small groups, each planning an event (e.g. obstacle course or water balloon toss), setting that up early in the morning, and leading groups of youngsters through the event all day. The day culminated with a free lunch for those who showed up before the infamous STRIVE Mile race for our students, staff, and interns. We had over 50 kids show up and everyone had a great time!
The second half of our sports-weekend was our first annual Pisaq 5K Road Race (dubbed the “Ruta de la Kiwicha”). In an effort to promote health and athletics to the region’s teen and adult population, this seemed like the natural progression from our children’s field day. After many hours of meetings with local government and police, promotional outings to nearby towns and even radio interviews, early-morning set up, and finally race-day registration, the race went off brilliantly. We had over 40 finishers which – in a country dominated by soccer – was a great turnout! To put on these two events, the group spent a total of $594.54
In total, the group spent $5,704.84 on the ground.
All in all, it was an incredibly successful summer with a ton of great work put in by everyone. We will continue monitoring all of our projects via our contacts in Pisaq and keep everyone updated on how things are going. We can’t wait to get back to Pisaq and continue trying to help the community grow and also continue learning from them.
Please feel free to read over the attached spreadsheet which gives a detailed breakdown of all of our fundraising expenditure over the course of the program. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with any questions or comments; we’re happy to answer anything.
Best,
Nic, Tyler, and Rob
(Attachment: 2017 STRIVE Peru Service budget)
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