Information
Where does Helping Hands work:
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Helping Hands
CUSCO, Peru
In 2005, Mario Diaz Ugarte and Rosa Gutierrez founded Yanapaq Maki Kuna, which means Helping Hands in Quechua. Mario and Rosa are members of the community of Los Nogales in Cusco, Peru. They founded the organization and set up a kindergarten in the San Sebastian community of patron san sebastian. Rosita and Mario have built up this school which started from a homework club in their living room into an official Jardín of 50 pupils.
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Current Projects
Helping Hands Cusco runs a kindergarten school in the Cusco neighbourhood of San Sebastian for children aged 3, 4 and 5. This 'Jardín' does not charge any fees from the parents and is sustained through donations. From starting with just one classroom the Jardín has grown to have two classrooms, a greenhouse, playground and a games room for the children.
Helping Hands Cusco primarily needs volunteers to assist in teaching, help in building or expanding the school, maintaining or expanding the green house, co-ordinating or initiating any other activity like fund raising etc.
We are looking for energetic volunteers who:
• Like working with children,
• Are full of enthusiasm and patience,
• Are willing to help the teachers teach classes,
• Can teach English classes ,
• Think of innovative ways of raising money
• Help in the maintenance of the children's hygiene (teaching the importance of brushing your teach and washing of hands),
• Help with construction and painting of the Jardín,
• Can help with gardening duties and work in the greenhouse,
• Want to help with our medical campaigns.
At Helping Hands Cusco, volunteers are encouraged to improve projects that are already in place at the Jardín and initiate their own projects. For example you could improve local literacy through beginning reading and writing classes for the local mothers.
Helping Hands Cusco helps the community of San Sebastian by seeking sponsors for children and families in the community who need help. Every year we try to find financial support from all over the world to provide children and struggling families with food, clothing and other basic needs. This doesn’t only include the children of the Jardín but also any child in the community that is in need of help or support.
We provide breakfast and lunch to the kids at school every day. This program was started to help the kids overcome malnutrition, which is prevalent in the community. We also try to employ community members and parents in activities such as gardening or construction thereby further helping the community.
Helping Hands Cusco aims to provide weekly medical campaigns for different parts of the San Sabastian region and other poor outlying areas of Cusco. These campaigns offer free consultations with a doctor, medication free of charge and provide food and drink for patients. Each medical campaign treats around 200 people and is vitally important for many of the patients as medical care is seen as an inaccessible luxury.
Partner Needs
Teaching
Provide support to the teachers during the classes. Teach classes in English, Art and Physical Education.
Lesson plans, activities, songs, learning goals and more resources are provided below.
Gardening
Work in the school's greenhouse, planting, watering, composting. The food produced in our garden is used to prepare lunch for San Gabriel's students.
Field Trips
Big Brother/ Big Sister Day (Día de los Hermanos Mayor) happens every Friday when volunteers take the students on a one-on-one field trip. Field trips usually are to the zoo, Park Urpicha (a local amusement park) or to Plaza de Armas. After this trip the volunteers have lunch with the students before returning them to their homes. This is a fun day and a great opportunity to bond with the children.
Fundraising
Use your imagination to raise money for San Gabriel! Are you a musician who wants to throw a benefit show? An artist who wants to sell hand-made crafts? A Socialite? Network with fellow travelers to raise money for project goals.
Construction
Expand and maintain the school. Projects range from basic upkeep and repairs to masonry work to building a second floor for a first grade classroom.
Medical Campaigns
Helping with medical campaigns awareness raising, setting up of the medical campaign, taking patient history (name, age, height, weight), recording of blood pressure, assisting doctors during consultations and distributing of medication, food and drink to the patients.
Financial Needs
Donate/Sponsor
We are working to provide nutritious food and other basic needs for all 50 children in our project. However, we need additional help. It costs approximately $350 per year per child to provide nutritious food for them every day.
Each donation is shared between the cost of feeding the children and money for the families to spend on clothing, medicine and other basic needs. We make sure at Helping Hands Cusco that the money if fairly divided between the children securing that each child has the financial help necessary.
Mission Statement
Helping Hands Cusco was founded with the intention to help the kids and families who really need help. We offer quality education and run many initiatives to help the kids and their families. We also run health and hygiene programs for the community.
The project has a lot of potential to grow and we have many ideas to develop the project further. To help us achieve this, we are looking for enthusiastic and energetic volunteers!