KinderZon will support a new schoolproject in Iquitos (Peru) by Jos van Echtelt and Dennis Endicott, our “old” companions in Peru.

March 31th, 2009: ¡Educación para tí! (Eductation for you!)
Have a look at the two schools Jos' en Dennis' two schools and the children participating in it. One of the schools is located in a district in Belen called San Franciso, the other one is in a village just outside Iquitos, called Cabo Lopez.

Educación para ti_EN from J v Echtelt on Vimeo.

December 8th 2008: First results!
We have two schools up and running. One in Belén, in the sub-area 'San Fransisco' and one in Cabo Lopez, a place surrounded by Iquitos. In San Fransisco we have 9 kids attending school every day compared to Cabo Lopez with 11 kids. It is great to work with these children. They received homework as "Christmas gift". This sounds harsch, but was asked by the teachers. Since the start of the program they gave a solid basis and they were afraid loosing touch in the next 4 weeks holiday. About 5 kids never attended school before. Next to the homework the children receive some small gifts. They really are happy with the classes and showed a desire to study!

Thursday 30 October 2008: We have started our first school!

Finally! After a month of trying Priscilla, our social worker, convinced the mothers enough that we aren´t devils and only come to educate their children. Five mothers enrolled their children in our program. And we know that more will follow in the weeks to come.

Lucio, Sandro, Cleyson, Christina, Milra, Yanera and Edward each have their own story. Lucio was in school till the third grade, but still can´t read. Edward uses a wheelchair that can´t enter the school. Cleyson studied till the start of this year, but then his family didn´t have enough money. He gets so excited when we finish another long division together. These kids want to study and are happy that they finally can.

The teacher, Marina, did ask for a life vest. Coming from Iquitos, surrounded by rivers, she can´t swim! We also bought one for our social worker. We can use a church, so the altar table is used to study at during the week. The church is built on concrete columns so that we stay dry when the river rises. The houses around the church are also built on poles, or are built in such a way that they can float. You reach the school by crossing the river by canoo

Wednesday 10 October 2008
A short description what we do in Iquitos. We focus on education in one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Iquitos, being Belén. This area is located in the river. Houses are floating or built on wooden piles. Bit by bit we can start with our project. The good news is that Jos en Dennis accomplished the financing of their project. Twothird will be paid via gifts they receive regularly and the rest by KinderZon who will use amongst others the donations of the so-called Klumpkesrace.

It's the intention to bring back the children to school who dropped out of the system. It is very positive that local governments are supportive to our plans and also parents are increasingly interested and convinced by the good intentions we have. On our Dutch side we have a more detailed projectplan and a small video.