The School of Peace and Hope
The small town of Horacio Zeballos Gamez is located on the outskirts of Peru’s second largest city, Arequipa, and forms the primary brick making district for the city. The community has adapted to life in Horacio's hot, dry climate without running water or drainage. Most individuals, young and old, spend long days in the brickyards in hopes of providing sufficient food and clothing for their families. Children as young as 5 and 6 are many times required to make bricks after school, or left at home to watch their infant brothers and sisters until their parents return home from work. Other children are denied the opportunity for an education altogether, as their parents believe it is more important to earn money to provide food for the family than waste time in a classroom. For those children who do go to school, very few can afford to continue their studies beyond elementary school. Upon turning 12 years old they are legally able to work in the local brick factories, a job that will confine them the rest of their lives.
Kindness Connection has a wonderful relationship with the families in this community, and we have been focusing our main support at the local public school. In 2003 members of the community of Horacio Zeballos built themselves a small elementary schoolhouse for their children to have access to a basic education. There were only 2 teachers at the schoolhouse at this time: one taught 1st and 2nd grade together in a classroom, and the other taught 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th grades all together in one classroom. With six grade levels divided among two rooms it was very difficult for students to receive a quality education due to the various age levels in each room. The tremendous lack of educational materials and supplies also lead to a poor quality of education for local children who many times made it to third or fourth grade before they learn how to read and write fluently.
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The School and Peace and hope with its new classrooms built by Kindness Connection. |
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Kindness Connection provides nutritional support to the students at the School of Peace and Hope.
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Kindness Connection has been working diligently with the local community to create a plan for the improvement in the quality of education received by the local children and the gradual development of the town to become a sustainable, self-sufficient population. Thanks to generous donations from the United States, this small schoolhouse has grown tremendously. It now has a perimeter fence around the school grounds as well as a small kitchen, library and installed electricity. In 2007, with the growth and expansion of the school, the local community officially named it “The School of Peace and Hope” in appreciation for the hope and new opportunities that Kindness Connection offers to their students. In June of 2008 also finished the culmination of 3 new classrooms at the school as well, each of which are equipped with tile floors, new white boards and chalkboards, and electricity. Now the School of Peace and Hope has one classroom and one teacher for each of its six grade levels, greatly improving the quality of education for local children. Kindness Connection is also helping to support a volunteer program at the School of Peace and Hope as well.
While we have made great progress in recent years, our main goal in the future is to build a trade school onto the School of Peace and Hope. With this new trade school, 6th grade students who have graduated elementary school will no have to work in the brickyards, but instead will enter into our trade school to further their education. The students will spend their time in the school learning various trades and specialized skills as well as furthering their academic education. They will graduate certified in a specialized trade or skill that offers improved job opportunities and wages for them and their families. |
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Before our recent construction of 3 classrooms at the school, multiple grades were crowded into one classroom to be taught by one single professor.
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Now each grade level has its own professor and classroom equiped with electricity and new chalkboards.
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Fidel and Alex Paco work on their English homework during class.
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Ruberly balances his hula hoop on his nose during P.E. class.
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Karla makes a card for her dad for Father's Day. sssssssssssssssssssssssssssss |
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