EcuatePeru

In 2009, our Lent Project was to support Educate Peru.

A language teacher from Saxlingham Nethergate, Jill Bignell, founded a charity Educateperu to build a school in one of the poorest places in Peru.
Saxlingham St Mary School opened in March 2008 for 120 4-8 year olds – a little bit of Norfolk in Peru!
 But more classrooms were needed each year, to accommodate the progressing class of oldest children, whilst at the same time, bringing in some more from the waiting list so the School could become a full secondary school.

A fantastic £16,000 was raised.
This provided classrooms and other facilities.

However there are other on-going needs.
Some schools in this country have realised that children who arrive at school without a proper breakfast aren’t learning very well - hence breakfast provision here.
Imagine the situation where children live in extreme poverty and never eat properly.
An on-going aspect of  Educateperu’s work is to provide nutritious meals for the poorest students – the “godparenting” scheme.
Sponsors pay £10 a month, which in turn pays for their child to have a hot breakfast each day. This consists of “thick” milk – a wheat and milk mix that is very nutritional – or hot chocolate, rolls and an omelette or sausages etc.. Jill and the teachers decided that a breakfast for now, would be more beneficial than them waiting till lunchtime........as they had their heads on the table by 10am, asleep. They have started with the poorest of the poor, so some of these children hadn’t eaten since the afternoon before. With economies of scale, when 30 godparents are helping, they can also have a free lunch too.

For more information about EducatePeru and the godparenting scheme, visit www.educateperu.org