All the children who are resident in our refuge normally go to the El Dorado School, the neighbouring school – attending either for the morning or the afternoon sessions depending on their age. They are supported by Project Peru in the purchase or provision of educational materials, buying school uniforms and paying the obligatory annual matriculation fee for each child. This is a considerable expense at the start of each school year in March. Uniform designs can vary over the years.
During the whole of the 2020 and 2021 school year all schools in Peru were closed and we had to run a virtual education system inside the refuge. See also the news item on virtual schooling.
In normal times, we continue to give the children additional educational support by keeping links with their teachers through the house parents and committee members. In other ways, the project concentrates on providing supplementary education for those children resident at the refuge who go to the local school, providing them with encouragement to read and study on their own at the refuge and giving them extra support where necessary. We employ educational support teachers to help the children after school with homework, and to fill in educational gaps. We also focus on advice for the future of our older children and continue to support many of them directly, after they leave school, as well as initial programmes for nursery age children for some who may come to us without ever having previously attended school.
We employ sessional teachers for sports, dance, music and other activities, and our staff members also offer sewing, hairdressing and cooking classes.
Educational facilities at the refuge
As part of our building programmes over the years we now have not only larger class/homework/study rooms and a library, but also a computer room. We also have rooms designated for sewing and music. We have also received a number of computers donated by education institutions and companies both in the UK and in Peru, and the children and some staff take full advantage of our computer room. We received some additional local donations of equipment during the pandemic to facilitate individual children’s access to their appropriate on-line classes.
For more on our extra-curricular activities also see