Information
Where does Helping Hands work:
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Helping Hands
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 and they founded the organisation and set up a school in the same community.
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Current Projects
Helping Hands runs a primary school in the Cusco neighbourhood of San Sebastian for children aged 4 and 5. This school does not charge any fees from the parents and is sustained through donations. It was set up in 2005 with one building consisting of two classes and has over the years acquired a greenhouse and a wooden play structure for the kids made by volunteers.
Helping Hands 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 volunteers who will use their imagination to initiate and undertake any project which is beneficial for the school and the community. You could decide to teach a mother from the community to read and write, help a family that needs help or just play with the kids.
Helping hands 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 includes not only current students but many others in the community.
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.
We like to think that we also help the community by just being there. We like to think of ourselves as being parents, siblings, and friends. We want each one of the children to be able to say that life isn’t as bad as they thought, and that there were hands to help, protect, and guide them in this world.
Partner Needs
Teaching
Lead the class or support the lead teacher. Learning goals and lesson plans are provided, but please feel free to create your own. Subjects: Math, Spanish, English, Art and Physical Education.
Scroll down for lesson plans, activities, songs, learning goals and more resources.
Gardening
Work in the school's greenhouse, planting, watering, composting. We are also constantly collecting discarded plastic bottles and turning them into planters. The food produced in our garden is used to prepare lunch for San Gabriel's students and to create revenue for the school.
Field Trips
Big Brother/Big Sister Day allows volunteers to take one-on-one field trips with a student. This is the best fit for those who want to volunteer short term. You can go out for one afternoon or once a week. Past outings include going to the zoo, Park Urpicha, lunch, or whatever you feel is a fun and constructive use of your time.
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.
Financial Needs
Donate/Sponsor
We are working to provide nutritious food and other basic needs for all 25 children in our project. We’re supplementing the food portion by growing our own vegetables and feeding the students while they’re at school. However, we need additional help. It costs approximately $350/year to provide each child with nutritious food. A portion of each donation will directly feed these children while another portion will be given to their families to spend on clothing, medicine and other basic needs. Every dollar helps. Thanks for your kindness and generosity!
Mission Statement
Helping Hands 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!