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| In Peru, for the many school age
children not attending, we have developed a very successful means of educating
them up to the standard of children their age who are in school. We prepare them
to pass the entrance for the grades they belong in. We help pay their registration
fees, uniforms, class materials. Then we support them
in school for two years:
until they are well launched on their way education.
[The
challenge: 26% of Peru´s Children, the poorest, remain uneducated] |
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| The Ministry of
Education have invited
us to install our informal schools for at-risk children, which the Ministry of
Education has until now been unable to reach, within sellected primary and secondary
schools. We agreed to operate a pilot for two years, and thereafter have worked:
in several public and private schools in Peru.. |
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| The venue was the July 2008 WHO nursing conference held in Israel and attended
by health care officials from 33 countries.. Nancy and her husband, Tom Palmer,
MD, have conducted annual clinics for our children and parents beginning in 2005.
| | | | .Bruce
Peru: 'Las Dalias' Children's Centre (Piura)
A school for externally poor children,
in the Las Dalias barrio of Piura, Peru |
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N E W S:......New
School opened 02 July 2009 -.See
Photo Album ( last
Updated 30 June 2009 )Las Dalias CHILDREN'S CENTRE is part of the NGO Bruce Organisation,
operating in the city of Piura, Peru (also throuout Peru and some other Latin
America countries), with the aim of giving aid and support to children from impoverished
backgrounds living in and around the area. A team of Peruvian professionals and
volunteers provide food, classes and activities to children who would otherwise
be in the streets - our mission is to get them educated.  Bruce Peru (Las Dalias
) works at getting all children to attend school and helps with the provision
of school materials; it also fosters good relations within the community.
In
Las Dalias itself, a group of professionals, a trained social worker and a Peruvian
teacher and assistantf work at the project every week day. Children come in daily
for lessons and lunch, remaining at the centre until they are attending school
regularly and ready to graduate. Those too old to enter first grade will continue
to be taught at the centre until they can pass the entrance for the grade of their
age..
Las Dalias 's very poor children
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Many children do not attend
school in Las Dalias, due one or more of three reasons: extreme poverty (even
attending free school in Peru costs about $200 a year), abandonment or parental
abuse (children of poor parents often are made to work instead of attending school)
Our primary goal is to get as many children into school as possible, and this
involves encouraging learning, talking to parents and in some cases purchassing
uniforms and school books. We have the more general aim of providing children
aged between 6 and 12 with fun activities to do in the morning, to keep them occupied,
together and away from the streets, and to give extra help to those struggling
in school and with learning difficulties.
Who do we
need?
We are looking for volunteers to join our organisation who
are interested in working with children and (preferably) have some knowledge of
Spanish . Volunteers stay for as long as they like – although we ask for a minimum
of 1 month – and live in our accommodation. | Besides these activities,
we welcome new ideas to make our project most effective for the children. Volunteering
at Las Dalias can be a tiring but immensely rewarding experience. You should be
able to cope with big groups of street children demanding a lot of attention and
enthusiasm. You will have to be a team worker, working together with Peruvian
and international volunteers. In the centre you will be a representative of the
project and are expected to be responsible and behave as an example for the children.
What you do in your free time outside the centre is up to you. Volunteering
with Las Dalias is a fantastic way of getting to know Peru, of improving your
Spanish, and above all, of interacting with the community and with the children
of the city in a positive and helpful way. The Region: Piura is a city
of 400,000 inhabitants, near the Paciffic
The province of Piura is located
in the Northwest of Peru and streches out over a varied geography from coastal
desert to the high regions of the Andes.
The city of Piura, tidy and dynamic,
is famous for the happy and wellcoming spirit of its inhabitants. Appreciated
for its music (tondero and marinera), its exquisite food and its varied handicraft
with the outstanding Chulucanas pottery. The flower decorations with ornaments
from the sea and the filigree of gold and silver are another characteristic of
the city. The Programme: Our
centre is located in the section of north Piura, and is comprised of an open plan
adobe building, separated into fhree tables - for children of differing learning
skills.. Children attend the centre from between 8:30 AM and 12:30 PM, (ending
with lunch). During the children's time in the centre volunteers organise a range
of workshops and activities, including art, music, with the main emphasisbeing
on reading, writing and maths. Groups are divided up according to age or ability.
None of these children go to school, so an important part of our program is teaching
them group discipline and study habits. We regularly plan trips outside the centre,
to play football and other games. Our international Volunteers, when they come,
will not live in the Las Dalias centre, but rather in our Piurs volunteer accommodation,
which is located in the centre of Piura, a half block from the main square. Las
Dalias is a 30 minute bus ride from the cemtre of Pioura. 
|
 | We have been getting enough street kids into school via
our carefully worked out method that by early 2006 we started petitioning the
Govt. to incorporate this into their methodology.. | |
|
Govt. Convention Recognises
Bruce Peru Volunteer Success
ibid/ recognising Bruce Peru´s, success at informal education, the Peruvian Government
have agreed to pay selected teachers. |
| | | |
Street Kids 2008
- Time to re-examine our approach to helping
street children and the families they come from. | |
| |
 |
In April 2001 our founder
arrived in Trujillo, Peru to put into practice certain theories he had been working
on designed to solve the growing problem of school age children not receiving
education. Throughout Latin America between a fifth and a quarter of all children
are not in school.- most but not all of them are qualified Street Children.
He
did not come unprepared. His first project for at risk children was in 1960, and
he started his first NGO in 1976.
In Trujillo he went right to work proving
and disproving one theorem after another. Sponsor 15 mothers clubs if every mother
agreed to let him get their children into school. Open a chain of free soup kitchens
for children who agreed to let him put them into school. Use theatre, music and
dance to captivate street children and register them into school. Funding came
from his own means and those of his family.
Soon he was joined by others -
teachers, social workers, psychologists, service personnel and lots of university
students; some were paid staff, most were volunteers.
For three years he and
his team struggled against ignorance, poverty, indifference, corruption, mediocre
results and what seemed to be a conspiracy to cover up the true number of children
being denied their right to an education: (the Government said 96% of children
in Peru attend school, UNICEF quoted this figure) - but we produced evidence
showing that only 76% of the nations children were actually in school. Since the
magnitude of the problem is thus concealed, no otherinstitution or ngo is dedicated
to helping these children..
During this period lots of extremely poor children
did get fed, clothed, medicated and educated; by us: but never enough fast enough
to be considered "The Solution" ..
Then in early 2004 we began to implement
what later developed into our current, effective solution to locating, recruiting
and educating street children. Since then we have implemented this solution throughout
Peru, and since 2006 have been introducing it into other Latin American countries.
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| Here are a few
of the Projects undertaken by
Bruce Volunteers | |
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| Dilema Faces Peru's Schools,
Out-of-school
kids and challenges to any who help. | 
 GARBAGE PATCH KIDS | |
 | Regional dump - where .hundreds of children
and mums live on roting garbage, breathing toxic fumes. | | |
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|
For years Bruce´s Volunteers
in Peru helped and were helped by good friends |
| | |
and during these years our founder.served
as director or advisor to several |
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| David and Vickie,
founders Hogar De Esperanza, orphanage and El Rancho, refuge for street children
on drugs. | | | | |  | Cesar and Marleni
(founders of Emaus Trujillo) at Bruce Peru in 2001; the continuation
of a 30 year union between Bruce and Emmaus |
|
Social Responsibility | | |
| Blanca
at Bruce Peru, she replaced Andres, who started Mundo de Niños in Trujillo the
same month as Bruce Peru. |
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| | |  | Hm.Lila, Director of one of several ´Fe y
Alegria´schools where our little childrens educatiopnal centres function wherever
they can fit us in. |
|
| | |  | Manos
de Pas is a movable shelter for battered women and their children, Bruce Peru
has sponsored moves & Manos, protected our moms and kids.. | | | | |  | Circlo Solidario provides Bruce Peru with
the use of one of its sturdy buildings whenever we enter one of their barrios.. | | | | |
| Santo
Tomaso has provided good teachers and practitioners to our schools, and Bruce
Peru has helped sponsor a small part of their work. |
|
| | |  | Rotary Club
has sponsored some projects and not a few children of Bruce Peru. |
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|
| | | Red
Cross of Trujilolo are partnering with Bruce Peru to bring permanent t community
health to the barrios. |
|
| | |  | Lions
Clubs have been associated with Bruce Peru since our arrival, here we are with
the founder of Lions Clubs Trujillo. | | | | |
| Most
of Bruce Peru´s early staff and volunteers came from UPAO, as did two Administrators
of Bruce Peru. | | | | |
| Peru´s
Volunteer Fire Departments - maybe the best National charity. Bruce Peru gives
LAN, they save our kids.. |
|
| | |
| UCV
propvides most of the interns in Bruce Peru´s poverty eradication projects, and
all of our Psychologists. | | | | |
| New
Hope International is doing good work in Trujillo, some projects in colaboration
with Bruce Peru. | | |
| | | The
police of Peru participate with Bruce Peru involving at-risk teens. Their band
plays at our anniversary. |
|
| | |
| The
Nastional University of Peru, Trujillo have provided all our social workers and
many treachers. Hosted our Economic & Nutrition Forums. |
|
| | |  | Bruce
Peru and San Lucas have partnered in Alta Trujillo over several years. They are
among our best friends in this work. |
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| | |
| CampoSol and Bruce Peru collaborated to provide
more than 10 tonnes of nutritious food to our children and mothers. |
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|
Quiet Irishman sponsors and names a
school after his Alma Mater back home.
Gavin
Molloy, with help from some generous friends has patroned "Scoil losa"school in the barrio La Esperansa | 
So far 24 children
are attending. | | |  Volunteer Life at Bruce - Photos of
volunteers who have served or are serving at the various centres of Bruce. Also
photos of some of our children in class, & at play. |
|
It takes
2 Years !. When we find a child, convince the mother to let us get him or
her educated, take them into our little school, give them their first lessons;
finally get them up to the level of education for their age, and matriculate them
into a state school (paying for uniforms and all expenses): our work for that
child is only just begun (2 years)
 | 
Above are club meetings
7 June 2006We
continue to work with each child, and will do so for the next two years. Visiting
every month for a "Club Meeting" , at which we monitor their progress, give prizes,
work with their techers, our Social Workers see how things are going at school,
at home: and we pay for wehatever their parents cannon or will not. We do this
for two years. |
|
HIV / AIDS pandemic thrives in Latin America |
Sherrill Musty,
the publisher of the book "WHAT'S A VIRUS ANYWAY | The
UN has declared that the number infected with HIV/AIDS in Latin America is greater
than that of Europe and the USA combined. If you live in one of these countries
you would not know this - it is not reported in the media, talked about in the
chambers of Government. They are in denial. But we know it is there, children
and families in the communities we help are suffering: and there is little help
available. | |
 For over three
decades Latin America has endured the unenviable distinction of having more street
children per capita than any place on earth. What is less known is that for every
child who sleeps in the street there are 300 more in practically the same condition
who live on the street by day but at night sleep under a plastic sheet or in a
woven read or adobe hovel with their siblings. Both are classed as "Street Children",
the distinction being 'IN' the street, as opposed to 'ON' the street [those 'IN'
are more likely to be addicted to drugs]. When we first arrived in Peru we worked
with both types of Street Children, but for the past three years we have concentrated
our efforts and resources in helping the much larger but less known population
of Street Children who live On the street; those abandoned in their own homes.
During this time we have managed to open hub centres in 8 cities, with 24 satellite
children's centres located in the poorest barrios: where we educate, feed, medicate
and care for them Won't you join us!. | | |
 ...... | Street kids,
..........They
come to us
..........as they are;
we
make of them
..........what they let us |
  ...... | |
| | |
Piura is a city
of 400,000 inhabitants, near the Paciffic 
How they live
