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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. |
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.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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Introduction..............................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.
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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.
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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.. | |
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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. |
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Street Kids
2008 - Time to re-examine our approach to
helping street children and the families they come
from.
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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"
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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 | |
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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 |
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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. |
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Cesar and
Marleni (founders of Emaus Trujillo)
at Bruce Peru in 2001; the continuation of a 30
year union between Bruce and Emmaus
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Social
Responsibility |
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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. |
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Manos
de Pas is a movable shelter for battered women and
their children, Bruce Peru has sponsored moves
& Manos, protected our moms and
kids.. |
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Circlo Solidario provides Bruce Peru with
the use of one of its sturdy buildings whenever we
enter one of their barrios.. |
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Santo
Tomaso has provided good teachers and
practitioners to our schools, and Bruce Peru has
helped sponsor a small part of their
work. |
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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. |
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Lions
Clubs have been associated with Bruce Peru since
our arrival, here we are with the founder of Lions
Clubs Trujillo. |
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Most of
Bruce Peru´s early staff and volunteers came from
UPAO, as did two Administrators of Bruce
Peru. |
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Peru´s Volunteer
Fire Departments - maybe the best National
charity. Bruce Peru gives LAN, they save our
kids.. |
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UCV
propvides most of the interns in Bruce Peru´s
poverty eradication projects, and all of our
Psychologists. |
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New Hope
International is doing good work in Trujillo, some
projects in colaboration with Bruce Peru. |
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The police of Peru
participate with Bruce Peru involving at-risk
teens. Their band plays at our anniversary. |
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The Nastional
University of Peru, Trujillo have provided all our
social workers and many treachers. Hosted our
Economic & Nutrition Forums. |
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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
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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.
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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)
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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. |
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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.
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 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!. |
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| Street kids,
..........They
come to us
..........as they are;
we
make of them
..........what they let us |
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Piura is a city
of 400,000 inhabitants, near the Paciffic 
How they live
