Donation from Pearl Creek Elementary School

Many thanks to Pearl Creek Elementary School in Fairbanks, Alaska. They raised $1,500 for the Becky Fund through a penny drive and Mr. Brent's 4th-6th grade class donated another $500 for a total donation of $2,000.

 

 Representatives of The Pearl Creek Elementary Student Council and Mr. Brent's class

This very generous donation will allow The Becky Fund to bring school supplies to about 1,000 kids in about 40 schools.

May 2013 Trip

The 2013 trip to Peru has been scheduled for May 3–17th. Please contact us if you are interested in volunteering.

AASD Annual Report

Here is the annual report of the Andean Alliance for Sustainable Development. This groups continues to make a huge difference in the Sacred Valley.

2012 Trip Report

It was a lucky find stumbling across The Becky Fund blog through a series of links and after being thoroughly inspired by the life of Becky and the work being done in her memory I contacted Dinny and was sold. I met the group for the 2012 project in Cuzco- Alex and his wife Angela from Alaska and their kids Sophie and Elena, plus some other first-timers like me; the Bower family from New Mexico; Kristi, Max and their little ones Aly and Jack. And Dinny; in whom I saw from the first day the determination and compassion for which Becky was so admired. I was a little apprehensive on that first day; having traveled solo through Peru for 3 weeks I knew it would be a real change of scene, but it turned out to be one of my most rewarding experiences.

 

We spent the first day rounding up goods for the trip to The Sacred Valley and that’s when it first struck me that this was a serious operation. The vast quantity of books and stationary we were stacking and their numbers on paper made me instantly connect these materials to real people’s donations and I felt a sudden sense of responsibility to those donors.

The 2 weeks that followed were a whirlwind of long winding roads at often hair-raising heights (remember Kristi; if you don’t look it’s not really happening!) interspersed with visits to many schools in some of the most remote and impoverished areas I have seen, where the magic of The Becky Fund really became apparent. Through a million memorable moments, those that stick hard in my mind are the first sight of the children knowing our presence on the hills above their schools. They ran like their lives depended on it; in the thin, high air I was astounded and wanted to shout 'stop, we're not going anywhere!' Their beautifully garish traditional clothes running over the mountains contrasted their often harrowingly poor physical conditions. Many children wore clothes totally inadequate for the harsh cold climate; all wore ill-fitting leather sandals exposing cracked and infected feet. At the smaller schools we were able to distribute what clothes we had, giving every child a piece. Most memorable of all were the grins on their faces when they keenly accepted gifts of notebooks and pencils handed out enthusiastically by the kids in our group. It was heart-warming to see connections being made between the children from the Becky Fund and the kids from the schools despite their differences; as time passed Sophie, Elena, Aly and Jack were quick to deal out toys, stickers, hair accessories and giggles.

Of course there were some obligatory bust-ups. A broken down minibus on the one of the first days spelled trouble, but riding in the back on the open topped truck with everyone perched on boxes of pencils was a certain bonding experience. Potentially rabid dogs and sticker riots aside, the general running of the show was smooth, thanks largely to the unwavering kindness of our Peruvian hosts whose input was invaluable.

One of the most powerful reflections of the communities need for donations was the number of unannounced guests who graced the steps of our Calca home every evening. Each greeted Dinny like their beloved and accepted rolls of papers, soccer balls and pencils with hearty smiles and sincere hugs. It struck me that many of these teachers had come from far, walking for hours as they do to their schools every day. It’s impossible to make comparisons between our own social and professional norms and those in a less developed country, but I would be surprised if I found British teachers rushing up Mount Snowdon for gifts for their pupils. Their gratefulness was humbling. 

 

At the end of our Peruvian venture we had reached over 4000 children and 300 teachers, a great achievement. A number of schools received special assistance by means of specifically requested items including a propane tank, cook top, a mini-pharmacy, cooking utensils, bowls, cups, spoons, and sheets for a local hospital.

It’s too easy to leave such vivid sights like those children in poverty and return to our own lives of comfort, but it’s not without a sense of guilt that I do so. I always think and often say that if fate had chosen so I could well have been one of those children and be in that life now, as we all could be. So though we may not all have the opportunity to see in real life the grateful faces of those touched by these 2 weeks of distributions, I hope this reflection of my experience might portray the significance of these small acts of kindness and the appreciation of the children who benefited from them. I sincerely hope that kind donations will continue to allow The Becky Fund trips to keep bringing smiles to the faces (and socks to the feet!) of these children and eventually to the thousands beyond them who may one day be reached.

                                                         Katherine Allen

2012 Trip Dates

The 2012 Becky Fund trip to Peru is tentatively scheduled for April 13–27. Contact us for more information on volunteering.

Team Peru and The Becky Fund: A valuable relationship

I'm proud to present the summer 2011 report from Team Peru at The Monterey Institute of International Studies(MIIS).

Team Peru is a group of graduate students who work on current and potential development projects through The Becky Fund and the Andean Alliance for Sustainable Development. Students represent a variety of fields including; international environmental policy, public administration, international business, international policy studies, and translation and interpretation.

Students dedicate themselves to a project and travel to Peru for two months in the summer and one month in January. A unique level of involvement is added however, while the students are in Monterey during the semester. The team works together at MIIS to bring the projects into the classroom. In the fall of 2011 the Becky Fund and Andean Alliance have been represented in classes such as; program evaluation, organizational sustainability, and grant writing. An entire class of 30 students in the systems thinking course used Team Peru as the case study for the duration of the course. These courses offer an amount of analysis and actionable recommendations usually reserved for large multinational NGOs with huge budgets.

Team Peru is a unique student driven initiative that has added an extreme amount of value to The Becky Fund and the Andean Alliance, in 2011 we have benefitted from over 14,700 hours of professional volunteer service from these students.

Thanks Team Peru, and keep up the good work!

~aaron

Check out the project report here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/69463769/Summer-2011-Report-Team-Peru-and-The-Andean-Alliance-For-Sustainable-Development#source:facebook

Check out my TEDx talk on Team Peru:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcjFDd7LXwY

Greenhouse Project Update

In June of 2010 The Becky Fund officially established its school greenhouse initiative in the schools of Pampacoral and Poques. The greenhouse project was designed and implemented by a group of graduate students from The Monterey Institute of International Studies. Our local agricultural technician, Ruben Human Quispe, spends three days a week working with students and teachers in the greenhouse. Ruben teaches sustainable techniques for growing vegetables. The first two projects were a huge success garnering attention from other organizations and the local government. In 2011 The Becky Fund partnered with the Lares government to build five more greenhouses. 

Ruben and the graduate students focus on the methods and model of teaching and incorporating sustainable practices into daily agricultural practices. The Becky Fund works side by side with the community in order to increase local ownership and ensure success.  In 2012, the Fund will be helping four communities maintain nine greenhouses. Ruben will be joined by two new technicians who will support four schools as they go from eating governement provided fortified bread to growing, cooking, and eating fresh organic vegetables several times a week. 

The Becky Fund has focused its agricultural projects in the Lares Valley, becoming a part of the community. As a member of this community we have begun giving back in other ways. The Becky Fund and partner organization the Andean Alliance for Sustainable Development have sponsored a local soccer team and have provided prizes for local school competitions. Students in Pampacoral were given the opportunity to document their lives with digital cameras and the whole community was invited to an exhibition of their work. Thanks to all our supporters and volunteers the Becky Fund is able to accomplish such things. We look forward to building our relationship with these communities growing more than just vegetables.

--

Aaron Ebner

Andean Alliance for Sustainable Development

Team Peru

The Becky Fund

A new generation of change agents..

When you picture a group of high school students on a school trip what do you imagine? I have worked in Peru for The Becky Fund for over five years and had some life changing experiences. In June of 2011 a group of girls from Carmel High School arrived in Peru, and inspired me.

This group worked all year long raising money to build 2 greenhouses in the remote community of Ccachin in Lares Peru. They held over a dozen fundraisers and attended meetings every week. They appreciated every moment of their trip because they had worked so hard to get there. The girls and their chaperones spent 5 days in Ccachin physically working on the greenhouse. their work consisted of digging trenches, carrying rocks for the foundations and 40 pound bricks for the walls. Our final departure from Ccachin was delayed because they wanted to spend one more hour carrying much needed adobe bricks to the work site.

Long bus trips, altitude sickness, food poisoning, sleepless nights on the floor, bug bites, and cut hands worked together to try to dampen the spirits of the Carmel group, however these discomforts could not even weaken the smiles on their faces.

I am greatful to have been a part of such an empowered group of young people. This experience was not given to them. They earned it. Congratulations girls.

-Aaron Ebner

2011 Trip Report

Dear friends and family,

This year we had another successful Becky Fund trip. Each year brings new experiences and surprises. This year we were entertained by some local dancers and musicians, a gift from my godson’s parents, Hugo and Celia; another night of dancing from some 8 year old school boys; a first year hair cutting ceremony for Genie’s godson in Choqueconcha (complete with the celebratory guinea pig dinner); the reading of the cocoa leaves; followed by an elaborate offering to the Pacha Mama (mother earth); and 2 nights of music from our friends Richard and Sondra. You might wonder when we had time to work!

As always, this labor of love is made possible by all our generous donors and trip volunteers. Thank you once again from the thousands of families and teachers that you have supported for another year.

Dinny

This year's Trip Report was written by Alison Pena

Each year the Becky Fund exists, it develops and grows. It makes each trip change significantly from the time before. The work of Aaron Ebner, and the groups he has organized, now resonates through the Sacred Valley as we see green houses at schools popping up, libraries, and kitchens, all results of their hard work.

The truth is that no matter how many thousands of notebooks we pass out each year, there will still be multiples of thousands more children left untouched by this work. It is daunting to imagine so we try to focus on what we can do, and take pride in the differences we can make as we begin our journey each year, and set new goals and challenges for ourselves as we set out to do this work.

Dinny purchased 5000 notebooks, significant school supplies for the teachers, and soccer and volley balls for the schools we planned to visit. We brought with us toothbrushes, toothpaste, donated clothing, soaps, shampoos, and toys. We each carried the maximum we could travel with. Sorting it all out began at the house in Calca.

The fist week we traveled further than we had gone before, to Lares. The Mayor of this city provided our transportation so we loaded up and worked out of Lares for three days to reach schools we had never been to before. This was a poor, needy, but most gracious community. We were welcomed with open arms and the Mayor did all he could to make our trip successful. He is a person dedicated to the education of his people's children, the wellbeing of his culture, and the success of his town. We all agreed that we hope he wins the next election.

The roads we traveled each day are made of dirt and are barely wide enough to accommodate the large open back truck we ride in. It takes hours to travel to these remote schools and we were never certain whether or not the school would be open, teachers would be in attendance, or children would be present. This year we were lucky as only one school we traveled to was closed, and only one other missing children and a teacher due to illness.

We were always welcomed by smiles and gratefulness. One teacher told me that they were so short of pencils that she had to break pencils in half so that all the children could have a writing tool. As I handed out pencils I noticed several children holding fragments of a pencil that in our country would never be considered functional as something to write with. Toothless smiles, on chapped cheek faces, caked with soil and soot from open fire cooking greeted each and every one of us. We were often given hugs or led to the classroom by small dry chapped hands to hear a poem or a song. As I looked down on their small heads I could see lice crawling in their newly parted hair, in pigtails or braided. I thought of the shampoo we were leaving with them and wondered if next year we should bring de-licing products.

In the course of two weeks the group left 5000 notebooks, 4,278 of which were personally handed out, left supplies with 206 teachers and visited or gave teachers supplies for 82 schools. We also left funds with one school to fix a roof and provided a scholarship to three orphaned children.

2011 Volunteers: Dinny Bomberg, Leonard Jimenez, Kent and Alison Peña, Genie Rogstad, Gail Ambrosius, and Ann Woolf-Smith.

Kraft Meadows Middle School

Many thanks to the Diversity Council at Kraft Meadows Middle School in Caledonia, Michigan for organizing a fund-raiser for The Becky Fund and raising $420 dollars for the children of Peru.