Pearl Creek Elementary

Pearl Creek Elementary School in Fairbanks, Alaska, where Becky and Mike's nieces go to school, ran a penny drive for The Becky Fund and raised $485 for the children of Peru! Thanks very much to the students, parents, and teachers for participating and a special thank you to the Student Council for organizing the penny drive. This money will provide school supplies for about 250 children in 10 schools.

Contact Us
For more information please email us at:
info@thebeckyfund.org


Donation Information

Becky's fund has 501(c)(3) status and donations are tax deductible.

Checks are preferred because 100% of donation is received,

Send checks to:

The Becky Fund
4483 Nambre Arc
Las Cruces, NM 88011


donate online through
the GuideStar Network For Good or
via the Paypal button below

New Spring Dates

The trip has been moved again to a later date May 6–20.

Carmel High School Club to Volunteer in Peru

The following story was originally published in the Carmel High School Sandpiper.

Peru calls to students
Written by Melanie Ingram
Wednesday, 08 December 2010 22:54

In June, a group of 16 Carmel High School students will be committing their first two weeks of summer to embark on a volunteer outreach in Cuzco, Peru.

The CHS Peru Project club, working with the non-profit organization The Becky Fund, has elected to travel to the rich-cultured South American country in which over 35% of the citizens are impoverished.

“I was so inspired by the possibility to go out of my comfort zone and into an environment completely different from my own,” says junior Mai Lee, club president and founder. “Some families in Peru live off of less than $2 a day. I want to help that.”

The statistic of Peruvian poverty originally provoked a response from The Becky Fund, which moved many CHS students to get involved when volunteer Aaron Ebner came as a guest speaker to Bill Schrier’s Advanced Placement World History class.

The Becky Fund website states that they operate with “a vision of aiding the children of Peru, who continue to be the most vulnerable victims of the crippling poverty of the region.”

Most of Peru is at high elevation, and during their two-week stay, the CHS students will work toward building the fund’s third Peruvian greenhouse to help villagers grow crops they wouldn’t be able to cultivate in the natural climate, promoting good health and economic prosperity, says the organization’s website.

“Not only are we helping them by building a greenhouse so they have food now,” Peru Project club advisor Jody Roberts says, “but they’ll also be taught how to build the greenhouses and grow vegetables later. It’s all setting up for the next generations.”
The Becky Fund website echoes, “Through the education and energy of their children, the Peruvian people see hope for lifting themselves out of poverty.”

CHS students will also work with graduate students from the Monterey Institute of International Studies, which has an ongoing project in Peru with The Becky Fund and will be spending one week on the site of the greenhouse construction and one week sightseeing across the country.

As an avid outdoorsman, junior Tom Kochevar is looking forward to the natural beauty of the Peru and predicts many students will find their hard work worthwhile in June because of the encouraging beauty surrounding them.

The trip will also be a big step for students like senior Morgan Lee who have never been out of the country, and Lee and many other students are excited to brush up on their Spanish before the trip.

Extensive fundraising efforts are underway to help the students conquer the $48,000 cost of the trip.

Roberts is impressed with the dedication of these students: “Our students have never met these people before, yet they feel this connection that they want to help.”
The club encourages students and their families to consider donating to their cause to make a successful and impactful trip. Donations can be made by visiting the CHS web store at http://carmelhs.revtrak.net and clicking on the donations link.
As Kochevar says, “People like to know that other people care.”

Change in Spring Dates

The 2011 Becky Fund trip to Peru will be April 6–20 May 6-20. Contact us for more information on volunteering.

2011 Spring Trip Dates

The 2011 Becky Fund trip to Peru will be April 8–22May 6–20. Contact us for more information on volunteering.

New Becky Smiles Video

Here is a shorter version of the great video Betty Grabusky made for The Becky Fund.

Becky Smiles

Becky Smiles from Betty Grabusky on Vimeo.

The longer version can be viewed here.

2010 Greenhouse Project Update

Here is a report on the 2010 Greenhouse Project by Aaron Ebner.

The Becky Fund 2010

The Becky Fund made important strides in 2010. A detailed report of the summer projects is near completion and will follow this brief outline of the summer projects.

In January of 2010 two representatives from TBF traveled to Peru to further organize the greenhouse project with the communities of Pampacoral and Poques. In June of 2010 Eight graduate students from the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS) traveled to Peru to work on implementing the greenhouse project as well as investigating development opportunities in the Calca municipality. What follows is a general outline of what we accomplished.

The Becky Fund has established an important relationship with The Monterey Instituted of International Studies (MIIS), a graduate school of Middlebury College. Students come to MIIS for their world-renowned curriculum in a few select fields. These fields are: international development, international non-profit management and translation and interpretation. Vice President of The Becky Fund Aaron Ebner is in the international non-profit program, and has recruited several dedicated, experienced students to help The Becky Fund. Eight graduate students volunteered in Peru for two months over the summer. Their experience and knowledge of the non-profit/development world where well utilized and garnered the attention of several NGOs eager to capitalize on their expertise. An important goal for TBF is to strengthen this relationship in order to continue bringing MIIS students to Peru with The Becky Fund.

Aaron Ebner has been organizing a greenhouse project since spring of 2009. In June of 2010 Ebner and his team of graduate students began the implementation of the greenhouse project. High altitudes offer unique challenges to agriculture and at certain heights only potatoes and certain grains can be grown. Cheap, easy to produce greenhouses allow communities and families to grow fruits and vegetables containing necessary vitamins and minerals. The Becky Fund’s greenhouse project has a long-term vision that incorporates the entire community, but initially the project is centered in the school.

Greenhouse project activities:

• Two large greenhouses were constructed on school property.
• An alternative curriculum was established to teach greenhouse agriculture
• A part time technician has been hired to spend 3 days a week working with
the school.

The greenhouse project was designed and implemented step-by-step with the communities, because of this each greenhouse design, and curriculum is different.

The community of Pampacoral dedicated its parents to providing all manual labor and they invested over 500 hours of labor to construct their greenhouse. Ebner receives weekly reports from in country technician Ruben Quispe. In January a group of Becky Fund Volunteers will be carrying out an evaluation of the first six months of the project.

Partnership with DESEA Peru

The Becky Fund dedicated two graduate students and one trained translator/interpreter to Desea Peru. Desea trains local Quechua women in basic health care and diagnostics. This training came with significant challenges due to the low education level of the women. The development of this training has led Desea to develop a training module to be used in Quechua communities. Marina Flavotomas and translator Elsa Figueroa were instrumental in the formation of this manual. The Becky Fund and both Marina and Elsa will be acknowledged in the publication of
this manual.

Women's Empowerment and Textiles

Women’s studies/development graduate student Tina Novero studied the status of women in Totoro, Acha Baja, and Pampacoral. Novero developed a facilitation designed for the Quechau population and carried out dozens of interviews with a wide range of women in the society. Novero carried out several successful community facilitations with groups of indigenous women. Her deliverables consist of a population specific facilitation outline and a report which she will be using to carry out a gender analysis study in the summer of 2011.

Cheryl Hedges studied the culture of textiles in Peru and will be writing her thesis on women’s textile capacity building. Textiles are an important part of Peruvian culture and have the potential to bring both economic development and empowerment to indigenous women. Hedges’ thesis will design a strategy to help remote women improve their skills and make their textiles more marketable.

Becky Smiles Video

"Becky Smiles" is an 8 minute video documenting the April 2010 trip to the Sacred Valley of Peru. We've concentrated on the positive results (the students and ours) of the continued efforts of The Becky Fund.

by Betty Grabusky

Spring 2011

The next trip to bring supplies to the students of the villages of Peru's Sacred valley will be in April 2011. Contact us now to get more information about volunteering.