MySmallHelp

Packing Cloths for Cold Hit People in Terai, Nepal

2012-01-22T04:13:00.000-08:00

Packing Cloths for Cold Hit People in Terai, Nepal

OFFICIAL VISIT OF MSH TEAM WITH HASILO NEPAL

2012-01-10T21:50:00.000-08:00

By Jeena Dangol

MySmallHelp, Nepal had an official visit with Hasilo Nepal on 3rd JAN 2012 for the possible collaboration. Hasilo Nepal is an organization that organize dental health camps. MSH is thankful to Karen and Aparna didi for providing 100 pcs of toothbrush to our charity.

Nova Budhathoki happy receiving Christmas gifts

2012-01-10T02:50:00.000-08:00

Nova is 8 years old. She is a very cute and innocent girl. She has been promoted tograde one this year in Shanti Nikunja School. Currently she is studying veryb hard as her Second Terminal exam is going on. She was successful to secure second position during her last First Terminal Exam. As she grows up she is improving in her studies.

During her spare time she loves playing with dolls and watching cartoons. Her favorite subject is Nepali. She aims to be a Nepali teacher in the future. She is also very thankful to sponsor Kirstie and happy to get the winter clothes provided by MSH, Nepal. Her mother seems very happy and thankful to MySmall Help, Nepal. She is very happy and thankful to get the Christmas gift. We provided her school bag,hair clip, winter jacket,soap, story book and hanky as well as winter clothes to her twin sister too. Nova loves the story book very much and promised us to recite the story in our next visit.

Winter Clothes Campaign for the victim of Cold Wave in the Terai Region of Nepal

2012-01-10T02:26:00.000-08:00

By: Jeena Dangol

This winter proved to be harmful in some part of the Terai Region of Nepal like Sundhuli, Chitwan, Lumbini, Rautahat, Sarlahi and Saptari etc. Cold wave already caused the death of more than 50 people due to lack of proper clothing and housing in remote part of the Terai region. This news really touched the heart of the people in the city. So MySmallHelp Nepal in co-operation with Gwarko Development Committee, organized 6 days campaign from 27^th December 2011 to 1^st January 2012.

The clothes were collected through door to door collection as well as a small booth in the Gwarko chowk where people can drop their clothes to support. This campaign had successfully collected nearly two Lorries of winter clothes from local citizens.

MSH Team as well as one of the mother groups of Gwarko really worked hard to filter out the clothes as per the gender and size so that they can be distributed easily to the respective group in the affected area. MSH Team really wants to thank Mr. Prabin Man Shrestha one of the members of MySmallHelp, Mother Group as well as members of Gwarko Development Committee to run the campaign successfully. The collected clothes were distributed last week by the members of the Gwarko Development Committee. MySmallHelp hopes that this small effort may help the people living in Terai to some extent to prevent themselves from this natural disaster. It is estimated that the collected clothes will benefit more than 500 families in the affected area.

Fusion Rock Musical Concert

2012-01-10T01:51:00.000-08:00

by: Jeena Dangol

WE International organized a musical concert on 1^st JAN 2012 to honor our dear member Mr. Amir K.C. who died in accident on 20^th DEC 2011. The concert was named as Fusion Rocks and the main motto of this event was to entertain people by fusing the Nepali folk music with the western music. Nepal's most popular and talented bands like Trikaal, Anuprastha, Rock Sitar and Murchana were the performer of the evening. They really entertained the mass at Basantapur Durbar Square. The event begins at 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

WE International was very kind and supportive to MSH Nepal by donating the amount of Rs. 80000 to the charity MSH Nepal. MySmallHelp is heartily thankful and grateful to WE International Team, Mr. Samir K.C and Mr. Prabin Man Shrestha for their kind support. There were many volunteers, security guards controlling the huge mass. Everybody had a special New Year evening and the crowd was hooting to perform Anuprastha once more. The Basantapur Durbar Square was charged with amazing focus lights and changing its view as heaven with the arrangement of musical lights, flying lantern and the instruments. MSH Nepal prayed for the peace of heavenly soul of Mr. Amir K.C. and promised to do a project dedication him in the near future.

THIRD BIKE STUNT SHOW AND MUSICAL CONCERT FOR CHARITY

2012-01-10T01:23:00.000-08:00

by: Jeena Dangol

Third Bike Stunt Show And Musical Concert For Charity was organized by 19 souls in association with Pako Youth Club on 3^rd DEC 2011 at Satdobato swimming pool from 2p.m. to 5 p.m. The main motto of the event was to show the bike stunt to the young generation and to make aware of the safety techniques about the stunt. Also one of the popular bands of Nepal named as Albatross had entertained the crowd. The main guest of the show was Mr. Trilochan and Mr. Mandeep Singh (winners of the 3^rd MTV Stuntmania) from India. They showed the amazing stunts and entertained the crowd. Nepali bike stunners also showed their talent and proved that Nepalese can also be the part of the bike stunt mania.

Mr. Raju the president of MySmallHelp Nepal had represented the charity by giving short speech about the charity and had welcomed all the visitors and thanked the organizer for arranging such a special event for charity. The swimming pool premise was full of youngsters with positive attitude towards the event. They really enjoyed the show and hope to see next event soon in the near future.

Leonel Update

2011-12-28T02:07:00.000-08:00

Leonel Update

Peru

This year, the Peruvian government issued a new policy of "integration", stating that children with a variety of special needs would, in march, be integrated into the regular school system. In someways this will be very positive, but everyone is a little wary of this new policy as teachers, students and families have had little to no
time to prepare. Leonel, for example, is a 6 year old child who has been deaf since birth, and currently attends the special needs school run by Kiya Survivors in Urubamba, Peru. He is one of the students who is benefiting from the transport service run by MySmallHelp, as he lives about 15 minutes from Ollantaytambo and uses the bus to get to school everyday. Leonel doesn't speak and barely knows any sign language. His parents have never had enough money to pay for his hearing aids. Leonel is a very bright and extremely active six year old, but without any linguistic skills, entering first grade in March is going to be extremely difficult.

Thanks to very generous donations from friends and family in Canada, I was able to take Leonel to the clinic on Monday, we bought his hearing aid! On the doctor’s recommendation, he’s only using one at the moment, and only at school, where the teachers can keep an eye on him as he gets used to wearing it.

Learning to speak is going to be a long and difficult process at his age, but last night I went for dinner (roast guinea pig) at his house with his whole family, we went through how to use and care for the hearing aids, and different activities they can to with him to help develop his speech. I believe I have also found a speech therapist who will be able to work with him once a week.

Leonel has been amazing about having the hearing aid in. He’s taking good care of it, taking the batteries out and storing it everyday after school. He gives me a huge smile and points to his ear every time I come visit, so proud that he’s keeping it safe. His mom says that he’s become more vocal, even when he’s at home. Over the Christmas holidays he’s going to take the hearing aid home for the first time and his whole family has committed to making sure he uses it and stores it properly. They’re all very curious about this faraway group of people who have come together to provide something so important to their family. I always tell them how lucky I am, to know
so many amazing people in so many places, and they of course agree. The hearing aids are just a small step towards the eventual goal of him being able to communicate like any other child his age, but with his intelligence and energy, we're all sure he can carry the project the rest of the way.

Fusion Rocks at Basantapur Durbar Square, Kathmandu, Nepal

2011-12-27T02:22:00.000-08:00

Condolences to our dear member Amir Kumar K.C.

2011-12-20T20:56:00.000-08:00

21st December, 2011

MySmallHelp would like to express our deepest condolence on the accidental death of our dear friend and member of MySmallHelp Nepal, Amir Kumar K.C on 20^th December, 2011. He had always been very support to MSH and successfully conducted several events and programs for MSH. He made a great contribution in raising awareness of child right and work of Charity.

He got into accident while he was on the way to his farm in the evening via motorcycle. No one knows how the accident accorded. A girl noticed him bleeding on the road and called the police. He was rushed to hospital for treatment. He got a severed injury on his forehead. Doctor couldn’t save him. Our dear friend was just 33 with a son and wife. You will always be missed by MSH and whole team.

MySmallHelp Team

Volunteering Experience of Ramona from Germany in Peru Bus Project

2011-12-16T00:38:00.000-08:00

By Ramona

My name is Ramona, I am 19 years old and I am from Germany. I decided to volunteer for 4 months in the Arco Iris school bus project in Urubamba, Peru. I now want to tell you about my first week.

My first week in the project was amazing! On my first day, I met the children in the morning at the main plaza. They are full of energy and welcomed me as if we had known us long time before. We went into the bus and I sat right between the children. Although my Spanish was quite simple it was so easy to communicate with them by using hands or a simple smile. The bus drove through an amazing landscape between redish mountains and a river which sparkled in the sun.

During the ride we collected more children who welcomed me so lovely that I felt comfortable up to the first moment. When we arrived at the school a boy showed me the Arco Iris School. The school is surrounded by mountains and the little houses used as classrooms are decorated with colorful posters and paintings. The school has its own vegetable garden, a henhouse and of course a playground for the children. After getting known the surroundings I joined the brain gym which is like an assembly with all the members from the school taking place every morning. We sang, danced and played and the children animated me to participate which was really funny. After the brain gym I went into the class ”inicial” where the youngest children learned numbers and colors. I helped them with drawing, sticking and counting which even was a little Spanish course to me. In the pause I played with other children at the playground and talked to other volunteers about how life is in Arco Iris School. After the pause I joined the class “funcional” where the oldest children are learning. They called me ”Profe Mona” and asked me to help them with reading, writing or calculating. They were so lovely and although I didn‘t understand everything in Spanish they were patient and really happy to receive help. After the class, the children got lunch. I helped the smaller ones with eating which was sometimes a little tiring because children rather wanted to play than eating properly.

After school we drove back by bus to Ollantaytambo. Some of the youngest one were so tired that the fall asleep by sitting on my lap. When we arrived in Ollantaytambo we said good bye and I really was looking forward to “manana”.
During my first week I got to know the children and even was able to talk to them in Spanish. It is so easy to learn the language by listening to the children. And I got used to my new name as “Profe Mona”J
In my first week there was a highlight because an event took place in Urubamba. All schools came together in the big city hall and children were performing dances. We went with the children from Arco Iris School to the hall and watched the dances which was amazing.

This is just a short description of how the volunteering work looks like. The work gives you so much energy and even if it is sometimes hard work, a smiling child compensates everything!

A day visit to Jawalakhel zoo with Marybert children

2011-12-13T00:12:00.000-08:00

A visit to Jawalakhel Zoo with Marybert Children

12th Dec,2011

It was Monday on 12^th December 2011, the children of Marybert Orphanage had been taken to Zoo of Jawalakhel, Lalitpur by the team of MySmall Help, Nepal. The main motto of the outing was to provide refreshment to the children after completion of their mid term examination. One of the volunteer Mr. Gabriel from

Canada

and two of the members of MSH,

Nepal

carefully took them out around 11:00 a.m. in the morning. All were very excited about the day and ready to walk to Jawalakhel.

They were very happy and curious to see different kinds of species like deer, rhino, hippopotamus, hyena, elephant, zebra, crocodile, tortoise, monkeys etc. The jumping ability of Chimpanzee made all of them excited and entertained for half an hour. Then after we went to see various kinds of birds with colorful feathers and structure like ostrich, vulture, parrots, hornbill, danfe etc. The children were very amazed with this view. The team of MSH and especially Gabriel seemed very kind and happy to see smiles in the face of children.

Around 2:00 p.m. we all sat circle round in the ground and got ready to have lunch. We had pasta as our lunch which was very tasty and was cooked by the volunteer himself. All the children liked the food so much and asking for more. Soon after we finished our meal we went to the section of playground.

There were swing, slide, see-saw, electrical train, electrical horse, electrical swing and various other games. The children enjoyed themselves playing different games and experienced new game in their life such as Electrical train and swing. They also watched a big fish aquarium which was just like the view of sea, big snakes, pigs, mice, leopard, big horn buffaloes etc.

At 3:00 p.m. we checked out from the zoo and reached Patan Durbar Square after 45 minutes of walk. The children were tired so we took rest around Durbar Square for a while. Here the children enjoyed themselves with biscuits and noodles in the scenario of historical background. Some said that they have never been to this place before. It seemed they were quite happy and enjoyed the day. Finally the MSH team dropped them to the orphanage safely and said goodbye.

MySmallHelp Peru December Newsletter

2011-12-12T21:32:00.000-08:00

MySmallHelp Peru December Newsletter

Greetings from Peru! I, Julia Vanderham, have had the pleasure of working with MysmallHelp since August, when Leander left to visit Nepal and our projects in Trujillo. MySmallHelp Peru has had a busy and exciting three months, so I’m happy to be giving an overview of what we’ve been up to…

The Bus Project

One of MySmallHelp’s main projects in the Sacred Valley is a bus, which provides school transportation to a group of 11 special needs children. These children, who are from Ollantaytambo and its surrounding areas, attend the amazing Arco Iris School in Urubamba. For these children, Arco Iris is their only educational option. The school not only provides the children with lifeskills training and encourages them to realize how much they are capable of, but also gives them access to a social worker, psychologist, and a warm lunch every day. It has been amazing to see the difference the school has made in each child.

The children live up to a 40-minute drive away from the school, so it is often impossible for their parents to take them every day (if they are lucky enough to have parents who value their education). Some are in wheelchairs and our youngest is an adorable 3 year old with downs syndrome, who needs to be held by someone to and from school. Transportation is therefore a large challenge, but MSH believes that if overcoming this one obstacle can make such a difference in their lives, it’s well worth it. Our bus therefore picks up each child at or near their house, and drops them off at the end of the day.

Of course, the project has evolved to be much more than a simple school bus. MySmallHelp liaises between the school and the families, communicating about schedules and other matters that arise at school. Our hilarious and patient driver Ruben makes every drive an interesting one, and together he and the children deal with road closures, locked houses and whatever else is thrown their way.

This is of course where volunteers come to play a huge role in supporting this important project. We need to take attendance everyday to have a record of which children are actually using the bus, and to make sure we take home everyone we brought in. We coordinate with the parents about school holidays, what clothes the kids need to wear for their frequent parades and when the parents need to accompany their kids for medical campaigns or other events. With 11 special needs children together on a bus, someone is also needed to keep order, making sure that all arms and heads are inside the bus and that everyone is getting along. MSH depends on our volunteers to make sure that the bus runs smoothly- they are an integral part of our success. We have loved having Lulu, a teacher from England, helping us throughout the month of November and will miss her when she goes!

We fund the bus partly through private donations. In an effort to work with the local government and to make the bus more sustainable, MSH has partnered with the municipality of Ollantaytambo. They generously offered to take over half of the cost, but the Peruvian bureaucratic machine moves slowly, and they are currently 3 months behind in their payments. This has obviously been a huge challenge for MSH. We have been supplementing the cost with small, in-country fundraising activities but are looking for a more permanent funding source to ensure that this project continues.

The Eye Campaign

In September, MSH Peru had the pleasure of hosting a visiting group of ophthalmologists who, in just 2 days, were able to give eye exams to over 60 patients and provide glasses for anyone who needed them! It was amazing to see Ian, Debbie, Gregorio, Jenny, and Antonio work in Patacancha, a community located about an hour up from Ollantaytambo. The vast majority of people there spoke only Quechua and are illiterarte, so using English to Spanish then Spanish to Quechua translation, and symbols and pictures instead of letters, they were able to give eye tests to over 30 people, the majority of them women who make their money doing intricate weaving that requires good vision.

On the second morning, they saw a group of women knitters in Ollantaytambo. In the afternoon went to the Arco Irish school for special needs children to give exams to the students and their families. Giving eye exams to special needs kids provided a whole host of other challenges, but our lovely eye team approached every situation with creativity, patience and compassion- it was an absolute joy for me to work with them. You can read more about their adventures on the MSH Peru blog: http://mysmallhelp.blogspot.com/.

The team brought over a hundred pairs of donated glasses with them, but some people needed specialized prescriptions. Through their connections in London, they were able to find someone to provide 3 free pairs of specialty glasses, which just recently arrived in Peru. I delivered one pair to Ricardo, a young man with a serious problem in one eye, last week. He was huddled around a small TV with his brothers, sisters and cousins, watching a bootleg copy of “Clash of the Titans”. When I gave him the glasses, he made me sit for 20 minutes while he excitedly described all of the various mythical monsters that he could now see with such clarity. Thank you so much to everyone who made this possible!

The Bake Sale

In the first week of November, the kids we usually transport to a special needs school in Urubamba had a week of vacation, so we wanted to organize an activity for them. After getting permission from the municipality in Ollantaytambo, we decided to do a little bake sale in the main plaza. We always like activities that let the kids do something practical (baking, selling, etc.) and also that encourage them to be visible members of their community.

On Thursday afternoon we met in our volunteer house with some of the kids and our lovely volunteer Lulu, to bake some cakes and some mini-pizzas. It was a lovely afternoon, and it was great to see the kids apply all that they had learned in their lifeskills classes at school.

On Friday morning we set up a little table in the plaza, and began to sell cakes and avocado sandwiches for one sole and mini pizzas for two soles. It was a great day. Lourdes, Luis Alberto and Yasmira chatted and many of their family members came out to support them. We sold out almost everything we made, with lots of compliments on our delicious banana bread.

With the hard work of Lourdes, Luis Alberto, Yasmira and Lulu, we made about 50 soles in two hours- not a bad day’s work!

Thank you for your support

Love

Julia and the MSH Peru team

http://www.justgiving.com/mysmallhelp-peru0

www.mysmallhelp.org/

P.S. We acknowledge that this is all about Peru - Nepal’s update to come!

www.facebook.com/MySmallHelpPeru

The Bake Sale in Peru

2011-11-18T00:42:00.000-08:00

The Bake Sale

On Friday morning we set up a little table in the plaza, and began to sell out cakes and avocado sandwiches for one sole and mini pizzas for two soles. It was a great day. Lourdes, Luis Alberto and Yasmira chatted and many of their family members came out to support them. We sold out almost everything we made, with lots of compliments on our delicious banana bread.

With the hard work of Lourdes, Luis Alberto, Yasmira and Lulu, we made about 50 soles in two hours- not a bad day’s work!

The Bus Facility Provided by MSH Peru

2011-11-17T00:58:00.000-08:00

The Bus

The children live up to a 40-minute drive away from the school, so it is often possible for their parents to take them every day (if they are lucky enough to have parents who value their education). Some are in wheelchairs and our youngest is an adorable 3 year old with downs syndrome, who needs to be held by someone to and from school. Transportation is therefore a large challenge, but MSH believes that if overcoming this one obstacle can make such a difference in their lives, it’s well worth it. Our bus therefore picks up each child at or near their house, and drops them off at the end of the day.

Getting ready to go to school... Lourdes telling a volunteer how things work!

Robert, Javier, Eiden, Tomas and Yuan Marco, ready to head home.

Our volunteer Samantha with Leonel, 5 years old.

Our driver Ruben with the first cheque we got from the municipality of Ollantaytambo!

Eye Campaign in Peru

2011-11-15T03:35:00.000-08:00

By Debbie Steele

8th November 2011

The Four of us visited

Peru

for 3 weeks back in August/September. Whilst there we completed the 4 day Inca trail and survived the jungle. But we also spent 2 full very busy days putting our optical skills to use testing eyes and providing glasses.

These glasses and a significant amount of money were kindly donated from local communities in our home village of Haworth, which is twinned with Machu Picchu. Without these kind donations our campaign would not have been possible.

On the first day of testing we visited the small community of Patacancha, where we tested the weaving women’s community. Nobody in the village owned any glasses or had even had an eye test, although this was certainly not because they didn't need them. The experience was very rewarding and the people we helped were extremely grateful, as well as a little shocked at how much difference a pair of glasses can make.

That same afternoon we travelled back to Ollantaytambo and tested the members of the local knitting group. Again we were met with very grateful responses.

On day two we began in Ollantayatmbo then travelled to the Arco Iris school where we focused the day on testing these children. They were a delightful group of people, who kept us highly entertained throughout our day.

Over 2 days we performed 63 eye examinations and provided 35 pairs of glasses. We have also just posted spectacles over to 3 children that we found to need glasses but didn't have any suitable.

We transported hundreds of pairs of glasses to

Peru

with us, many of which remain there for future campaigns.

Although our campaign was short we certainly feel it was a huge success, and we hope the people we met feel the same. A huge thank you to Leander and Julia from MySmallHelp for making this all possible.

Ian Barron, Debbie Steel, Gregorio, Jenny Steel, Antonio Capozio

Volunteering in MSH, Nepal by Dutch Guys

2011-10-31T01:54:00.000-07:00

By volunteer

Derk en Nienke

Four small hands….

That’s what we were, four hands giving a small contribution to My Small Help Nepal. A small contribution but so rewarding, the happy faces of the children, the smiles! We were volunteers at Marybert school and orphanage in Patan, Kathmandu. Due to the lack of a math and science teacher in the Marybert school we were asked to give these lessons at the school. We never forget the goooooodmorning ma’am/sir by entering the classroom and the thaaaank you for teaching us by leaving the classroom. It is such nice work to teach these children.

We stayed in the bright new guestroom of My Small Help Nepal. The guestroom is set up to give volunteers a pleasant stay and as an extra activity to raise money for My Small Help Nepal. A good and affordable initiative! De room was very pleasant, comfortable and next to the office of My Small Help Nepal which makes the contact very easy. De nice colours of de room make you feel very happy!

Apart form teaching we often visited the children later on the day in the orphanage to talk and play with them. They learned us a lot of songs and how to play the stones (for me a very difficult Nepalese game J). We told them about the

Netherlands

, what we eat, how it looks like etc. and thought them juggling. It was so nice to spend time with them. They are warm and kind persons and they take good care after each other. On one afternoon we organised some games for them on a other location then the school. We did hints, buckjumping and a lot more. We had so much fun! Al lot of smiles, words and hugs we will never forget. At the end the day we baked some Dutch pancakes together, but nothing can beat the dal-wat!

The children study hard and they really deserve a happy future. My small Help makes this possible. But still there are many things needed for these children and the Marybert school. They are written down in the wishlist (see website http://www.mysmallhelp.org/n.php?id=17). Water is one of the basics needs. In the school and orphanage is no tapwater available. The children depend on water of a well. A filter is needed to clean this water. We see this importance and we would like to ask our family and friends to make a small contribution for this need!

We will never forget the children of Marybert and hope that lot’s of people will contribute to give these children the future they deserve!

The orientation class on Child Sexual Abuse conduted by MSH, Nepal.

2011-08-09T01:50:00.000-07:00

The orientation class on Child Sexual Abuse conduted by MSH, Nepal.

MySmallHelp Nepal organised an orientation class on Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) in Dhulikhel at Sanjivani English School on 5^thAugsut 2011. The session was attended by students from grade 8, 9 and 10, with nearly 80 students present on the day.

The primary focus of the course was to highlight the issues surrounding the sexual abuse of children, an area of heightened vulnerability due to a weak legal system and considerable lack of education within this area, coupled also with the stigma surrounding the open discussions of such issues. A research study report entitled ‘No More Suffering - Child Sexual Abuse in Nepal - Children’s Perspectives’ published in April 2006, by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Child Workers in Nepal (CWIN), found that nearly 18 percent of the 4,000 students interviewed (roughly 720 students) had experienced severe sexual abuse, including molestation and rape.

The session only lasted an hour, however the key messages were delivered to the students and a constructive discussion was held at the end of the session.The program was conducted by an intern, Neeta Nepal, who succinctly presented the background and detailed information on child sexual abuse and the importance of being aware of such instances. Her delivery was very effective and her presentation put the students at ease, who by the end of the session were able to discuss openly the surrounding issues and also promised to raise awareness, as well as their concern regarding such issues in the future. Two of members of MySmall Help facilitated the sessions logistically and also helped to document the proceedings of the day.

The Principal of Sanjivani School thanked the attendees as well as the organisers for their cooperation and expressed his gratitude for bringing awareness of such sensitive yet important issues in the Nepali cultural domain. We look forward to holding more sessions such as this in the future.

MYSMALLHELP PERU NEWSLETTER 2

2011-07-20T21:51:00.000-07:00

MYSMALLHELP PERU NEWSLETTER 2

Just by forwarding this newsletter to your friend you can be part of MySmallHelp

www.mysmallhelp.org

19^th , JULY2011

Update from MySmallHelp Peru President, Leander Hollings

I can´t believe it is nearly 2 years since I arrived in Peru. My initial plan was to be here for just 3 months! So much has happened over the past 2 months since I sent out the first newsletter. I am so pleased we have managed to find the perfect volunteer house manager, Elena, who is planning to be based in the volunteer house in Ollantaytambo until the end of the year. Elena is receiving volunteers for MySmallHelp and from the Sacred Valley Dormitory project where she also works. I have been busy setting up the volunteer programme and am looking for volunteers to accompany disabled children on their journey to and from the Arco Iris Special school as well as accompanying the children .during their school day

I was working up in Trujillo in June and have now moved out of the volunteer house and am based in Cusco where we are also helping 2 disabled people and I am concentrating on building links with local businesses and organizing events to raise funds here in Peru.

MySmallHelp is working with the Arco Iris special school in Urubamba

We are delighted to announce that Lourdes is now attending the Arco Iris special school in Urubamba and is slowly learning to read and write. MySmallHelp enrolled Lourdes and 5 other chidren from Ollantaytambo at Arco Iris in May. MySmallHelp paid for the daily school transportation for 10 disabled children from Ollantaytambo to Urubamba in May and June. Unfortunately due to lack of funding the school bus is not currently running.. Lourdes is currently travelling to school each day with MySmallHelp volunteer Sofia.

Lourdes and Leander appealed to the mayor of Ollantaytambo for support and he

agreed to provide funding for 50% of the school transportation in May and we are still waiting!

A big thank you to MySmallHelp volunteers Jenny and Alex for all of their help with the children in the Disabled Outreach Campaign and especially for setting up the Just Giving campaign. For more information about the Arco Iris school project and to make a donation please click here.. http://www.justgiving.com/arcoirisschool

LOURDES is selling her jewellery internationally

A big thank you also to Jenny Lewent for ordering jewellery from Lourdes to sell through her school with the help of 8 year old Teodora and her friends. Their first jewellery fundraising event resulted in sales of £152 which will go directly back to Lourdes. A big thank you also to Mrs Whittaker for purchasing a handmade silver necklace from Lourdes and once again thank you to Jenny and Alex for delivering it back to the UK. If anyone would like to order jewellery from Lourdes, please do get in touch!

MARCO

Marco is a 7 year old boy that volunteer Helen Osborn, found in Trujillo in February this year. Marco suffered second degree burns following an incident where another child through a flammable liquid at his leg and set it on fired. MySmallHelp has provided medical assistance to Marco and arranged for Marco to be moved to a special hospital in Lima. Thanks to MySmallHelp Marco is now walking again and is hoping to be back at school within the next month. Thank you also to volunteer Mayra and her brother for organizing the hospital trips in Lima and for visiting Marco and cheering him up with games and books!

16 children from El Milagro, Trujillo, on the north coast of Peru, could go to school in 2011.

Thanks to a kind donation from Jayden Grundy (MySmallHelp Canada), MySmallHelp Peru was able to employ a school teacher (Deisy) to manage the El Milagro project. She embarked upon finding schools for children whose

families were not able to send them to school without the support of MySmallHelp. Deisy visited the schools with the children’s mothers to register the children, and purchased uniforms, school books and stationary.

Thanks to donation from Knightsbridge School, 9 of the 16 children are being sponsored for one year and you can read more about the children still urgently in need of sponsorship here http://www.mysmallhelp.org/sponsor-a-child-peru.php

The sponsorship from Knightsbridge School has also enabled MySmallHelp to organize the first art workshop in El Milagro where 6 mothers learned to make hand-made book covers and helped produce hand printed items of clothing designed by the art teacher Abel Torres, an independent designer from Lima. The first workshop was originally scheduled for 8 afternoons but the mothers decided to work an extra afternoon because of the excellent results obtained.

Abel Torres has volunteered for MySmallHelp Peru providing designs and teaching the necessary techniques with the aim of selling the products through the MySmallHelp network. The mothers can now produce the book covers independently and will work in the afternoons every Tuesday and Thursday when there are orders and materials available.

MySmallHelp is delighted with the success of the first art workshop which has produced 88 notebooks and 140 items of clothing of excellent quality. MySmallHelp aims to sell the products and generate new orders for the mothers in El Milagro so that they can continue working.

MySmallHelp will receive 50% of the sales revenues of all products designed by Abel Torres and produced with the help of the mothers at the “Casa Milagro” art factory. The mothers will receive 25 nuevos soles for each afternoon that they work (minimum 4 hours) and the money will be saved in a fund to pay the school fees for their children in 2012.

WHEELCHAIRS

Lourdes travelled to Arequipa with MySmallHelp member Cristian and Sunny, a volunteer from Awamaki, to pick up a wheelchair donated by Kid International through an agreement with the Clinic of San Juan de Dios in Cusco. On the same occasion a wheelchair was obtained for José, aged 20, who has cerebral palsy. José lives with his mother and 3 younger siblings. The mother works to deal with the costs of maintaining her family.

MySmallHelp would like to say a big thank you for the support of the Argentinian psychologist Gabriela Scarafioca who has been working with children and the families that MySmallHelp are supporting in Ollantaytambo. Guiding and assisting in the situations of vulnerability in which the great majority find themselves.

Gaby also accompanied 5 children who attend the CEBE in Urubamba to the Clinic of San Juan de Dios in Cusco so that they could take their medical examinations (each according to his/her needs). Leander took steps to secure the necessary funds for transportation and payment of the medical examinations for these children.

COMMUNICATION COURSE

On the 20^th of June MySmallHelp organized a communication course was directed by Jorge Paricoto at the Arco Iris school and 27 people attended, including teachers, physiotherapists, psychologists and volunteers from various organizations. The work day began at 9am and finished at 6pm. The participants of the course expressed their satisfaction through the contributions received.

A BIG THANK YOU TO THE POINT HOSTELS FOR THEIR FIRST DONATION of 380 SOLES FOR 380 NEW FACEBOOK LIKES

Please click on LIKE on this page (it won´t cost you a penny)

http://www.facebook.com/ThePointHostels

MySmallHelp Peru will receive 1 Peruvian sol (approximately 22p) for every new like on The Point Hostels page.

Thanks to The Point hostels for their first donation of 380 soles which is being used to provide school transportation for disabled children that would otherwise not be able to go to school.

Join us now facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/MySmallHelp-Peru/183568661692788

Thank you for all your support to date and for the future. I hope that through MySmallHelp more and more people will realise that being generous is fun, that helping others helps yourself and that everything is interconnected. As individuals become more compassionate everything living on earth including the earth itself will become more balanced.

If you would like to give your small help by purchasing MySmallHelp products, making a donation or volunteering please do contact me directly onleander.hollings@mysmallhelp.org

UK Registered Charity No 1123830

Peruvian registered charity RUC 20490472313
Nepal Registered Charity No 2656/381/562

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MYSMALLHELP NEPAL CONGRATULATES ANITA GURUNG

2011-07-13T22:06:00.000-07:00

CONGRATULATION!!!!!!!!!!!!! TO ANITA GURUNG

Anita Gurung is the first girl who successfully passed SLC (School Leaving Certificate) among the children being supported by MySmallHelp, Nepal. She was successful to secure first division with 75%. So she is very happy these days and excited about her future study. MySmallHelp team is also very happy about her and congratulate her with best wishes for her bright future.

Anita has been shifted to new apartment as she had to leave her previous place where she had completed her school level. As she is a grown up child she has decided to study sociology in one of the private college.She aims to help poor and orphan people as she can feel their pains closely. Understanding her feelings and condition MySmallHelp, Nepal is supporting her with full effort for her bright future.Anita is also very much thankful to MySmallHelp, Nepal for being her guardian and taking take care of her.

Third blood donation event of MSH Nepal

2011-07-07T01:14:00.000-07:00

Third Blood Donation Camp organized by MSH, Nepal

1st July, 2011

Seeing the importance and shortage of blood in the blood bank, MSH Nepal has set its objective to organize the blood donation camps four times a year. So, last Friday on 1^st July 2011, MSH Nepal has conducted the third successful event of blood donation Camp at Quest International College at Gwarko, Lalitpur. More than 30 students at Quest International College rolled up their sleeves and donated blood as part of a joint venture between Red Cross Nepal and Mysmall Help, Nepal.

In spite of the rainy day, it was lovely to see the students and MSH members get so excited about being able to make a donation. About 43 pints of blood was collected during the event. Due to rainy weather, some of the candidates were disqualified to donate as their pressure goes down the normal point.

The students were so happy to do something so worthwhile and thanked Red Cross and Mysmall help to come to the college and make it so much easier to donate in a comfortable and accessible environment. Similarly, Kolin Shrestha, Director of Quest International College said: “It is very rewarding to see these young people motivated enough to make these donations. This is the third time that we have run the blood campaign at the college and we will always be happy to be involved in this type of programme, and to help our students to become more socially aware and responsible.”

The MSH staff worked steadily to encourage students to make their donation, to give them some support whilst doing so, taking photographs, and assisting students to fill out their consultation form. Other three interns of MSH Nepal were busy in arranging refreshment suite where apples were cored and chopped, bananas, biscuits and boiled eggs plated up, and cartons of juice issued to the donors after they had donated. As a reward, and what turned out to be a somewhat surreal experience, the MSH team was escorted to the top floor of the college where students run a mock restaurant as part of their training. The students who had moments before been jovial and carefree were now immaculately suited and booted and on their best behavior as they served up delicious chicken soup and hakka noodles and tended to our every need as a diner. Overall it was a very satisfying day with many students promising to encourage their friends to donate next time.

My feelings during visit to Nepal.

2011-06-15T00:30:00.000-07:00

By Joanna Young

Namaste, namaste; it feels like my hello and goodbye to Nepal was just as quick as that! I have spent the last six months in the land of Never Ending Peace and Love and was privilieged enough to be visiting Mysmallhelp. It's with a heavy heart that I have to say my farewells to lots of beautiful children and wonderful people who have made my stay so enjoyable. Watching the children mature and grow in confidence is priceless, and seeing their faces when they receive letters from their sponsors, or unexpected parcels from Brownie groups in England is really special.

Most recently they've been given some new toys with funds raised through justgiving.com and they were trying to teach me some Nepali dancing (which was perhaps a highlight for me but less so for them!). More funds will be put towards buying them new shoes and clothes for those who are growing the fastest! A visit from two kind hearted trekkers, Jim Andrews and Matt Rai (London & Derby) led to a one off generous donation and a new sponsor; it also led to a rapid and enthusiastic football game that went so fast I have no idea who won!

Just a week or so later was my final night visiting Marybert School and Orphanage where I found the children drawing me lots of beautiful farewell cards, and supplying me with a a multitude of hugs. We enjoyed singing, eating, and then a final powercut together (which I was quite thankful for as it hid my quivering bottom lip). Visiting the children at Marybert is a humbling and beautiful experience; at times it can feel like you're in the presence of angels whilst at other times it's clear to see there is mischief to be had! They're a beautiful bunch of puppies bumping into each other, falling over each other and ultimately always seeking warmth, love and nourishment. That's easy for us in the UK, a bit harder to pull off in Nepal. So, if you fancy doing your bit... log onto www.justgiving.com/childreninnepal or get in touch with Mysmallhelp and commit to being a sponsor, safe in the knowledge that your funds go to helping the children we know who need it most. With love. Jo x

Our last few days

2011-05-26T21:57:00.000-07:00

Our month with MSH in Peru has gone so quickly and I cannot belive that we will soon be packing our bags and leaving Ollantaytambo. We have had such a busy last couple of weeks securing places at a nearby specialist school for disabled children for several of the children MSH and Awamaki have contacted during the disabled outreach campaign.

The four children who were to be the guinea pigs for the scheme last week were Sayury,Luis Alberto, Lourdes and Jasmira. None of the children were attending school because their families did not have the money or resources necessary to send them. All four of the children arrived promptly to meet us to set off for school. When we arrived I was blown away by how lovely the school was, it is set behind a wall, with gardens and the classrooms are idyllic looking thatched huts. There is play equipment and even a cow and chickens! The school was set up by a British NGO and is the only one in the area for disabled children. It provides lessons in life skills as well as more traditional skills such as maths and reading and provides vital services such as physiotherapy. It also provides milk and lunch free of charge for each child, every day.

It is hard to over emphasise the difference the school makes to the children’s lives by giving them a place to socialize and play, gain confidence and independence and learn. Without this school, the children would spend their days at home or at their parent’s work place.

The manager of the school kindly accepted Alex and I to volunteer at the school. We have each been assigned a classroom and have really enjoyed helping the teachers in any small way we can. The school day starts with games for all the children like passing a ball round a circle or a game that involves a cat that even after several goes still remains a mystery to me! The children certainly enjoy it though! In the class that I have been helping in, the children have been learning letters and numbers and doing practical things like drawing pictures for mothers day.

Apart from helping out at the school we have been frantically trying to help Leander with the administrative tasks she needs help with before we leave. We have also taken over the home visit schedule for Alex, a little boy with cerebral palsy, from the Awamkai volunteers. Alex is 13 and is so bright and responsive but spends his days lying in bed because he does not yet have a wheelchair and his mother is often out at work. One of the things the partnership is working towards is getting him a wheelchair which is a prospect I find so exciting as he might then be able to go to school which I know he would benefit from immensely. Awamaki have also arranged for him to have a special chair made for him in the mean time which will allow him to sit up and engage more with his environment.

I have enjoyed so much working with the disabled children out here, learning about the way their illnesses affect them and getting to know them all. I have had great fun playing with them and being able to engage with them. Most of all a lot of them have a great sense of fun and playfulness, as children do, which is a very rewarding and fun environment to be around.

Our first day at school

2011-05-26T21:43:00.000-07:00

Another early start today to meet Julio the bus driver and three disabled kids; Lourdes, Juan Alberto and Jasmera in Ollantaytambo square and picking up Sayury in the next town along. It was to be their second day at the amazing Rainbow school run by a charity called ’Kiya Survivors’ in Urubamba which was especially set up for disabled children.

It was Alex and my first day today and we were amazed by how lovely the school was; like a little oasis in the middle of the town with classrooms for different activities and a garden. We started the day with games and introductions which were followed by ‘work’ sessions and lots of play. The children then have lunch before home time at half past one.

Alex helped in the ‘life skills’ class who were making pretty pen pots to give as mother’s day presents this weekend. I helped Sayuri to do colouring and the other members of her class with their letters and learning. The children at the school vary in age from 3 to 20 and all have different disabilities but they are all catered for by the teachers. Sayury ,who has cerebral palsy, had a brilliant day, managing to get herself onto the slide and making firm friends with a little girl of a similar age who can’t speak or hear.

We are looking forward to another day at school tomorrow, it was such a rewarding and fun day.

Sports Day with Anita

2011-05-02T12:28:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday we had an early start so that we

could get to Cusco for half 9 in the morning. After hitch-hiking in a luxury tourist bus on its way back to Cusco, we met Nelly, the MSH Social Worker outside Uriel Garcia school. We followed her inside the school stadium where the entire school were assembled all dressed in their sport teams' gear and decorated with face paints and fancy hair-dos.

Anita is a ten year old girl who is in a wheelchair due to cerebral disabilities. She loves drama and last time we met her at her home she did a confident performance of a poem for us finishing with a bow. She and her little sister were there to take part in the parade and her parents were there too to watch them. We spent several enjoyable hours in gorgeous sunshine with Anita and her family watching the various dances and performances including a rather accurate rendition of Thriller and several rounds of fireworks.

Then it was our turn! Alex and I went onto the sports field with Anita and her team mates and walked the lap of the parade. I held a volleyball and flowers and Alex pushed Anita trying to stay in time with the shouts of the coordinators which resulted in some abrupt halts and several spurts of sprinting. Anita’s family were so welcoming and generous; her little sister ran off to put my jelly carton in the bin and her Dad disappeared and returned with a hat for Alex when the sun was at its hottest.

Anita’s Dad works really hard as a mechanic but they can’t afford the 20 pounds a month it would cost to get Anita to physiotherapy three times a week. Nelly has also recommended that Anita needs a laptop to help her at school because although she is just as quick at learning as any of her classmates, she struggles to write quickly. I really hope MSH can help her with these small things that would really make a difference.

Primary Teacher's Training Program Conducted by MSH, Nepal

2011-04-26T00:30:00.000-07:00

The Primary Teachers' Training Program was successfully conducted on April 15th and April 16th 2011 by the MySmallHelp team in Sanjiwani English School at Dhulikhel, Nepal. There were 30 participants from various schools and there were three teachers responsible for the format and execution of the program - Sabina Thapa, Sachi Guragain, Geeta Pradhan and Roshni Khatri. The teachers conducting the training are well-established in the primary education sector and have attended and conducted such sessions in the past. The program ran over two day and the duration was approximately six hours each day.

The training session was initiated with an opening ceremony, where the participants and guest were welcomed by the principal of the school, Mr. Indra Basnet. The introduction highlighted the structure for the two days and also the continuing importance of such training sessions in the education system in Nepal.

For the rest of the session, the participants were divided into smaller groups, in order to facilitate a more structured discussion. Further activities were also organised such as reciting poems, playing games and creating job charts, in order to demonstrate the importance of putting theory into practice.

The overall feedback was that the training was very effective in allowing each participant to gain knowledge on how to create a better learning environment. The different techniques used by the trainers have also helped the participants realise their own potential in the classroom and different ways in which they can reach children of different learning capabilities. Sanjivani English School have also committed to publish the results of the training session in their local newsletter to highlight the success and importance of such training sessions in the future.

The program was concluded by Mr. Indra Basnet, where all the participants, the trainers and MSH were heartily thanked. Based on initial observation, MSH also feel that such a training facility will be beneficial on a regular basis and look forward to organising more events in the future. MSH will actively seek to obtain written feedback from the teachers and also monitor progress with an interview with the participant teachers by arranging meeting with them in three months time.

New Volunteers - Jenny and Alex

2011-04-25T11:26:00.001-07:00

We have just arrived in Ollantaytambo to work with Leander at MySmallHelp and what a busy and eventful start it has been! It has become clear very quickly that there is an awful lot of need in this area due to poverty and a lack of understanding and education. Our first few days have been a whirlwind of meeting new people, administrative work and long conversations about how best to help the people here who need it the most.

One great achievement MSH has made this week is securing school places for a number of disabled children living in the area. Access to education and stimulation will undoubtedly make their lives much fuller and more rewarding. Yet this achievement creates its own problem of how to find the funds to send the children to school on a private bus each day.

We have also been working with the charity Awamaki, to ensure home visits to a number of disabled people in the area are continued. The partnership aims to provide support, stimulation and company for these people, many of whom have been terribly neglected in their lives because of a lack of understanding of their illnesses and a lack of resources and support.

As well as working on the Disabled Outreach Program we have brainstormed about volunteer schemes, taken the children next door who are sponsored through MSH shopping for new school shoes and watered the plants at a local rehabilitation centre in time for its grand opening in May. The centre will provide rehabilitation, training in guinea pig rearing and lots of other helpful services and is funded by the government.

What has certainly become clear this week is that partnership between different agencies and organizations is something that can be beneficial for all involved.

Clothes Donated by Kind Hearted Tourist to MSH

2011-04-19T21:03:00.000-07:00

Mysmallhelp was thrilled to be the recipients of some clothing from kind hearted tourists last week. David Waugh McInnes from Ayrshire, Scotland and Ana Belen Daza Valdivia from Spain walked from the infamous Freak Street, Basantapur to Gwarko, Laliptur (75 minutes) to deliver some clothing that they no longer need. We spent some time sharing ideas about howto make the charity stronger, and better known over a glass of sweet Nepali tea before our new found friends left for their next destination.The clothes will be well used and appreciated by the children and the

families that MSH supports.

Thank you David and Ana! The Mysmallhelp team hopes you enjoy your next adventure...

Working in El Milagro

2011-04-14T22:20:00.000-07:00

Louise Whitaker
10^th April 2011

El Milagro is a poor barrio between the laid back surf town of Huanchaco and Trujillo, Peru´s third largest city. El Milagro means miracle. This part of Peru is desert and not a lot grows here. There is little water. Houses are constructed out of adobe type material, old plastic bags and tarpaulins and the floors are just hardened sand, concrete and dirt. Water is delivered in by the municipalidad every 8 days and families top up this free water buy buying 12 buckets worth for 3 soles.

It is in this area that MySmallHelp has chosen to work. The Trujillo team of Deisy and Helen have spent the last 2 months busily helping 5 mothers enroll 16 of their children (some of whom were working in the rubbish dump with them, collecting 1kg of plastic bottles to receive just 1.5 soles) in to school. This hasn´t been an easy task, as paperwork was missing, names had been mis-spelt and some of the mothers illiteracy slowed down the work. The children of these mothers are in 6 different schools close to where the mothers live. Some of the children have special needs or learning difficulties and the schools they are in reflect this. Deisy, Helen and Leander have been busy supporting these mothers and finding funds to enable these mothers to send their children to school safe in the knowledge that the fees will be paid for the first year.

Our recent meeting with the mothers was to understand what skills and abilities the mothers have to enable them to set up little businesses, that they can run from home, which will enable them to earn money so they don´t have to rely on foreign donations.

We spoke about numerous ideas. The favoured one seemed to be working with a Limenian tshirt designer who can help the women learn how to screenprint his designs on to tshirts to be sold in Trujillo and Huanchaco to tourists. We are busy now working out the costs of this, as water is required for this process and it is not in great supply here. MySmallHelp already has shops selling these tshirts in Cusco and in Lima. The next stage is to write a business plan and conduct some market research in the area.

The pictures below show the barrio of El Milagro

The truck from the municipalidad bringing in water

Parent's Day at Marybert School

2011-04-12T22:05:00.000-07:00

9th April, 2011

Dancing, singing, recital of nursery rhymes and an enthusiastic farewell to some of the older students at Marybert School and Orphanage created a fun and memorable Parent & Community Day on Saturday, April 9^th.

The packed program started with a cheer as a group of suitably attired children sang the nepali national anthem. The children were so unique in their dance styles (even the synchronised group dances!) that it was impossible to focus on only one of them for any length of time.

The youngsters from the nursery, and lower / upper kindergarten were like angels from entertainment heaven! Big smiles, awkward legs with knees and toes turned in, and ever so slightly out of time ‘hands and fingers, knees and toes’ (why do anything differently!) kept us all smiling.

At the end of the day the grade five students graduated with cap, scarf and a certificate from the Principal, Mrs Sabina Thapa Kayastha. Their emotions were obvious as they smiled with joy and grew tearful at reaching the end of their schooling at Marybert. It was a fitting tribute that grade five student Rozy Tamang delivered a beautiful and eloquent speech thanking the teachers and fellow pupils. Rozy had already wowed the crowd with a lively and passionate song titled ‘I’m alive’.

The pupils were given prizes for highest marks and for tidiest desks before Sabina announced that they had also secured second position in an inter school relay competition held at Dasharath Stadium, Kathmandu. Well done Marybert!

Exhibits from the recent photography project organized by volunteer Jo Young and the my small help team were appreciated and provoked laughter as parents noticed the children had stuck carrots in their socks, chilli peppers in their ears, and made simple props into playful weapons for the abstract photo shoot.

After a fun and eventful day the children enjoyed cookies and juice, and prepared to settle into a week’s rest from their schooling.

Super Mums

2011-04-04T01:03:00.000-07:00

Louise Whitaker

1st April 2011

I just wanted to write a blog entry about the mother of Jose Alfredo and the mother of Frank. These women are poor but patient, loving and calm. They both have large 18 year old boys who cannot feed themselves, bath themselves, speak or amuse themselves. As well as this, both are single mothers who have other children. Abandoned by their husbands, I would imagine, due to the stigma attached with having a disabled child. Often the mother is blamed for this.

The women were an inspiration. They were doing everything they had in their power and in their financial ability (which is not a lot) to get these children to Equip Kids International to get new wheelchairs to improve theirs and their children´s lives. I would think that having a child in England with a severe disability would be challenging enough, but here, the enormity of the task seemed greater. Houses are built of adobe, there is no hot water and evenings and days in the rainy season can be extremely cold. No-one has heating here in Cusco. There is no government financial support for families and certainly no careers allowance. The pavements are shoddy, rarely consistently passable for a wheelchair, disabled toilets hardly exist and disabled friendly taxis are never seen. Added to that people stare. Disabled children are kept in the home generally or in institutions. Children and adults on the streets of Cusco when we took Lurdes out and in the bus station stop and stare. A few ask questions ,but mainly they just stare.

These Mums are amazing and they and their children are exactly the reason why Leander and MySmallHelp have decided to continue to work in Peru.

Jose Alfredo´s mother is an inspiration. She is seen here leaning on Jose´s legs as he was unable to hold himself up in the slippy plastic chairs in the bus terminal.

An exciting journey

2011-04-03T23:31:00.000-07:00

Louise Whitaker

March 31^th 2011

What an effort. It was an eye-opener getting two severely disabled children- Lurdes and Jose Alfredo, plus their mothers, Jose Alfredo´s little brother, two volunteers and Leander and myself to dinner and then to the bus station ahead of the children´s 10 hour overnight bus journey to Arequipa to collected bespoke wheelchairs.

Even before the journey started we were on a mission. To be eligible to get these wheelchairs, the family of each child had to provide: the child´s birth certificate and DNI number (like our NI number), the parents DNI, case notes from the hospital on the child and proof of address in the form of a light or water bill. The team had 4 days to gather this information which was made more difficult due to the bureaucracy, red tape and out of date systems that exist in rural Peru. All of our team here had a task to do, which normally involved waiting….and waiting and paying a few extra soles to the correct people get the whole thing sped up.

Once we reached the bus station Lourdes, Jose Alfredo and his little brother Abel were so excited to be going on a journey. We bought them drinks and snacks and saw them safely on the bus with their escorts Sunny from Awamaki and Cristian, from MysmallHelp. We had also met another mother who was at the station with her severely disabled son Frank. She was desperately hoping that someone would give her the money to make the journey to Arequipa. We decided to help her and so she joined the group as they drove off to Arequipa to receive their wheelchairs from Equip Kids International. Once again I was reminded of the colossal effort it had taken to get the guys on their way to receive such kindly donated wheelchairs. A reminder that even such a lovely gesture as giving a wheelchair to a disabled child who so desperately needs it, requires patience, relationships with families and knowledge of how to get around the Peruvian health and social services system.

Jose Alfredo filling up before the journey

Saying hello to Frank who was travelling
to Arequipa for a wheelchair

Jose Alfredo receives help to board the bus

Lurdes- the inspiration for MySmallHelp Peru

2011-03-30T22:57:00.000-07:00

Louise Whitaker

28^th March 2011

Leander Hollings, president and founder of Mysmallhelp Peru was introduced to Lurdes in June 2010 and was asked if she could help her in any way. Leander quickly accepted her role as godmother and committed to finding a way for Lurdes to have access to an education, training and a wheel chair. This was the beginning of MySmallHelps involvement with children in Peru , following the previous years emergency relief work with the community of Paucarbamba.

Lurdes is eighteen years old and has a condition called osteogenesis imperfecta, or brittle bone disease, which causes bones to break, bend, and twist easily .

Lurdes lives in Rumira with an abusive and alcoholic mother and step father. Her alcoholic father left her mother when she was young. Lurdes suffers from neglect.. Lurdes can´t walk. Until 9 months ago, Lurdes was immobile and spent all her time at home, never attending school or venturing out into the community. During the second half of 2010, Lurdes received a wheelchair from a Spanish donor and began to receive private tuition lessons at home from a local teacher and was introduced to Cusceñan jewellery teacher- all through the work of MySmallHelp.
Lurdes jewellery business is growing steadily. She is now out and about in the community more but she still needs support to be able to get in and out of her wheel chair and to access certain areas.

Lurdes is very keen to learn to read and write but is progressing slowly because her school teacher is currently only visiting her for 6 hours a week.

I had the pleasure of hanging out with Lurdes for a while whilst in Ollantytambo and can say that for all that she has been through, she is an absolute delight to be around. She´s a teenager who loves styling her hair, painting her nails and she loves clothes! She has an infectious giggle and is great fun to be around. Her dream is to live independently and to look after her sister and brother and the team at MySmallHelp hope to work with Lurdes´strong spirit to help her achieve this through both donations and through supporting Lourdes to run her own jewellery business. I and my family hope to help Lurdes through the work of MySmallHelp.

MySmallHelp continues to work in Peru

2011-03-30T22:49:00.000-07:00

Louise Whitaker

28^th March 2011

Following the work undertaken by Leander Hollings and numerous volunteers working with MySmallHelp , Leander had decided to continue working in Peru for the forseeable future. The first stage in this decision was getting MySmallHelp registered as a Peruvian Association (similar to NGO status) which took several months and was surrounded by the usual red tape!

As the guinea pig project is now nearly self sustaining and as Leander´s initial motivation 5 years ago was to set up projects to help marginalized children access education, this will be the charity´s primary focus.

There are two geographical locations where MySmallHelp will work in Peru, Ollantytambo in the Sacred Valley beyond Cusco and a barrio of Trujillo called El Milagro, which is around 10 hours north of Lima by bus, in the coastal dessert.

In Ollantytambo MySmallHelp in partnership with Awamaki, an American run NGO have identified around 40 children who are in need of assistance. These children are marginalized through poverty, social problems within the family or disability- and sometimes all three.

The work of MySmallHelp is centered around understanding the needs of each family, helping illiterate parents complete all relevant paperwork required for their children to attend school and be entitled to state benefits such as healthcare. Funding in the form of child sponsorship will be looked for to support the family in their initial requirements, whether it be paying the fees to enable to child to attend school or paying for specific equipment or tutoring as required by disabled children. Each family will be provided for on a needs identification basis.

Details of the childrens needs can be found at

http://mysmallhelp.org/support_disable_person_in_peru.php

Donors will be encouraged to support the child through a monthly child sponsorship fee which will fund the identified requirement and provide additional services such as those of a child psychologist, nutritionalist and education specialists to visit the children and families where an identified need has been seen.

In Trujillo the system is much the same. Here there are 16 children from 5 famillies who through poverty and the absence of their fathers have not been able to attend school as they have been working on the rubbish dump with their mothers to fund the family. MySmallHelp hopes to help these children, again through the form of child sponsorship, to deliver the same support to get the children in to school as is being offered to families in Ollantytambo.

Cuylandia, our Peruvian Guinea Pig Project with Mysmallhelp Peru

2011-03-30T22:40:00.000-07:00

24^th March 2011

Louise Whitaker

Around this time last year, Peros kindly donated money to help the flood affected region of Paucarbamba (in the Sacred Valley of Peru) get back on their feet. After initial support of food, shelter and school equipment for the children we spoke with the community members and they wanted the donated money to help them develop small businesses, so they could generate income quickly to rebuild their houses.

As guinea pig meat is seen as a delicacy in Peru, as they are cheap and relatively easy to rear and because they are ready to sell after 6 months of so after the initial set up, we supported the 19 families who wished to participate in the project with tools they needed to set up and offered them the support of a Peruvian Agronomist, Nelida.

All 19 members have been trained in how to best care for the guinea pigs , the best type of food for them so they grow to be big and strong, how to breed and maintain a selection of the best guinea pigs for future breeding and they have received training on the best places to sell them.

Nelida our agronomist has been delighted with the success of the project so far, with each family now having either their first guinea pig births or having guinea pigs pregnant with the first litter. The first sale of the guinea pigs will take place in April and the community is going to hold a big food festival in June to celebrate their new businesses and to sell more guinea pigs.

Once these first sales have been made we are confident, as are the women, that the business will become self sustaining. At a recent meeting the cooperative members agreed that they were delighted with their new businesses and the training they had been given and that after a little more support from the agronomist at the April sales of the guinea pigs, they would be able to work together without further financial support to run the project.

The pictures below show proud members of the community with their guinea pigs and Leander Hollings, Director of Mysmallhelp, speaking to the women at a recent meeting.

Trujillo, Peru

2011-03-28T22:32:00.000-07:00

5th March.

Deisy Baltodano

This week I went with Omar, Ely, Yovana and Josieto the first day of their school, Marco is still at home recovering but should be able to attend school soon! I also went with Jorlan, Marlon and Lucero to their first day of their school, it is fantastic to know that these children are finally getting the education they deserve and is rightfully theirrs! However at the school Senor de Milagros we encountered problems with Yovanaand Omar. The director told me (after I had brought all the equipment they need for the fourth grade) that actually they hadn’t finished two courses with good enough grades to be in the fourth grade. Therefore we would either have to pay for them to take an exam in both of these or they would have to repeat the third grade.

I explained to the director that no one had informed us of this when we registered the children so in light of this it was their fault and we should not have to pay anything. Neither was it acceptable that the children would be repeating the third grade when we had just spent a lot of money on their school equipment for fourth grade! The school then compromised with me that they would give us a reduced price for the exams, but the children would have to take them and could not attend school and till they had done so. Yovanna and Omar have taken their mathematics exam and both passed, just communications to go…all fingers and toes crosses please!!!

We need also have some very sad news this week that the baby girl of one of the families has died. It is very tragic and shocking news and all our thoughts are with Senora Franisca and her family at this time.

Trujillo, Peru

2011-03-28T01:34:00.000-07:00

Monday 28th February.

Deisy Baltodano

Monday 28th of February was the day of the operation for Marco. We had alreadybrought all the medicine he may need as it had originally been planned for the previous Friday. The operation thankfully went very well, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every person that helped in whatever way they could to support the Marco appeal, your help was incredibly appreciated and will not be forgotten by anyone here.

After buying all the uniforms, shoes and school materials needed for each child, I made a visit to each house to drop these off to some very excited children!! Three more children, Marlon, Jordan, and Lucero were also registerd in to school, this will be the first time for all three that they have attended school! Tuesday was the first day of school for Cesar, Esmerelda, Estefania and Jesús!! All three arrived in beautifully clean new uniforms with all new school equipment….I think starting the year as your mean to go on is very applicable to these children! Marco was also discharged from hospital quickly after his operation, he is recovering very well at home and I am visiting him every day. All the necessary information we need for Jesús to receive his national identity card is also now all up to date and I will be sorting this out for him asap!

Trujillo, Peru

2011-03-27T03:17:00.000-07:00

25th February 2011,

Deisy Baltodano

This week Helen and I went to buy the rucksacks for the children, we luckily stumbled across a great offer of 11 soles per rucksack! So of course we jumped on this and got all 16!!! The next day I went to Milagro to get the list of things the children would need for when they began school the following week, I also went to visit each of the childrens houses to get all the uniform and shoe sizes….because of course I couldn’t take all 16 children shopping with me!

Of course I also went to see Marco, to see how he was doing and buy any more medicine he may need. The two youngest children of our group were also this week registered into the local nursery school. Although Franley and Cristian are starting nursery a couple of years late they are both extremely excited and eager!! I have a feeling they won’t be behind for long!

A simple life

2011-03-24T23:26:00.001-07:00

18th March 2011

Louise Whitaker

Sometimes it is good to reflect on the differences between our lives in the UK and life for many
in the Sacred Valley in Peru. Whilst visiting the community of Paucarbabma, the community
where most of our efforts have been made to help them recover after the flooding of January
2010, I took stock of my surroundings.

Below is a photo of one of the women members of our guinea pig businesses kitchen. This lady
is developing her own business with the help of Mysmallhelp and Desana Giving. She is rearing
guinea pigs to sell in the local market, to make money to invest in more guinea pigs and to
use the money to help rebuild her house . She is a business woman. She is trying to better her
current situation. Her kitchen is meager by our standards and her store ´table´fairly empty.
However she tries her best to feed her family and hopefully with the future earnings from her
guinea pig business, this food may become more varied and the risk of this store table being
bare, should be less.

Dental Mission in Peru

2011-03-24T23:00:00.000-07:00

20th March 2011

By Louise Whitaker

Following Peros´ financial support for several communities affected by the floods back in January 2010, I have headed back out to Peru to volunteer to see how the communities are getting along- one year on.

First stop was the Desana Giving Dental Mission in Yanahuara. Mysmallhelp (to whom Peros had donated money for the flood victims) and Desana Giving worked together in 2010 to support the flood victims with food, educational materials, clothes, a dental mission and the development of small

businesses to help the communities get back on their feet.

Desana Giving, with the help of Mysmallhelp, had arranged a second dental mission in the nearby community of Yanahuara in the Sacred Vally in Peru. A team of 5 student dentists, led by Dr Michael Houk carried out over 650 treatments on over 150 people from the local community. Members of the community who we had helped over the last year were also able to attend and all procedures were free of charge.

Dental care is largely neglected in poor communities in Peru. Education on the importance of dental cleanliness is largely overlooked and it was shocking to see children as young as 5 having 5 or 6 teeth removed as a result of decay. My job was to help with the translation, to reassure the children and adults who were having procedures and to provide advice on the importance of regularly cleaning your teeth. There is no doubt that children have a sweet tooth here, children love to drink Inca Cola and Cocoa Cola but the results of this are really shocking. It was really brought home to me when I was speaking to the mother of one young girl who had just had 4 teeth out. I said that really she should limit fizzy drinks to one a week, because they contained lots of sugar which was bad for her daughter´s teeth. The mother looked completely shocked, like she had never made the link before. It was then that I realised Desana Giving and Mysmallhelp were doing great work in educating a small number of families, but that this was jus t a small drop in the ocean.

Anita Gurung to sit her SLC exam this year.

2011-03-20T22:37:00.000-07:00

Anita, a beautiful and shy 17 years old girl, is preparing to sit her SLC in this month . She is performing well at school and secured first division in her sent up exam but teachers think that she could do better. When we meet she’s polite, softly spoken but clearly a happy soul who is bright and conscientious.

She has ambition to be a nurse when she leaves school. Despite her steady progress My Small Help remains concerned about Anita and her future. Her situation has improved because she has been placed in a new home away from her own family. This is still considered to be the best option for her wellbeing and educational progress. When she is not at work she helps around the home with cooking and cleaning.

She is the first girl to appear SLC examination among all the students helped by Mysmallhelp. So, Mysmallhelp wishes for her bright future and will be happy to help her in near future too.

Kate & Josephine talk briefly about their experiences as an accountant volunteering in Kathmandu, Nepal & Sierra Leone, Africa

2011-03-17T02:35:00.000-07:00

Trip to Basantapur Durbar Square with children of Marybert.

2011-03-14T23:18:00.000-07:00

by Jyoti Young

The children of Marybert School and Orphanage were all set for a trip down memory lane on Friday when MySmallHelp organised a day trip to the museum at Durbar Square, Kathmandu. Excitement and much giggling surrounded the outing as 16 children and MSH squeezed onto the local bus. However, load shedding (power cuts) meant that our best laid plans were challenged; the museum was closed because there was no electricity.

Disappointed faces were soon replaced by smiles as we sat in the warming sun with sketch pads and pencils and drew pictures of the beautiful temples all around. Some of the children took control of the MSH camera and put their artistic talents to good use (and some of us now have around 300 images to edit!). The children were treated to samosa and snacks before we were shoehorned back into local tuk tuks and returned to Marybert School and Orphanage for jam and bread.

Although we could taste the disappointment at the closure of the museum it was heartening to see just how easily the children adapted to the new plan to draw the temples. They took comfort at being in the company of their friends and people who cared for them. They were quick to pose for lively photographs and experiment with different camera angles, and it was another enjoyable opportunity for them to bond more with MSH and enjoy the company of staff and volunteers.

For me (Jo Young, volunteer) the highlight of my day was when the children told me that I am in their daily devotional prayers, and finding a continuous stream of little hands entwined with mine (like human spaghetti) as we walked the chaotic streets back to the tuk tuk station avoiding cars and motorbikes, cycles, portable scales weighted down with vegetables, groups of tourists, meandering high school students, and local people who were keen to see why there was a group of 16 primary school children out in force.

So, although memory lane was closed on this occasion, we made memories of our own that will be cherished in our hearts and photo albums.

In other news, MSH has relocated to a new office where there is running water and bathroom facilities. The new space also accommodates the Mysmalldesign team so that we can strengthen our working relationship and enjoy working on the different strands as one larger team.

Mysmalldesign is a team of web and IT professionals who will create websites for international clients whilst donating 10% of all profits back to Mysmallhelp. It’s an idea that’s been circulating for a while but this year sees it come to fruition, after all you can throw a seed on the ground in the wrong season and get nothing, but in the right environment it will flourish.

Trujillo

2011-03-14T01:01:00.000-07:00

In August 2009 I worked for a NGO in the barrio of Milagro, Trujillo. The system of this NGO was to set-up informal preparatory schools for children who had never been to school and then put them into the state system the following year, but only with a bit of financial support, not complete.

In Peru it is illegal for all children, of whatever age and whatever level of education, no to be in school. In 2010 I went back to visit the children I had worked with the year before, only to find that the NGO had pulled out, none of the children attended school, many worked in the rubbish dump, and nothing about their impoverished situation had changed, or looked likely to in the future.

I felt extremely strongly that I couldn’t leave these children and their families without trying to help further. These children, each and every one, is wonderful and has the right to an education. If I could help and support these children to get an education then we could also give them the chance to create a life out of poverty. So after meeting and speaking to Leander Hollings (founder of MSH Nepal), knowing that she wanted to set-up MSH Peru we agreed to work together, and for it to be my responsibility to setup the program in Trujillo.

After discovering that the formation of informal preparatory schools is unnecessary we decided on a program of help for the mothers. For this year we had no choice but to pay for all the children to attend school - including entrances fees, book, pens, pencils etc. If we hadn’t paid for everything these kids would have gone another year without school as it is near enough impossible for these women to pay for their children to attend school. We interviewed each family and collected the information of each child e.g. age, grade, previous schooling. From this we could establish which children would be able to attend the state schools and which children would have attend the escolarisado, the state's system for children who have never attended school or whose education is too poor for them to be part of the state system. We had four children whose education was considered too bad or who had never attend school. For three of them they are going to be attending a school run by nuns, this was the mother’s personal choice, as she, like us wanted her children in school 5 days a week not just at weekends. The mother of the fourth child, Anderson, opted for the escolarisado option as she was not in favour of this school. All the other children with one exception will be attending the state schools.

The one exception is a boy named Angel. Angel is 12 years old, and he has never attended school and is unable to speak. For Angel we have found a private school for children with learning difficulties. This is the one and only year we want to pay for these children to go to school. Over the next year we want to work with the mothers to help them start a micro-enterprise that will hopefully generate enough money for each of them to pay for their children to go to school next year and the years thereafter. The primary idea is that we want to teach the women to make artisan products from recyclable materials. This idea came about as some of the women and children work in the rubbish dump collecting recyclable goods to sell, we thought this would be a good way of not just generating money for the women but also highlighting that women and children are working in terrible, dangerous conditions in the rubbish dumps in Peru. Leander’s boyfriend Abel Torres is a very talented artist and maybe able to teach these women how to make such products. We have also come to an agreement with an artisan in Huanchaco, a beach town near Milagro, that we can share half his shop to sell our products.

The second part of our work with these women is to get each and every one of them the legal documents that are rightfully theirs and their children’s, these being birth certificates, DÑI (national identity cards in Peru) and SIS ( free health insurance for children and the elderly). A lot of people living in the barrios never leave the barrios and quite often are unaware, or have not bothered, to go and get the legal documents they need and are there to help them. For example in the last month one of the children we work with, Marco, was involved in an incident that left him with a second degree burn to his leg. His mother took him to hospital but could not afford to keep him there as she did not have her SIS and could not afford to pay the medical bills herself. Therefore MSH Peru raised the money to put Marco back in hospital and have him treated properly, we got his mother the SIS which helped pay for the bed and some of the medication from the date of the SIS, but it did not cover everything and of course did not cover the skin graft he needed, but it certainly helped. If we had not helped, the situation could have been very nasty, but it does not need to be this way and this is what we want to communicate to these women. We have also just had news that the baby of one of the families we work with has also died, we are not aware of details as of yet but we do know that the mother did not tell anyone, or go to the doctor, when her child got sick.

We want to help these women realise that there is help available to them, they are citizens of this country and have rights. Another major part of our project is teaching these women to read and write, this is not just their right as a citizen of Peru but their universal human right, without this right they have very little employability and also cannot help or take any interest in their child’s school work. Over the last week our MSH help representative has been buying all the uniforms, books and equipment needed for each of the children and in the following two weeks they will all be starting school…..no exceptions.

Sacred Valley Project

2011-03-10T21:07:00.000-08:00

The Sacred Valley project is an NGO based in Ollantaytambo whose aim is to provide schooling and accommodation to girls aged between 11 and 17 whose access to education has been limited through location or lack of funds. Following a highly successful first year in Ollantaytambo providing schooling opportunities to 6 girls, Alex Ball expanded the reach of his work and acquired a new house for the same 6 girls, and 6 more, to live in!

Our first day of working in partnership with The Sacred Valley Project began in typical Peruvian fashion - 2 hours late - but once we got started we were given a brief tour of the house, 4 dormitories, a dining room, kitchen and a study room all situated around a central courtyard, it was off to work!! Our first task was to tidy up the general areas there was a lot of debris and rubbish lying around due to fact it had been a carpenters yard and we collected many sacks full of rubbish. Although the girls' parents had already visited the site and completed a lot of the work (part of their obligation to support the project their daughters have been chosen for), they had been unable to secure the roofing due to rain. So up the ladder went Team Sweden (Karl, Jonathan and Christian) and myself (not from Sweden) and managed to fix plastic to the ventilation shafts to ensure the girls did not get soaked when sleeping!! This involved 2 people holding ladders for the other 2 who were precariously balanced on the rungs and rafters, one holding the nail with the other banging it in with their other hands hanging on for dear life!!! However by the end of the day the roofing was secure and we rewarded ourselves with a well earned glass of chicha (fermented maize drink) with the locals.

The second day we were finalising everything that the girls would need in order to live happily in the house. Hard manual labour was done in an attempt to level out the courtyard using pickaxes and shovels especially in front of the shower and toilet block, not helped by the puppy, Macho (so named because he'll be the only boy in the house), who insisted on playing with us every 2 seconds!! Following this we spent time shoring up the last remaining hole in the roof and putting together the last of the beds as well as sweeping and washing the floors. It was starting to look like a proper boarding house.

Day 3 started incredibly early with a trip to Urubamba at 6.30 to pick up the remaining mattresses, bedside cabinets and tables. First we picked up the truck following a combi ride and Karl, Johnathan and Christian hopped in the back as there was no room up front. Following a brief stop to pick up pigs, who shared the back of the truck with Team Sweden, we ended up in Urubamba where we breakfasted on lomo saltado (sauteed beef) and moved on to pick up the furniture. This time Karl, Jonathan and Christian shared the ride back with all of the furniture as we travelled along the road, half of which had collapsed into the river the day before, and we unloaded and stored all of the material away in the house in Ollantaytambo. Afterwards we further attempted to clear the courtyard, which was surprisingly big and called an end to it after a long day! The girls moved in on Sunday and are very happy with their accommodation thanks in part to MySmallHelp.

Matteo Lewent (MSH Volunteer)

My first week of volunteering with MySmallHelp Peru in Ollantaytambo

2011-03-09T01:41:00.000-08:00

I arrived in Ollanta the weekend of a baptism. A very important baptism - it was not only a double baptism for two sisters but two MySmallHelp workers were the godmothers for each of the girls. Not only that but the elder of the sisters, 18 year old Lurdes Juno Mamani, is also the primary reason that MSH are in this little town. She’s an extraordinary disabled young lady who’s given me much pleasure this week with my various visits to her house and with her out in nearby towns.

One of the most traditional Peruvian customs at the baptism is for the child who is being baptised to have their hair cut by guests, godparents, parents etc. and in cutting the hair you donate some money to their education. The child is sat in front of a dish with petals on it and by the end of the ceremony the dish is full of hair and money too. The child, in this case Yolanda, was given sweets to keep her entertained whilst we were all pulling and chopping at her hair. Don't worry, she gets taken to the hairdresser afterwards!

There’s lots to do here. I have to admit that my image of volunteering was all hands-on, getting muddy, clearing things up, doing jobs that perhaps others weren’t keen on doing etc. I hadn’t even considered the fact that there’s an awful lot of admin to do behind the scenes - especially at the early stages of starting up an NGO, and especially somewhere like Peru. Thankfully since I’ve been here MSH have got their registered charity status here in Peru - after lots of bureaucracy. Great news.

So this last week I’ve been practicing my Spanish with Lurdes, writing quite a few emails on behalf of MSH, compiling spreadsheets, going to meetings with partnership NGOs in the area (mainly Awamaki), visiting guinea pig projects, putting up posters and generally rather enjoying myself.

This morning me and the other four volunteers made toys for physical therapy use by disabled children in the area. Jonathan made a wooden boat, Christian a little car and Karl, Matt and I made ‘putting the square shape in the square hole etc.’ toys. There’s more to do - blowing bubble mixes to make, play dough too, rattles and no doubt we’ll have more ideas this afternoon.
We are all living in the volunteer house in Ollanta together. Similar to a hostel but it’s lovely to call somewhere home for a while and be able to buy ingredients with a more long term dinner plan than pasta and sauce - I’ve been travelling already for over 5 months in South America.

It’s been an important past week too because the schools all went back on Monday 7^th - so we had to organise some of the children we support getting places at the school, purchasing new stationary for them and organising transport for them to the school. It’s about a 20 minute walk, so not far by Peruvian standards, but the Headmaster’s requested the children don’t walk so that they are more punctual, cleaner when they arrive etc. In rainy season the dirt road isn’t ideal!

This coming weekend we have some international dentists coming to a nearby health centre for three days - hence we’ve been promoting that with posters and word-of-mouth. The better Spanish speakers amongst us will also be translating for the dentists too - very important when you’ve got a terrified child in the dentist’s chair.
So there’s always something to keep me entertained and it’s a lovely spot to be for a month. Ollanta’s got ruins either side of the river, a charming central plaza and bustling market. When it’s not raining, it’s beautiful!
Right, I’m off to supervise two girls we support with their homework….

Students roll up sleeves, and it all kicks off in Nepal

2011-02-08T03:00:00.000-08:00

By:- MSH Volunteer Jo Young

More than 50 students at Quest International College (Hotel Management) rolled up their sleeves and donated blood as part of a joint venture between Red Cross Nepal, and My Small Help this week. It’s the second successful event that that has been run at the college and MSH hopes to continue with one of these camps four times a year.

It was lovely to see the students get so excited about being able to make a donation. Unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to donate (Jo Young, volunteer) because I have been in Nepal for less than 90 days. However, it did mean that I could run a tight ship in the refreshment suite where apples were cored and chopped, bananas, biscuits and boiled eggs plated up, and cartons of juice issued to the students after they had donated. Due to their involvement in the hospitality industry the students couldn’t wait to get involved so within minutes they were happily shelling eggs, tidying up the rubbish and distributing the snacks to their peers.

Nineteen-year-old Guna Shrestha from Kumaripati was one of the first to donate blood. She said: “I am so happy that I was able to spend a little bit of time doing something so worthwhile. My father and my brother have both needed blood in their lives so I know how important it is. I will definitely donate again in the future and I’m really pleased to see that the Red Cross and My Small Help have come to the college because that makes it so much easier for us to donate in a comfortable and accessible environment.”

Kolin Shrestha, Director of Quest International College said: “It is very rewarding to see these young people motivated enough to make these donations. It’s a habit that we would love to help cultivate. If we think about it we have no idea when we might need to receive blood from the bank so it’s only right that we offer what we have when we’re healthy. A simple accident or illness might leave us in need of blood.

“This is the second time that we have run the blood campaign at the college and we will always be happy to be involved in this type of programme, and to help our students to become more socially aware and responsible.”

The MSH staff worked steadily to encourage students to make their donation, to give them some support whilst doing so, taking photographs, and assisting students to fill out their consultation form. As a reward, and what turned out to be a somewhat surreal experience, we were then escorted to the top floor of the college where students run a mock restaurant as part of their training. The students who had moments before been jovial and carefree were now immaculately suited and booted and on their best behaviour as they served up delicious Indian cuisine and tended to our every need as a diner. Overall it was a very satisfying day with many students promising to encourage their friends to donate next time, and two of the girls asking how to become volunteers with the charity. For MSH staff it’s back to planning how best to focus efforts for 2011, and students at Quest are training for a sporting event next week, which leads us nicely to the children at Marybert School and Orphanage who earlier this year had a kick around and lesson in footballing tricks.

Italian born Mattia Marzaro, a good friend of mine who was visiting Nepal for the first time, kindly offered to help raise some funds for the orphanage from his football peers back home. So, for two hours Mattia, President of MSH Raju Maharjan, and volunteer Andy Reynolds from England, thrashed a ball around the playground hotly pursued (and often beaten) by a merry little band of children. Mattia has already successfully raised more than 50 Euros back home, and more photos can be seen at www.justgiving.com/childreninnepal Whilst the boys showed off their footballing prowess the girls took advantage of some peace to play badminton.

MSH always welcomes fun and innovative ways to raise funds so if you want to try your hand (of feet, like Mattia) then please get in touch and let us know. We are grateful for all donations and you can rest assured that our work ethic is to minimise overheads so that the children are always the direct beneficiaries.

The big clean up!

2011-01-16T21:44:00.000-08:00

Written by Helen Osborn, Mysmallhelp Peru, December 2010

On Saturday 18th December Us MysmallHelp volunteers took a day off from the chocolatadas and teamed up with Naturaccion to help them with a cleanup project near the start of the Inca trail where we were told Peru Rail had been dumping all their rubbish. The name of the project is Naturaccion, it was started by a Spaniard named Jose Manuel. He and his organization had found areas in and around the sacred valley where they proposed setting up Eco campsites. The location we went to with the group to help out was absolutely stunning, and I believe that once the campsite is ready to go it will extremely popular especially because it is so near to the Inca trail. We were all aware before we started the day that it was going to be manual labor and picking up rubbish was unlikely to be a pleasant experience; however when we arrived at the site the sheer amount of rubbish was a lot more than any of us envisaged. It would not be an exaggeration to say that it was literally a sea of rubbish.

At the top of the hill just off from the train tracks there was just sacks and sacks of the stuff as well as individual nappies, sanitary towels, beer bottles, food containers….you name it! The rubbish covered the whole of the top of the hill and continued all the way to the bottom of the site, and awfully the river was laidened with rubbish as well. It really was the most disgusting thing I have ever seen or done, and I was aghast at the lack of conscience on the part of Peru Rail and the others who were dumping the rubbish. So the men set about digging holes for the trees to plant in, and the women dawned gloves and masks and began the clean up. The other volunteers that we were working with were fantastic and extremely hard working. However as I have said there was substantial amount of rubbish, and as it had been there so long it had become mixed in with the earth and so and some points we were having to really dig into the ground with shovels to get the rubbish out. Also a lot of bits start to degrade after so much time being left and so the work could also be quite fiddly. We stayed working there until 4pm.However half way through the day me and Leander did decide to use our female initiative!

There was a local football tournament going on literally next to where we were clearing up, so as we felt slightly disheartened by the sheer amount we had to do and there was some very able body men nearby we decided to go over and ask if they would help! They said yes and duly after they had finished their game about 20 men came over and helped out! It was very much appreciated and definitely helped out the cleanup process. By this time most of the rubbish had been cleared, and we had roughly 50 sacks of rubbish. Peru rail had agreed as most of this rubbish was there to pick up all the sacks and to donate 500 trees for this particular site. However, not only did the trees arrive very late but instead of 500 we were given 50. Due to this the Naturaccion decide not to go ahead with the planting that day, which of course was a huge disappointed to the guys who had been digging holes all day.

I spoke to Jose Manuels wife who told me that this rubbish was not all due to Peru Rail, a lot of it was also due to the Muncipilidad failing to provide the local town with a proper rubbish dump so they had joined in with dumping their rubbish in the same place. We did have some people from the nearby village helping us out, and because they too were ashamed and disgusted and how out of
control the rubbish had got. All in all, it was a hard and disgusting work but you could really see the difference, and see the ground!! It had been a good day’s work, and a great team effort!!

Christmas market in Cusco

2011-01-14T23:25:00.000-08:00

by Helen Osborn, Mysmallhelp Volunteer December 2010, Peru

Our day started bright and early on Christmas eve, Leander and I dashed down to the market at 7am in the usual last minute Peruvian panic type way! We arrived at the market to find most people had been there since four in the morning and had already set up their stalls. We on the other hand weren’t even quite sure where our men for constructing our stall were! Luckily we stumbled upon them quite quickly! Luckily, the day before Leander and Abel had managed to find a company in Cusco that hired tents, chairs and tables. Lurdes is a young disabled girl that Mysmallhelp has been supporting since May. Lurdes suffers from osteogenesis imperfecta, and had previously been locked away in her house in Rumira just outside Ollantaytambo for nearly 18 years. Before Mysmallhelp helped to find her a wheel chair she had no way of moving independently. Her life has changed significantly over the past 2 months has recently started to learn to read and write with a private government teacher that Mysmallhelp helped organize to visit her at her home. Lurdes has also recently been given training in jewellery making with a Cuscenan jewellery teacher named Cristian. Cristian is delighted to have the privelige of teaching Lurdes and has said that he will be the happiest man alive if he has the opportunity to help another 20 Lurdes!!

Mysmallhelp decided to pay for a stand at the Christmas market in Cusco to help Lurdes to sell the jewellery that she made in November and December. Designer, Abel Torres also helped by donating 10% of the sales of his designer clothes to Mysmallhelp to support Lurdes and other disabled young people.

The men set about constructing the stall with a plastic tarpaulin to prevent the rain from running the products and Leander went to find the tables and chairs. Cristian and Nelly arrived at about 8.30am ahead of Lurdes and Abel to help us work out the display for the products. Cristian has a lot of experience in this and therefore knows the best way to display products so that they are eye catching, but not set out in such an elaborate way that people are scared to touch them. Lurdes and Abel arrived about an hour later; shortly after the market quickly fell into full swing. The Plaza was packed with handicraft products and typical Peruvian Christmas food stalls. The place was literally bursting at the seams with Alpaca and Panetone!!!!-this however was very much to our advantage. Of course no one can ever deny the sheer beauty of the artisan products of Peru, a lot of the stalls were selling the same products, Abel’s and Lurdes products on the other handed offered those trawling the plaza something completely different. Lurdes products were very beautiful and, as I said, very different to the other jewellery products. Her price was very fair and she had a good selection of products ranging from the real “I love it” pieces, to bracelets that caught the impulse buyers as well as those really looking. Abel´s products were major eye catchers, especially his hand made printed pieces. I had assumed that the target audience for Abel´s clothes would have been foreigners, because the clothes carry a definite rave style. However in the end the main buyers turned out to be Peruvians. The great thing about the range of clothes Abel was selling was that as well as the printed pieces he also had a rail of more simply stylish clothes that appealed greatly to girls between 18-30 years old. We did have to concede on the prices slightly and of course make some deals (we are in major bargaining territory after all!) but he still sold a good amount for a good price.

The morning went very smoothly, but the thought hanging over everyone’s head was: “ and what time can we expect the rain?” and sure enough without fail it came, and wow.. it rained! Although we did have plastic covering our stall, the water still managed to get instead, and Leander had warned us how the year before the force of the rain had brought tents down. We covered every inch that we could with plastic, and regularly pushed the rain off the roof of the tent with a stick. It had been in January 2010 when the rain was so strong that it caused the river in the sacred to flood and thousands of people’s homes were destroyed. Luckily this year the rain was not as strong, and so all we had to do was wait for it stop, however that did take a good two hours! All in all it was felt that the Christmas market was a success in terms of sales and advertising for Abel, Lurdes and MySmallHelp. The Christmas market itself was lovely! During the whole of December there had been a distinct lack of Christmas spirit, however on the 24th of December in Plaza de Armas, Cuzco it suddenly sprang to life!

Mysmallhelp in Peru

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2010 Working in partnership with Casa Hogar del Sol, Desana Giving, Odontologos Sin Fronteras, Living Heart and Awamaki

GUINEA PIGS

Following the devastating floods in the sacred valley in January 2010 Mysmallhelp UK decided to put up an emergency appeal to help the flood victims. This appeal resulted in a fundraising campaign raising over 20,000 pounds.

The funds raised by Mysmallhelp initially went to provide emergency food for the flood victims of the Paucarbamba community that had lost their homes in the devastating floods. Food was provided for 150 people on a daily basis over a 10 week period and two temporary food shelters were built for the upper and lower communities. The Paucarbamba community organized themselves into two groups and took it in turns to cook breakfast, lunch and dinner on a communal basis sharing cooking and dining space.
Mysmallhelp also provided donated clothes, blankets and emergency educational materials.

Following the 10 week initial period, it was jointly decided with Casa Hogar del Sol and Desana Giving that a survey should be done in the community to decipher what was the best way to help the community in a long term sustainable way by creating jobs and additional income. The survey resulted in the decision to set up the CUYLANDIA project building a training centre for guinea pig rearing and additional guinea pigs for each family interested in setting up their own guinea pig rearing businesses.
The guinea pig rearing training centre was built in August and the training sessions took place over an 8 week period before the guinea pigs arrived in Paucarbamba!
The families are now rearing guinea pigs in their homes and are receiving supervision from the agronomist employed by Casa Hogar del Sol.

HUAYRONCOYOCPAMPA

Throughout the year Mysmallhelp has arranged for various volunteers to be sent to the Huayroncoyocpampa community to help with the clean up operation, recuperating materials and rebuilding houses.

Mysmallhelp founder, Leander Hollings became the proud “Madrina” of the first rebuilt house.

Mysmallhelp helped to find a teacher and coordinate efforts to set up a knitting cooperative for the homeless women of Huayroncoyocpampa and is currently trying to help find customers for these products in the UK.

VOLUNTEER HOUSE

Mysmallhelp donated funds to set up a volunteer house in Ollantaytambo in partnership with Casa Hogar del Sol. The volunteer house has beds for 9 volunteers and has proven to be able to house up to 30 dentists at any given time!

DENTISTS

A team of dentists organised by Desana Giving came to visit the Paucarbamba community in March 2010. Mysmallhelp helped to coordinate a follow up dental campaign organized in partnership with Odontologos Sin Fronteras.

Volunteer dentists from Peru, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia and Spain treated over 500 patients over a 10 day period during the month of August 2010.
Mysmallhelp helped to fund accommodation and transport for the dental campaign.

INDIVIDUAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING PROJECTS

Mysmallhelp has arranged for education, books and uniforms to be provided to various individuals in the Ollantaytambo region that had previously not been able to attend school.

JEWELLERY TRAINING

Mysmallhelp is working in partnership with the Taller de Pez in Cusco, providing jewellery training and work for an 18 year old disabled girl that had previously been locked away in her house for 18 years. She has now gained confidence and independence as through the friendships she has made over the past 6 months her story has been told on national Peruvian TV and she has received a sports wheel chair from a donor in Spain.

CHOCOLATADAS

During the run up to Christmas Mysmallhelp raised funds for the Christmas chocolatadas and worked in partnership with local NGO´s Living Heart, Casa Hogar del Sol, and Awamaki to deliver hot chocolate, sweet bread and Christmas gifts to over 3000 people.

Mysmallhelp travelled in a decorated mini bus with clowns and volunteers spreading Christmas cheer on Christmas day.

Chocolatadas

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Chocolatadas, Christmas 2010, by Matteo Lewent

Although the actual number of days of the chocolatadas numbered only 8 the preparatory work for them, done mainly by Leander, had taken various months and by the time i arrived was in full swing involving frequent trips to Cusco and negotiations with various suppliers and other NGOs. The aim was to provide chocolatadas involving hot chocolate, fruit bread, entertainment and Peruvian made presents for upwards of 2000 children based in the Sacred valley (although it turned out to be a lot more than this!) in associacion with 3 other charities based in the sacred valley; Living Heart, Paskay and Awamaki.

Our first 3 chocolatadas were done in partnership with Living Heart, a charity providing nutritional projects to remote rural communities. The first chocolatada location was in a field between 2 villages in the mountains above Pisac .We set out early in the morning with a sense of trepidation not quite sure what to expect where our first order of business was to pick up the clowns from their house (to my disappointment they did not live in a big top!) and got a baby and a small child into the bargain!! We picked up Rita who loaded our combi up with over 200 plastic balls and other presents, between these and the number of people we had in the van it was no wonder that we got stuck in the mud on the way up! Following our arrival the chocolate was put on the fire to heat, despite some difficulty getting the fire started (probably because I was poking my nose in trying to ´help´!!), and the clowns put on their show which they seemed to love despite inital fears that some of the children may not understand a show in Spanish! We gave out the plastic balls, presents and red noses in a none too orderly fashion as well as random donated clothes which was interesting as giving adult mens shorts to an 8 year old girl might not seem to be all too useful but they would get distributed to friends and family.

The children seemed to love the finger puppets, seperated at length by Helen, Leander, myself and a small army of helpers, and the older children loved the T-shirts designed by Abel Torres an artist based in Lima with Cusco and Mysmallhelp symbols dotted all over them! Kids were pushing to get presents, coming back for seconds of presents and hot chocolate and parents inventing children they did not have all in their eagerness to get presents. A great introduction to chocolatadas and it was nice to see the kids wearing their red noses and playing with their presents on the ride back down, despite the biting midges and crying babies!

Chocolatada number 2

I was always dreading this chocolatada with a 4am wake up and a 4.30am departure. The journey up to the village took over 5.5 hours and involved going over a mountain pass in excess of 4300m and it was absolutely freezing probably because of the snow outside. We breakfasted in Lares before heading to to the village which was precariously perched on the mountainside bathed in sunlight basking in amazing views of the valley. We were given a very warm welcome by both the headmaster and the kids and did the chocolatada for the primary schools kids as the school was split into into primary and secondary. Following the clowns show and distribution of the presents and the red noses to the primary school kids, and a couple of cheeky secondary school kids we were treated to lunch in one of the classrooms, which when sitting on the mini chairs certainly bought back memories of school!!! The headmaster kindly took us to the main plaza in the town to show us the inca ruins there and explain a bit about the history of the area and it was great to see the kids playing with their presents about the ruins, a great mixture of the old and new!! Our journey back took well over 7.5hours because apparently it is a good idea to only open the road for 2 hours a day, one in the morning and 1 in the evening so Helen and I took the opportunity to do a small hike which was not easy at that altitude combined with running into Llamas it was an interesting experience!!

Chocolatada number 3 with Living heart

Was very much looking forward to this chocolatada as we had been promised that it was nowhere near as far away as the previous one and we had 2 additional helpers in the form of Scott and Meg both from England. We had met Scott the previous day and very quickly had got him involved in sorting out tinger puppets, red noses and t-shirts! What an introduction! As soon as we arrived at the school our van was surrounded by children looking to help us carry the presents and bread down to the school! We distributed the presents and hot chocolate to over 500 children, mothers and teachers and attempted to play a rather energetic game of football with the kids which was really hard at that altitude!! After this we were treated to a tradtional Inka ceremony including pan pipes and blessing Pachamama (at least thats what i think was going on!) as well as a crazy trumpeter who Abel for some reason quickly befriended and serenaded us throughout the clowns show and the games with the kids. Our lunch of quinua soup was really good and we headed back to Ollantaytambo feeling as though the last 3 days with Sacred Heart had gone really well and we had bought a lot of joy to the kids! Would the next one with Carlos be any better? We were about to find out!

Chocolatada with Carlos

In previous days we had been visiting only one village and doing 1 chocolatada per day so it was going to be very interesting to try to do 8 over only 2 days especially considering that each chololatada previously had lasted over 4 hours. Would there be enough hours in the day! Intially a bit disorganized with the bread not turning up until at least 10am despite our 8am plan to leave. Our target villages were those affected by the terrible floods in January and our first stop was the village of Paucarbamba where we were greeted with hugs by about 20 beaming children. A new school building was being built next door higher off the ground so as to avoid a repeat of the floods should they occur again. Whilst Scott and I entertained the kids with our rubbish football skills, Helen and Meg started a game of Jump rope whilst Leander was assisting the hot chocolate. The next 2 villages followed a similar format both at schools with a particularily memorable visit in the village of Ancopachar where Scott donned a Ben 10 outfit, a karate cartoon character,and spent the next 2 hours being hit by the kids whilst 2 Americans who donned santa and dinosaur costumes suffered similar fate. Our final location was at the village of Paucarbamba which was in the shadow of Ollanta, where loads more kids had turned up from the larger town than we had presents for. At this point the heavens opened to compound problems especially with the hot chocolate which due to communications breakdown had not been made and Meg and I handed out the hot chocolate, fruit bread and presents in a reasonably organized fashion!!

Awamaki

The final chocolatada for Mysmallhelp was in partnership with the organisation Awamaki and took place in the remote village of Patacancha. Mysmallhelp took the presents in the Christmas mobile with the faithful driver Ruben and met the Awamaki team up in the stadium where they had hot chocolate which was prepared the night before by a Peruvian chef! The children all lined up for their hot chocolate and panetone and the presents were handed out in an orderly fashion!

In the end, Mysmallhelp provided chocolatadas and presents to over 2000 children, in excess of 1000 adults and one particularily friendly bloke with a trumpet!!! Although long hours and lots of preparing presents )especially blowing up those dam plastic balls seeing the children walking awat from the chocolatadas with big smiles on their faces playing with their presents definitely made the experience worth it!