Cerro de Pasco

Photos:
*Entrance to Cerro de Pasco
*In the Mayor's office. So glad we had down coats!
*Inside a classroom with desks that have been covered by the parents to protect the desks from further damage and to make the surfaces more usable in their current state.
*The outside of one of the schools we visited.  
*Children in the classroom (2 photos).
*Rob making notes about the condition of the classroom furniture and the needs of the school.
*A sample of their chairs in disrepair. The chairs are kind of tough on little legs, especially if the girls wear skirts.
*Worn desks.
*Student sitting in a desk. This chair/desk combo doesn't have enough room for his legs to fit underneath the desk.
*So sad that this photo was out of focus, but really wanted to show this little girl all bundled up in the classroom. There are no climate controls in the schools so it is always basically the same temperature inside and outside.
*We gathered with the schoolmaster and some children and teachers for a photo before we returned to Lima.
*Cute little girl waving good-bye.

Cerro de Pasco is a mining town. Unfortunately for the people of Pasco, prices for commodities such as the metals mined here are down worldwide and the primary mine and largest employer in town has shut down until prices recover putting nearly 8,000 people out of work. Our assignment was to evaluate some schools that had requested assistance in replacing classroom furniture that had served well, but was nearing (or past) the end of its useful life.

We were warmly greeted by the mayor. The people we have met in Peru are so warm and genuine. We explained to the mayor the purpose of our visit and that once we documented the need we hoped to submit a request for funding for a project to assist the schools here. We explained that the funds to purchase the classroom furniture is donated by members and friends of the Church worldwide, many of whom have very little themselves but donate to try to share what little they have with those who may have even less.

The children wear hats, sweaters, coats, and scarves inside the classroom. It gets (stays?) cold here much of the year and there did not appear to be any form of heating in the classrooms. Children are clean and attractive and were very curious to see some visitors from North America. A few classrooms had children who extended a greeting to us in English.  :-)

This year the schools received some funds for maintenance from the national government and they were able to paint most of the exterior of the schools a few weeks ago. They showed us where they were unable to paint because the funds didn't purchase enough to cover all the outside, not to mention inside the classrooms where there was also a need for some new paint. The newly painted exteriors made a remarkable difference in the appearance of the schools.

As we visit schools in the development of a project, we determine how many children are enrolled in each grade level and the condition of existing desks, blackboards/whiteboards, and other needs for school furniture. We also discuss with local officials, both government officials and school leaders, what resources they can bring to the project to help meet the needs. Sometimes it is paint to spruce up the schools, sometimes it is building materials to add classroom space, sometimes it is expertise to help train parents to do the necessary construction. 

Students and families help build classrooms and paint existing school spaces. As we partner together, we can accomplish more than simply providing desks and other school furniture. We can assist the local leaders and parents in identifying resources they already have but perhaps are not using so that in the future they can rely more upon themselves and less upon others for meeting their needs and finding solutions to their own problems.

When we came into the classroom, the children were actively sitting at and using these desks and chairs. They are not just sitting in a corner waiting for replacement.  This is what they have and they are using it the best they can.

We ask our partners to be responsible for the costs of transporting any donated materials from Lima to their schools. That permits all of our funds to be allocated to the purchase of needed materials for donation instead of shipping costs to get it there. It also allows our partners to actively participate in doing what they are able to do to make the project a success. Sometimes they have to seek partners in other municipal governments to be able to do so, but the process helps them to identify resources they have available and that they can use in the future as well.

If we determine that the needs are appropriate and local recipients are willing to do their part to make a successful project, we return and begin the process of submitting a project for the various levels of approval that are necessary before it actually receives approval and has an assigned budget. Once that approval is obtained, we (through our Purchasing Department) put the project out for competitive bidding to find the company that will provide the desks to required specifications at the lowest cost for a quality product to allow us to provide as much as possible to these struggling schools.

After finishing our evaluations and discussions in Cerro de Pasco, we got into the vehicle that brought us all this way (thanks to Jerico, the great driver) and headed across the high plains of Junin and then back up the Carretera Central (Central Highway) to cross the Andes (gasp! gasp!) once again at 15,807 feet and then returned home to Lima.