Thursday, April 29, 2010

Paucarbamba Community Meeting


Paucarbamba Community Members

It has been three months since the floods devastated the Sacred Valley ...... and the community of Paucarbamba. Almost 40 families lost their homes, livestock, crops, and their personal belongings. One thing they have not lost is their will to improve themselves. For the past three months, Casa Hogar del Sol, MySmallHelp, and Desana(the group now known as Sueños) have been working with this community..... first with food lines, then temporary comedors, then dental treatments, and now the next phase..... helping the families that want to participate in a long term growth plan for each family in the community.

Today, we held the 'kick off' meeting with the community members to explain the plan. We are so fortunate to have Nelida Huillcanina (our Agronomist) and Carlos Gibaja (Casa Hogar del Sol) to help us 'outsiders' understand the local culture. Nelida had prepared an easy to understand contract for each family to read while she explained what would be expected from each family and what they would get in return.



Nelida explaining the plan.
The families that signed up for the plan today will receive a complete program to raise and sell a higher grade cuy (guinea pig) and therefore improve their economic condition. The Sueños Plan that was approved by the team (Carlos, Nelida, Leander, Lou, George, and Kathy) is all encompassing ..... Sueños will supply the cuy, cuy food, supplements, and continuing training on raising bigger and better cuy. Much research has been done on this project and Nelida, Leander and Lou feel confident that these families will be much better off 1 year from today.

The plan is not all 'give' by Sueños .... the families in the program have signed contracts that spell out what they must do and what they must provide ...... with a timetable of when these items must be completed. Nelida and Leander (along with Cristian Calderon) will be responsible for much of the 'every day ground work'. In addition to the cuy, the community will be given FREE classes in English and other appropriate topics to be determined by the team.
Carlos signed each contract.

This day was very special to us since we have been working on it for three months. At times we thought it would never come together...... but today the magic happened ...... the community asked questions, gave important input, disagreed a little but in the end, they signed the amended contracts and everyone was happy and looking forward to working together..... the key word is TOGETHER!!!!

George and Kathy leave tomorrow for the United States ...... they feel very good about this project and look forward to working with the rest of the team.....'remotely from the US'. Louise will be heading back to the UK and she too is looking forward to working with the team via Skype from the UK. That leaves Carlos, Nelida, Christian, and Leander to do most of the work. We are in good hands since Leander is the Project Leader. Our DREAM has come true..... the community of Paucarbamba is slowing getting back on their feet and we are a small part of their recovery.
"So Kathy, wasn't this the most amazing day?"

Keep following our blog for more updates on the project in Paucarbamba ..... oh, enjoy all the photos from today.....

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