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Dear
friends,
January 2009
was the first full month of operation for our Bolivian
pilot project (in the El Alto barrio above La Paz). See
Bolivia.
In February we had to go to Quito and there start our
Ecuador work all over again - following the hostile takeover
of our existing projecrts (and you thought such things
happen only in the corporate world). Fortunately our
previous four years of good work in Ecuasdor were known
and appreciated in the right places: so jump starting
a new programme was relatively easy. See Ecuador.
Then Patricia Castillo, our dear friend and colleague,
opened our largest school to date, on the north coast
of Venezuela.
As the year progressed we also opened our first school
in a very poor barrio of Peru's second largest city. See
Arequipa.
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a
project for early intellectual stimulation
for children who
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are
born into societies which are not used to
doing this.
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It works magically, but requires a sponsor to do properly.
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We continued the restructuring of our Lima projects following
the early departure of 'The Boys' to open the same work
in Iquitos (partly funded by the original sponsor of Bruce
Peru Lima). We reopened Cajamarca
and shepherded a number our newer projects through to
the completion of their first year in operation - here
are two examples:
Piura
and Tarapoto.
2009 in some ways
turned into our best year yet - for getting the Peruvian
Government to come on board and start adopting our method
for recruiting the quarter of Peru's population who have
heretofore not been receiving education.. Six teachers
employed by the Ministry of Education joined our staff
in 09. TV
interviewing one
We think we might have scored a breakthrough in community
micro economic development. One of those discoveries
made more by accident than design. We knew our
reputation with small banks was favourable, so we tried
to transfer this to our barrio mothers: it worked. The
result is we accomplished everything we did in 2007/8
without having to lend the funds ourselves - the banks
lend directly to our mothers. An additional benefit to
this new way of doing Micro Economic Development is the
women move immediately into the "Formal" from
the "Informal" sector of the economy - not having
to wait a year to 18 months as under most micro finance
programmes. See
Arriba Ya
Thank you all, donors who completed your commitments,
Thank you volunteers, staff , friends and family for helping
to make our projects work as well as they do for some
of the poorest children, abandoned mothers and at risk
pregnant adolescents. Thank you Iain, our VP.
Shame on anyone who raised funds in the name of our projects
and children, then either kept the money or used it for
something other than what would help our children.
Hugs,
Ana Teresa
Rosell Grijalba,
President, Bruce Organisation - Bruce Peru ong (ngo)
In
2010
we predict
the economy will recover slowly,
we will refuse to go down
any more garden paths
with rapscallions
from el norte,
(which cost $70,000 in 2009 broken promises).
We will concentrate our work and resources
on getting the Ministry of Education to take on more
and more responsibility for our projects
(already joint projects in some places).
And yes, we will finally open in Bogota, Colombia.
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| 2009 we continued
to keep video records
& produce videos.
Here are a few examples | |
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TV News Govt Teacher within Bruce (Español)
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Bolivia Project toward the of our first year
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Opening a school in Arequipa
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On the occasion of reopening in Cajamarca
(Esp) |
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Sports
day
at the beach -
Students from Bruce Schools
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Nicole D'Amecourt
Co founder;
visits school in Peru barrio. |
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Cereal
Interview Cajamarca
(one of 5 over seven years) Esp
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Inca
Ride - 3
men (+ Quita) mark passing thru British
Uni. by riding 3000 Km 4 charity.Esp
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2
young Cusco directors revel in the children's
love & their own
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Cajamarca medical
mission. /Esp.) |
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