The children of the Andes Mountains live a beautiful, simple agrarian lifestyle. While they are not suffering from disease, starvation, or plight (they are some of the healthiest children in the world because of where they live), they do suffer from a lack of educational resources.

Our goal is to improve their educational experience, giving them the tools they’ll need to continue blessing their sacred homeland for generations to come.

It costs $120 for each child to go to school: a small sum to us, but a month’s worth of wages to a Vilcabamban family. With no support from the government, it is up to each family to outfit each child with:

• Four uniforms (two worn daily)
• Shoes
• Books
• Pencils, rulers
• Other class supplies

The school system is also in need since it can only afford books for the teachers and not the students. This means the teachers usually read assignments to the children out of their “master” book. The children, then, must write everything down in their own notebooks. Needless to say, this process wastes time and hundreds notebooks in the course of the school year.

This is just one example of how we plan to improve the educational system in Vilcabamba. Another way is to not only ensure there are enough supplies for the children, but also provide a broader experience to include trade and technological learning opportunities as well. We will help in teaching the children vital skills as well as train the teachers and provide support where the school system just cannot meet the students’ needs.