Secondary School

In 2002, Comunidad formed a secondary school in Paccha.  The school started with 40 students and currently has approximately 170 students.  Prior to its inception, education beyond 6th grade was only accessible by walking two hours one-way, or moving to a big city. The importance of Paccha’s secondary school not only provides education, but also allows families to stay together and stay in the area. 

In 2006, the government finally acknowledged the significance of the school and took over paying the salaries of five teachers, as well as hiring an administrator.  This was a huge accomplishment for us and for the community to have gained the notice, and more importantly the support, of the government; a significant step in making our project self-sustaining. Comunidad's current focus with the secondary school is providing a nutritious lunch for all the students.  This has allowed us to focus our attention on other related needs. 

Nutrition Program

Children cannot learn if they are hungry. A government study in 2005 showed that the overwhelming majority of the children in the region are malnourished. In 2007, Comunidad began an ambitious program to feed our students so they would be ready to learn.  We now feed a nutritious meal to those students that need it; approximately 370 each school day in 2010.  This consumes a large part of our budget, but we feel it is too important not to fund this.  Children cannot learn if they are too hungry to concentrate. 

Scholarship Program

The other important program Comunidad has begun is a scholarship program.  Upon speaking with our graduates from the secondary school, we have realized that we need to offer a bridge between education and the application of that education toward additional opportunities that will eventually allow these students to give back to their community.  We had been offering scholarships to five students per year to use toward post-secondary education, but in 2010 we've committed to seven scholarships!   Click here for biographies; we'll be updating this information in summer 2010 with more data, including pictures.

Kindergarten School

In the past year we went from supporting one kindergarten school to supporting four.  Three of these schools are in the hamlets or 'annexos' of Paccha (1-2 hours walk from Paccha).   We have felt it necessary to address the issues outside of Paccha, but until this year we didn't have the means to.  One large fundraising effort lead by a past trip member granted us the funds to take on the requests for early education by these communities.  We were not guaranteed that this support would be ongoing, however we have committed to providing long term early education to these communities and are confident we can make this happen.

Projects History and Updates

Reference projects history and updates for more information.

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Comunidad
PO Box 40596
St. Paul, MN 55104
EIN# 76-0727177