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By Tammy Tibbetts, August 14, 2010 11:24 am

The girls writing what they want to be the first to do, and about which problem in their world it will solve

On Friday, we had the incredible opportunity to be guest teachers to five classes at one of the only all-girls schools in Lima — Elvira Garcia Garcia, named after the first educator to open a kindergarden and first to graduate with a degree in secondary education from a university in Peru. Though you won’t find much about her online beyond a Wikipedia article, her legacy lives on inside this school, where Cynthia & Liz’s aunt Rosa is a math teacher.

With our students!

Rosa invited us to guest teach in five classes, which ranged from age 12 to seniors. The girls have varying levels of interest in education. Sadly, many come from broken homes, experience abuse, and receive no motivation from their parents to take education seriously. Our lesson got them to think about the qualities Elvira Garcia Garcia had, since her story is printed in their school manual. On the blackboard, we had them list adjectives to describe a good leader on the left side. Then, we asked them what the problems in their society, community, families, or world were, and listed those on the right. We asked, what is the relation between these two lists? “One is positive and the other negative,” they said (all in Spanish of course). “So how will you use the qualities of a good leader, of Elvira Garcia Garcia, to be a first in your own life? What will you be the first to do to solve one of these problems?” We gave them five minutes to write their answer on a small paper, and then collected them all. Since many of the problems pertained to violence, Liz, who has her black belt in karate, ended our class teaching a self-defense move.

In the final class, we handed out STF postcards, and though they were in English, the girls loved them! They could read the line that mentioned Justin Bieber - their school store sells stickers of him.

We now have over 100 responses from Peruvian girls declaring what they wish to be first to do. Here’s a preview:

• Quisiera ser abogada para defender a las personas que se lo culpan de cosas que no han cometido y no pagen una condena que no cometieron y defenderlo a todos los inocentes. [She wants to be the first lawyer in her family to defend people who are innocent.]
• Yo quiero ser la primera de mi familia en entrar a la Universidad y ser una empresaria exitosa para mejorar la economia del pais y para eso necesito esfuerzo y dedicación. [She wants to be the first in her family to go to university, to be a businesswoman and improve the economy. For this, she needs effort and education.]
• Yo voy a ser la primera mujer en mi familia en que estudiará en Estados Unidos, la carrera de derecho, combatiré el maltrato físico, abuso sexual, violencia, suicide, y la injusticia. [She wants to be the first in her family to study in the US and pursue a law career to combat physical abuse, sexual abuse, violence, suicide, and injustice.]
• Voy a hacer la primera de mi familia que va hacer policía nacional del Perú para ayudar a disminuir los robos. [She wants to be the first in her family to go to the police academy in Peru to stop robberies.]
• La mayoria de mis hermanos sufren de asma, enfermedad respiratorio y voy a ser la primera de mis hermanos en ser doctora y especialmente neurología. Para resolver las multiples enfermedades y asi cambiar la calidad de vida en el Perú. [The majority of her siblings have asthma, so she wants to be the first doctor, in particular a neurologist, in her family. She wants to resolve many diseases and thereby change the quality of life in Peru.]

Our hope is that this exercise got the girls to think long-term about their goals, and we reminded them at the end that we believe they can achieve them if they continue studying hard. We couldn’t have asked for a better way to end #STF360 Peru than asking girls to interpret our mission and meaning for their own lives. It was an honor — and only the beginning of She’s the First going global!

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By Tammy Tibbetts, August 13, 2010 10:44 am

Lots of girls! Photo by Liz Aguilar

On Thursday, we visited the last home for orphaned/abandoned children on our itinerary, Comunidad de Ninos, la Sagrada Familia. To recap, we started our journey following Peruvian Hearts in Cuzco, then met up with the soccer-based ACPNI on Monday, el Hogar de Rebano de Jesus and el Hogar de Vida for HIV positive families on Tuesday. Each charitable organization faced a similar challenge: how to sustain itself and grow. Relying on donations doesn’t get them far in Peru, since the average family here just doesn’t have the excess of time and belongings to give. So we saw how some of these Peruvian-led organizations tried to start businesses, but with struggling starts — remember the new storefront of Rebano de Jesus, and the lunches prepared by el Hogar de Vida? La Sagrada Familia, around for 20+ years, is the one that finally figured out how to get ideas like this off the ground successfully.

The Vision: The founder Miguel Rodriguez Candia runs around like crazy and carries three cell phones, but I think he has the clearest vision of all. He started several social businesses to support his home, where he has vowed to never turn a child away. He says the Hogar’s most pressing needs are: 1. providing food, 2. providing education, 3. forming children into responsible adults and leaders, 4. having more buildings to take in more kids. He’s also built businesses where older students can work to earn their keep, and where graduates from the Hogar can later be employed, so they can successfully transition from dependent children into independent adults.

The Backstory: Miguel, who comes from a journalism background, started the Hogar with his wife and two children after his third son died of a heart attack as a six-month old baby. On his way to the hospital, he found two children abandoned on the streets. He tried to help them both, but one died. He buried this small child in the same coffin as his infant son. He took in the surviving boy, but he ran away the next day. Miguel asked him why he would do that, and he said that he couldn’t leave his friends. So Miguel took in four friends, who became twenty, and the number of children kept increasing to the point where he opened up a large Hogar for them.

Miguel showing us the toys made from his wood shop. The furniture they make is sold at market, but these toys are distributed for free to children.

The Businesses (or Talleres):

• A bread bakery: Miguel’s bakery makes the bread that Pizza Hut and KFC (these American fast food restaurants are all over Peru) use.
• A wood shop: The Hogar collects scraps of wood, all sorts of garbage, and turns them into furniture. The tables, benches, chairs are then sold at a market outside the Hogar.
• A sewing shop: The Hogar has a room of sewing machines where girls make uniforms and skirts to the best quality, to sell at markets.
• A clinic: That first boy that Miguel took in, the night his infant son died, grew up to be a doctor! He came back to the Comunidad and built this clinic for the community, and the profits support the Hogar.
• A music room: There’s a full orchestra made up of children and they’ve even put out a CD sold to benefit the Hogar. We bought one!
• A welding shop: This one is already under construction.

A Remarkable Fact: We took a plane from Lima to Cuzco our first week to see the ancient Inca city of Machu Picchu, remember? Well, every January (when it’s summer here), Miguel and his graduating seniors WALK up to Machu Picchu from their town of Zapallal, two hours outside of Lima. This trek takes 17.5 days. On the way, Miguel dresses up as Santa Claus and gives those wood toys made from his shop out to needy children.

The children's gardens

The Living Quarters: There are six houses for girls, six for boys, and one for infants. Liz has some pics of these which we’ll post when downloaded. We loved visiting the girls quarters and speaking in English with a few of them who are learning the language. They sang us a song which we recorded and will upload for you when Internet speeds cooperate! Outside the dorms were gardens, where each child is given a piece of land to plant a seed. Loved this idea because it goes back to the Inca wisdom our Cuzco guide Daniel gave us: “Plant a seed and it will grow.” Miguel also quoted the Inca’s beliefs often when speaking, especially when emphasizing the importance of doing anything to the BEST of your ability, just as the Incas did.

Schooling: Miguel built a school for the community, and if a child studies hard enough to get into university, he finds a way to pay for their tuition. We’re looking into setting up a way for She’s the First to support sponsorships.

What’s Next: The girls asked us when we would be back as we were leaving…we told them our friends from NYC are coming next week! That would be ALEGRIA, the artsy non-profit started by Shay Grabowski. A team of artists are going to work at la Comunidad this fall and teach the children to dream and achieve through visual mediums.

There’s so much more to show and say about la Sagrada Familia — more coming when we’re back to full Internet speed!

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By Tammy Tibbetts, August 12, 2010 10:20 am

Wednesday night at dinner, Cynthia and Liz’s aunt who is a math teacher invited us to be guest teachers at her school for girls on Friday. We’re going to teach four 40-minute classes to students who are high school freshmen and seniors. The school is located in Callao, a neighborhood in Lima that struggles with drug issues; the girls mostly come from broken homes and don’t have positive role models, so Tia Abelina asked that we do a motivational lesson.

Elvira Garcia Garcia was a "first" in Peru who pioneered education for women...thrilled we just discovered her legacy and will be teaching at a secondary school named after her on Friday!

Come to find out, the school, named after Elvira Garcia Garcia, has a history that’s very special to She’s the First! Cynthia and Tammy are going to teach the girls about famous firsts from Peru, and then lead the girls in a workshop to declare what they want to be the first to do.

We did some Wikipedia research and found out that Elvira, born 1862 and died 1951 in Lima, was the pioneer of education for women in Peru! Some fast facts:

• She was founder of the first kindergarden (for ages 2-7) in Peru
• She was the first to receive a degree as Professor of Secondary Education from a university in Peru
• She was a journalist! She had many published works about girls, women, and education, and she ran The Home and School magazine
• She started out as a teacher at the young age of 18!
• There is now a national association of women in Peru that carries her name
• She introduced physical education to her schools, which was groundbreaking at the time for girls

Do you have any other ideas for our lessons on Friday? Or did you ever think about guest teaching English or another class when traveling abroad? Try it — the schools welcome speakers from the US warmly!

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By Tammy Tibbetts, August 11, 2010 9:36 am

In Cuzco, we had the pleasure of following Peruvian Hearts, an American-led non-profit in Peru. In Lima, we’re seeing organizations created and run entirely by Peruvians, and there are lots of differences between them. Most of all, the Peruvian non-profits lack the resources to market themselves with creative fundraisers and don’t have much volunteer labor to work with. In Peru, the majority can’t afford to donate time because they need to find ways to make money to support their own families.

Group shot with the kids of the Hogar, que se llama "Rebano de Jesus," in Lima

The solution, even more needed in Peru: Building businesses to support the cause. Both sites we visited were taking the first shaky steps toward this goal. First, we stopped by the Casa Hogar “El Rebano de Jesus,” an orphanage (though they never call it an orphanage from within, but rather a “home” or “community” to promote the idea of family) for about 30 kids ranging from 2 months old to 16 years. We interviewed the director, Isabel Bajlatto, who told us about the school fees for kids and their daily routine. Next to the Hogar is a humble shop, painted with pink walls, selling pasteles, desserts, that opened on July 1st, and so far has made about 40 soles a month (not even $15 USD) — not much, but hopefully as awareness in the community grows, more people will stop by to support the home. Cynthia wants to help them with a better business plan. Isabel said the Hogar’s main source of funding is churches and aid from missionaries…everywhere here, there seems to be a huge lack of support from government, corporations, and international aid organizations.

The Hogar was our only scheduled visit for the day, but then Cynthia got talking with our taxista and he led us to another Hogar he donates toys to — el Hogar de Vida. This is a home for 10 families that have HIV positive mothers and children, run by director Ruth Alvarez. Ruth recently opened a public lunch room inside the Hogar, where the mothers cook meals not only for the kids but also for anyone in the community, at the low price of 3 soles a plate. You can’t find a cheaper meal and the pasta prepared on Tuesday looked delicious. However, the community fears HIV and doesn’t realize that it’s transmitted by blood, not by eating an HIV Positive person’s food or breathing their air, so they don’t enter. Ideally, the Hogar would have a little restaurant down the street, not inside the home — and the community would receive education on how HIV is really transmitted — but there aren’t the resources to do this. So Ruth is working with what she has and trying new ideas. While we popped in, she had a meeting she welcomed us to join with a woman who is piloting a recycling program that will employ women. The women at the Hogar can work here to clean bottles and make a small income, and in the process, she hopes to educate the community about the environment.

What Cynthia & Tammy ordered for lunch after the team's busy morning visiting two Peruvian homes for orphans and HIV families

Visiting both hogares gave us lots to think about when it comes to running a non-profit without relying fully on donations — you need a business model behind it. We talked about our day over a lunch muy rico at a new restaurant near the house we’re staying at — Esencia Kri Olla, inside the Plaza Vea in Churrillos. The chef was so smart and trained in kitchens all over the world, so his restaurant had modern touches that reminded us of NYC, and the meals were only 10 soles a plate. We told him about She’s the First and he loved the concept!

Wednesday is our sightseeing day (we shuffled the schedule around a bit — the key to traveling is being flexible!) and Thursday we visit the Sagrada Familia community for orphans, which we blogged about last week. Chau!

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By Tammy Tibbetts, August 10, 2010 9:16 pm

What can you accomplish in seven weeks? On Monday, about 25 young American and Canadian volunteers helping Peru’s Asociacion Civil Pro Nino Intimo (ACPNI) proved you can work alongside a community to build an entire center for learning.

Words used by the college-aged US/Canadian volunteers of ACPNI, to sum up their 7-week project: growth, awe-inspiring, excelente

ACPNI uses sport, especially street soccer, to promote education and to develop a sense of citizenship and community in young people living in less fortunate circumstances in Peru. In the distant pueblo of Lurin Chincha, Peru — about a four-hour trek for us from Lima! — we met Peruvian ACPNI founder Sara and director Alan, who were celebrating their final day with a volunteer group sent by American Jewish World Service. These jovenes spent seven weeks living alongside a poor community that has a huge passion for street soccer, though sadly they lack so many basic needs.We expected to arrive and hear stories about how they had enjoyed mentoring children through playing sports, but we found something even longer-lasting.

When we first arrived (a bit tarde, unfortunately — transportation in Peru is not easy), the Spanish-speaking director Sara was leading the volunteers — many who had never even learned Spanish before this trip — in an activity where they summarized the past seven weeks in one word. It was amazing to walk right into their hearts and see such strong validation for voluntourism, exactly what the She’s the First 360 series is all about!

The activity center for children before the ACPNI volunteers arrived...

While the volunteers continued in their reflective workshop, Alan gave us a tour of the surrounding community and showed us the ludoteca — a place for games and educational activities for children. Then, he took us to a brand-new ludoteca that the volunteers helped build and paint right next to the futbol field. Such a radical, colorful transformation! Finishing touches remained, but the whole structure was essentially created in seven weeks. Amazing!

The new center! Rebuilt with a stronger structure, painted with murals, and the inside is clean, sturdy, and filled with desks, tables, and learning tools.

Now that the project is finished, Alan will return to Lima to find his next project, and we’ll stay in touch via email to see how we can help inform his programs for girls, whom he says are lacking role models and sex ed/hygiene classes. We’re also scheduled to have breakfast with Sara in Lima on Friday to learn even more how ACPNI connects sports with learning and citizenship. (One interesting tidbit: both boys and girls play the street soccer games together, and goals by girls are worth double the points.)

P.S. We were delighted to hear that many of the college women volunteers wanted to start up STF*{Campus} groups once they returned home to the States! If you want to as well, be sure to email info@shesthefirst.org to get started.

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By Tammy Tibbetts,

Katy and Cynthia at the discoteca que se llama Mama Africa, on the Plaza de Armas

After our Machu Picchu adventures, we returned to Cuzco, to la casa de Daniel, our guide and the friend of Peruvian Hearts, who you may remember from an earlier blog post.

On our last night, we wanted to explore the Plaza (city center), and Cynthia invited 18-year-old Katy, who lives with Daniel and his wife Rosa, to join us. We wanted to see what life in Cuzco was like through the eyes of a teen girl. During the day, Katy goes to tourism school, learning how to be a guide. In exchange for her education and shelter, she does chores around the hostel. Katy brought us to two discotecas around the Plaza. The first discoteca, Mama Africa, was mentioned in our guide book and filled mostly with tourists. The other was three floors up through an unassuming entrance and was frequented by Peruvians. Neither place carded and the latter had a huge video screen playing what was essentially porn (yikes), though no one seemed affected by it. The fact that teenagers can enter these places, even if they are responsible like Katy, is a bit alarming. But that could be a whole other blog post!

Cynthia, Liz, Manny and I learned a lot during our stay in Cuzco simply by going deeper than the average tourist and asking the locals questions. What I learned:

1. The Value of Choice: Katy is in tourism school and says she wants to be a guide – this is the most lucrative profession that an average Cuzqueno can have. Tourism dollars pour in here every day. Though I find the skill sets of a good guide to be impressive and dignified – knowledge of history, ease at public speaking, the chance to impact people from all walks of life, it’s looked up as a servile profession, Daniel told us.

I wish to see more social businesses spread in the regions that She’s the First serves, so girls have more options of working for companies that deliver a need to the marketplace while providing more options for employment. In a social business, the profits aren’t hogged by those at the top, but invested in company growth and fair wages. These kind of enterprises would thrive even more if girls in school learned how to take out microloans and run their own businesses. I’m scratching the surface on themes of a book I started reading – Building Social Business – in a very elementary way, but what I mostly want She’s the First to learn from this: education we sponsor should not just enable a student to pass her national exams, but also to become an entrepreneur if she desires.

2. If you want to do good, first listen to the people you want to help. This is why She’s the First is more than creative fundraising machine – we are also growing as a digital storytelling platform (notably with our email exchanges with our Kisa Scholars in Tanzania, sponsored by GIRLS WHO ROCK NY).

Daniel told us a story over hot chocolate at breakfast that illustrates this. He said World Vision once gave the poorest people in Peru five guinea pigs each (that’s a popular food here, called cuy). But guinea pigs need to eat constantly, and the people couldn’t afford to feed themselves, let alone buy food for the guinea pigs – so the guinea pigs died, didn’t reproduce, and weren’t a sustainable food source. Had the donors asked the people what they needed, they would have gotten a different answer and avoided the waste. That’s what She’s the First 360 is all about — asking questions to understand need.

Katy was wearing just a sweatshirt when she went out with us. We were all bundled up in three layers, coats, hats, scarves, because it’s winter here. The daytime is brisk but the nights are freezing. When we said goodbye the next morning, we left her with mi bufanda rosada – my pink scarf. It’s a memory of us, one we hoped would keep her warmer, just like the memories she left with us — they lit another burning fire inside She’s the First.

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By Tammy Tibbetts, August 5, 2010 9:43 am

We're city-bound! Headed back to Lima on Friday after a stunning week in Cuzco

We return to Lima, the capital of Peru, on Friday! Cynthia’s godparents will pick us up at the airport and we’ll visit with them, and get tips for exploring from the locals.

Saturday: Sightseeing! & Liz wants to take us to a place to see some folkloric dancing

Sunday: Visiting Cynthia’s aunt and hopefully the mom of Ale Foresto, one of our She’s the First supporters in NYC who lived in Peru through her high school years.

Monday: Visiting Cynthia’s aunt who is a schoolteacher. We hope to guest teach English in her classroom, and tell them all about She’s the First.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday: Shadowing three non-profits — two orphanages, the Hogar Sagrada Familia (where our artistic friends at ALEGRIA will be working with the children on art projects) and el Rebano de Jesus, as well as La Asociacion Civil Pro Nino Intimo, which mentors children through street soccer games.

Friday: Last day to sight see

Saturday: Airport back to US via Florida

If you want a preview of who we’ll be meeting at the Hogar Sagrada Familia, check out one of the many videos past volunteers have posted to YouTube. Below that, see what our friends at ALEGRIA aim to do there…their team, led by Shay Grabawski, leaves for Lima the week after we return to the US, so we’ll meet up in NYC to trade notes!

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By Tammy Tibbetts, August 4, 2010 9:06 pm

Dinner in Aguas Calientes, after exploring Machu Picchu

These stickers say "here, respect the woman" and "stop the violence against women"

We spent the night after exploring Machu Picchu in Aguas Calientes, the last town before taking the bus up to the mountains. As you stroll the cobblestoned streets where only pedestrians can pass at night, you see lots of restaurants, filled mostly with tourists, playing games of chess at their tables. Most of us had aji de gallina, Liz’s favorite Peruvian dish. Aguas Calientes also has a plaza and a church, but much more humble than Cuzco’s. We saw two schools around the plaza, though both were closed for the national holidays this past week in Peru. Next week schools open nationally and we will visit some in Lima — maybe even guest teach some English classes!

But what we really want to show you are these pro-women stickers spotted in Aguas Calientes. In Lima, we’ll be going into more depth of what it’s like being a typical girl and a woman in Peru, when we stay with Cynthia and Liz’s relatives.

Tell us what you know about Lima and if you have any recs for us! Remember, we are going to be shadowing three non-profits there and visiting schools — can’t wait!

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By Tammy Tibbetts,

Tammy and Cynthia atop the Inca's city of Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu was discovered only 99 years ago by a 36-year-old adventurer from Yale, the inspiration behind the character of Indiana Jones — Hiriam Bingham. Today it’s considered a Wonder of the World and the reason why most people visit Peru. If you haven’t been, She’s the First will take you on the climb in our mini documentary to come — Manny recorded hours of footage!

Machu Picchu is one of the last cities the Incas built before the Spanish conquered their rich civilization. No one really knows why exactly it was built, but there is plenty of evidence of its religious significance — temples and alters made of rock are everywhere.

You already know from our earlier post that the Inca’s held wise beliefs — underscoring the importance of taking care of yourself and determination for reaching a goal…but they weren’t perfect. I was horrified to learn from our guide that the Incas sacrificed children to their gods on occasion, and I was disappointed that girls were separated from the boys, only to learn how to be good wives. But the Incas were advanced in other areas, like architecture (all those stones held together for hundreds of years without cement!) and astronomy (they understood the solstices and built structures to cast just the right shadows).

llamas llamas everywhere in Peru -- always grazing Machu Picchu!

By the average Peruvian living standards, it costs a fortune to travel to and explore Machu Picchu. By NYC standards, it costs about as much as a pair of Broadway tickets. It would be brilliant if the Peruvian government or bureau of tourism invested a percentage of their profits into a fund to build schools in remote areas of Peru, so that not only tourists get educated, but local communities in need would too. A tourism model that supports Peru’s natural wonders AND nurtures their future leaders would be ideal. We’re going to research this more, but so far the only give-back option we know of is fundraising hikes, like this one that supports Peruvian Hearts and the very orphanage we visited two days ago in Anta, el Hogar.

Have any of you been to Machu Picchu? Tell us what you think!

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By Tammy Tibbetts, August 3, 2010 8:36 am

We helped Ana making boxes in this gratitude workshop with the girls

On Monday we visited the orphanage Peruvian Hearts wishes to make a model for others in Peru – el Hogar. Ana, her mom Judi, and brother/organization director Danny arrived with an activity for the girls – making “compliment boxes.” This was Ana’s idea to teach the girls the importance of gratitude and random acts of kindness for others. The girls decorated the boxes with their names and cut-outs of hearts, flowers, and stars, and the nuns who watch over them will make sure they make a weekly habit of writing kind words to each other.

Group shot with the girls of el Hogar, an orphange Peruvian Hearts completely transformed, enabling these girls to dream big

We delivered the donated vitamins from our NYC Tweetup and the Spanish children’s books donated by Kim Greene, who works at Scholastic in NYC. They were received with deep gratitude appreciation! After we took a group jumping picture (which we’ll print and send them to hang on their bulletin board), the girls sang us a song to express their national pride, thanks, and desire that we do not forget them. Many asked for our email addresses—they have a computer lab!—so we hope to stay in touch and send them photos and notes of encouragement.

I interviewed one little girl who told me her dream was to be a policewoman! An unexpected career choice, but she wants to protect her community, and even if she changes her mind, she understands one thing: education is the key to realizing any career dream.

We continued our expedition to a town called Urubamba, where we’re staying at the Eco Hotel owned by another longtime Peruvan Hearts supporter, Edwin. We met Ana, Danny & Co. for dinner again to ask them more questions about their programs for girls, now that we’ve seen the girls’ bright smiles, eager minds, and clean quarters for ourselves. Captured great video interviews that will show you the rewards and challenges of running non-profits abroad.