The villagers of Tepo need to forget

In the past in the village of Tepo the primary school I.E.P.N 11238 was a normal school with twenty-some students between the ages of six to eleven, two teachers and the director. The death of a nine-year old girl six years ago at the school altered that situation to the present day. Neither the director nor the parents would talk about the details of the circumstances, though Magali did learn that an investigation resulted in clearing the staff of any negligence. Blameless or not, the community held the school and staff accountable for the incident. Parents stopped sending their kids to the school. When enrolment dropped to only a handful, Mochumi authorities removed the two teachers, but retained (probably a mistake) the director as the only teacher. Though the death occurred six years ago the stigma remains. At present the primary has nine students, though there are many more students in Tepo eligible to attend. The school looks and feels to be in a state of limbo; it’s continued existence to on a day-to-day basis.

The parent’s association is not supporting the primary school and the appearance of the classroom shows it. The government is providing only minimal support, citing declining enrolment as the reason. Promised repairs for the recent flood damaged walls are probably in the distant future if at all.

The pronoei Mi Mundo Magico (My Magic World) is inside the primary school, using a classroom no longer needed. Curiously parents seem to have no reservations about having their kids attend class at the site of that girl’s death six years ago, which seems to indicate it is the director/teacher they are avoiding.

In contrast to the primary classroom, the pronoei is well maintained. Malena Seclen has been there since 2013 and appears to have a good repour with the parent’s association. She has an enrolment of twenty kids ages three to five. She would like to replace the plastic tables, some of which are broken, with five wood tables. She has chairs from the primary school. She has also asked for a whiteboard and storage shelf.

The pronoei in Tepo would normally not meet our criteria for donation, however here we feel is a condition that needs to be addressed and possibly Promesa Peru could help. We’d like to donate the items asked for to the pronoei, and provide teaching aids to the primary school. It is our hope that by demonstrating our interest in the primary school, the parents may soften their view and send their kids to I.E.P.N 11238 when they finish at the pronoei.

It’s not a good situation to have classrooms empty when they can be cleaned up for little cost, nor to have an experienced director/teacher being limited to a token number of students. There would be so many advantages to the kids and community to have I.E.P.N 11238 up and running again but for that to happen the villagers need to forget what happened…or what they think happened six years ago.

The cost for pronoei items would be:

Five tables - $139

One whiteboard – 53

Whiteboard erasers and markers – 8

Storage shelf – 27

Transportation – 47

Total - $274.00

We are not sure what would be appropriate to donate to I.E.P.N 11238 at this moment but would limit the cost to $100. We need $374 to accomplish this project. If you agree with our objective and would like to contribute please visit the Promesa Peru webpage. Thank you.