Before the Coronavirus locked Peru down, the kids had just returned from visiting their extended families on their Summer break. Traditionally, we welcome them back with a trip as a group, so they can return to school refreshed and feeling connected.
Last year, you helped us send them on a life-changing excursion to Lima, so this year we kept their vacation trip affordable and simple.
The kids enjoyed a road trip to explore their country and learn about their heritage. They visited hot springs, rode in a fishing boat, and visited alpacas. They saw the origin of the Vilcanota (Urubamba) River in the high Andes, hiked together, cooked and relaxed and enjoyed their time.
We hope these photos of nature, joy, family, and freedom will nourish your spirit wherever you are. We wish you radiant health and peace of mind during this challenging time.
This year, after hosting her yoga tour to the Sacred Valley, our dear friend Kristen Stuart returned to spend time with the Niños. She’s shared a wealth of photos so you can see how our Niños are growing into fine young people.
This year, we’re inviting you to send your holiday greetings to the kids (and/or staff) in Peru. We’ll share your messages directly with Viviana, Avishai, and the Niños to fill the casa with love and joy from our Global Family.
In addition, your Giving Tuesday donations will be matched up to $1,750, thanks to a pledge from two of our generous donors!
Your contribution is also part of a beautiful holiday of selfless giving, designed to balance the energy of Black Friday. Namasté.
All our children are thriving, growing, changing. The home in Urubamba with our teenagers is very peaceful and centered; I attribute this to the excellent work performed by Kellye, a young woman showing always love and respect to the children.
This is what mornings look like in our Casa in Urubamba.
Your support provides a bright, loving home where the kids live as a family, and private education which will enable these kids break the cycle of poverty in their families.
We are about $3,000 short this month of being able to send enough money to Peru to cover all the bills (salaries, rents, tuition, etc).
Why is there a shortage?
When Mama Kia passed away in 2010, we lost all our funding almost overnight. All of it.
It was a very dark time for us — the kids were orphaned a second time, and they lost their home. Over the next few years, they had to move several times. For a while, there was one donor who covered all the expenses, but in 2014 he had to withdraw much of his support and we started fundraising and building a base from nothing.
Our expenses have INCREASED since then, as we added the apartment in Cusco and support for our kids attending colleges. We’ve built a monthly income that covers mst of our expenses, but when a few months go by without any large one-time gifts or events like Giving Tuesday, we still run into a crisis. This year, our crisis came a full month later than last year, so that’s an improvement!
Can you help us now?
I’m working hard on long-term solutions, but at the moment I’m also looking for help to cover any portion of that shortage — seriously, any amount helps!
When I was living in Peru 14 years ago, I got to visit my dear friend Mama Kia, and her home that she created for the 25+ street children she adopted. I helped to work in the garden and received so much inspiration from witnessing her live in pure devotion, love and service.
I have visited the children and helped to support the project over the years, which is now called Ninos del Sol. Our recent Loveolution Peru retreat had a few scholarship spaces to come for half off in exchange for doing fundraising and service work for the Ninos and this page is for those from our group to share the opportunity to support Ninos del Sol with our communities.
After Kia passed away in 2010 the children experienced some challenges. It is so wonderful to see them thriving now, still living as a family with many attending high school and college. She intended to raise the leaders of the future, and we have the chance to support them. Even as little as $10 a month can go a long way.
Thank you for your generous contributions! With Love, Ixchel Love
We frequently hear from potential donors that “Your cost per child is much higher than other children’s homes.”
Yes, we know.
I’ve written about this in detail before, but the bottom line is that we’re not content just to house these kids and then turn them out at age 17 with no families, no support, and no belongings except the clothes on their backs. While it’s certainly better than a life on the street, we don’t believe that kind of “help” puts young adults into a position to lift themselves out of poverty — and what do you suppose happens to the future generations of their families?
How we’re different
So we provide private education and after-school enrichment. We support the kids through college and into careers, even when they make mistakes or change their minds, just like you probably would with your kids.
Our biggest expense is staffing. Kids need interaction with adults, and lots of it. And kids who are recovering from multiple traumas need educated adults who know how to manage their behaviors without resorting to abuse, and have the skills to give them the best nutrition, emotional support, and educational guidance.
It’s important to note that all of our paid staff (except for Lauren, who manages fundraising and donor communications) work directly with the kids every day in Peru.
We have a very low child/adult ratio, and our adults are highly paid by Peruvian standards because they’re highly educated. We don’t hire the cheapest caregivers for our kids — we hire committed people who have the skills to help them overcome trauma and build self-esteem.
Is it working?
See for yourself! Our kids are outperforming their peers across the country by leaps and bounds.
The majority — 79% — perform at or near the top of their classes in private schools.
Most of them — 93% — are enrolling in some kind of post-secondary education to prepare them for careers and professions.
Our teen pregnancy/marriage rates are lower than average, and our kids have escaped the trap of child labor across the board.
Click on the graphic below to see the details of how our kids compare to their peers across Peru. (you may need to click more than once to zoom it out to full-size).
What we can’t measure
More importantly, our kids are healing from trauma. They fight like siblings, but they also have each other’s backs. They know how to love, and they have the tools they need to succeed in all aspects of life.
Many of you who have visited us in Peru donated your energy to help our garden grow. I thought you might like to see the fruits of your labor!
Here’s what Avishai posted on Facebook just two years ago (July 2017)
Garden Update:
With the help of our enthusiastic Canadian volunteer Heidi, the Ninos built handsome raised beds, using permaculture methods, rich compost which we created over the last 3 years and recycled roof tiles.
Here are Ray, Luis F, Rusbel, Ada and Sonq’o working in the new garden.
BTW- the Ninos took most of these pictures… Some of them are becoming good photographers!
Take a look at our garden now!
Your work provides our kids with wholesome, clean, nourishing foods every single day, and we take some of the bounty to Cusco to feed the growing brains of our college kids.
We think of your gifts every day, and we are filled with gratitude!
Sisters Lisbet, Marlit, Lourdes & Soledad bringing fresh produce from the garden
Recently Viviana sent a first-quarter update to our board members, and she gave me permission to share it with all of you as well. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as we did!
Dear All,
As you all know, Doris is in Israel, learning about her Self and thriving as she discovers her own abilities to create a beautiful life and to reinvent herself. We are in touch almost daily thanks to technology; she’s still adjusting to the changes in time, weather, language, and the new culture; she enjoys working in the palm forest and learning to live in an anarchist society where each individual is her/his own leader developing ethical life for themselves and all other members in the community.
Our former volunteer, Romy, welcoming Doris in Israel.
The youth in Cusco are learning to understand themselves and their own actions. Avishai and I are going to the Cusco apartment once a week to spend quality time with them and to supervise their activities. Each kid is doing great at school, they appreciate the opportunity to have higher education and they see how important this is in a country like ours in order to provide for themselves.
The high schoolers in Urubamba are a delight! they all are doing well, maturing in a beautiful way and learning to deal with heir emotions and the changes that teenage life brings. They are thriving at school, all of them are top students in their classrooms and they are now preparing dances and sport competitions for the upcoming mother day’s celebrations. Sonq’o will be 16 years old on May 9th; right after he will have surgery to repair his nose’s septum that was broken when he was 3 or 4 years old; He never received care for it until recently that he began to have a series of sinuses infections and eye problems. We are working on obtaining health insurance offered by the government, if Sonq’o does not qualify for it, the operating physician will give us a break on costs.
Sonq’o will be 16! Wow.
Leo, our oldest kid, will turn 24 years old this year; he has been back and forth on his personal development and is often coming home looking for emotional support. He’s currently working at a 5 star Vegan Restaurant in Cusco where he’s learning a new cuisine and where he’s staying for the last 3 months! very unusual for him that was often leaving jobs after a couple of weeks. We talked with him regarding his tendency for self-sabotage and told him that if he showed he could stay at the same job for a minimum of 6 months we would work on having him go to Israel as he asked. We spoke with the kids living in Cusco about the possibility of allowing Leo to return to live with them; they all agreed about bringing him back if this will support his well being and his growth. If Leo was to return, it will be under very clear guidelines.
Leo is a brilliant chef who loves to create with fresh, organic ingredients.
Our volunteer Kiva, has requested to continue working with us until September, but to live somewhere else to maintain her privacy and to develop her own life while in Peru as she stated to us. This is a new model of volunteering; her participation at our program is limited to provide driving, English, Health and Sexuality classes twice a week. She began to teach English last Saturday afternoon, her class was a success! the kids were engaged and happy to have a private English teacher. Her driving classes are always highly appreciated since she’s a patient, understanding, driving teacher. Kellye, Ermelinda, and Belisario are preparing to take their respective driving tests in the next 2 weeks. Until now, Kiva was joining our staff meetings, apart from having a regular staff meeting, we’ll have a separate weekly volunteer meeting.
Kiva’s been bonding with Sol and the other kids during her stay with us.
A new volunteer is already on board to begin working with us from September 2019 to September 2020; our first volunteer planning to stay with us for 1 year!! His name is Leo, he’s French, 29 years old; fully tri-lingual (French, Spanish, English) currently living in Paris; works in Theater and Film both as an actor and as a director. Our kids are familiar with Leo since he stayed with us for a couple of weeks, and they like him a lot. We’re happy to have a young male role model for our boys.
We are grateful and very proud of our older kids living in Cusco; Ermelinda comes to Urubamba every weekend to stay with the kids until Sunday early evening; then Zenobia comes to stay with the kids through Sunday night and to make sure all are ready on time to return to school on Monday morning; Belisario comes every Saturday afternoon to teach Math, Geometry, and Trigonometry to the kids that need support on those subjects; Raul and Jorge come some weekends to organize hikes and soccer games; Jose joins some weekends when he’s not working; Ada is learning to live in Cusco as she started her preparatory academy to apply to Veterinarian School; Lisbeth is happy at the Arts School at the University Extension in Calca and she loves being able to continue living at the Urubamba home.
Zenobia is studying to be a pastry chef and will be offering a breadmaking class to our guests soon.
I want to share with you some teachings from Yogi Bajhan regarding raising children; this beautiful teacher guides me in my attempt to guide our children: “We want to create dependable children, NOT dependent children. We want to give them basic values to face their tomorrows, not to be blinded by ours. We want to make them proper personalities, not helpless puppets. We want to position them for success, not to paralyze them with the commotion of our emotions” … this is a guide for us to follow, this is how we work with our kids.
Viviana Martinez Executive Director, Ninos Del Sol
Viviana is a visionary, and we are all honored to support her vision in this project.
Our girls face even more social obstacles than the boys when it comes to education, and moving to the big city to go to college can be quite daunting.
Viviana and I talked about this when I was visiting last spring, and she thought it might help for them to have more fun outings to Cusco. She wants them to feel more familiar with the city, and to see it as a fun and welcoming place, and view themselves as capable there. I love the way Viviana shapes the kids’ world view. In so many ways, self-image is destiny.
I was looking for fun ways to connect with the kids in smaller groups, so I was excited to take the girls to town. (I am very fortunate that I get to swoop in and do fun things with the kids when I’m in town and I don’t have to deal with any of the harder work of raising them. Raul once said I’m like their grandma, and I could only laugh, because I knew what he meant!)
I ended up with three girls in my group: Ada, Doris, and Marlitt. We visited the Ccochawasi Animal Sanctuary, had lunch, and then had a private flamenco lesson in our apartment in Cusco. Our volunteer, Kiva, came along and the day was loads of fun.
Each mountain has a poem
On the way to Cusco, the girls told Kiva and I the stories of the mountains. These are mostly legends of ill-fated lovers. Our driver Lucho was really impressed by how much the girls know, and he told us that these stories are poems in Quechua (which makes sense, since it’s not a written language and rhymes make stories easier to remember).
Getting out of the car to show us the poems in the mountains
Can you see the sleeping prince?
Knowing that the mountains have poems made me love them even more.
Ccochawasi Animal Sanctuary
We didn’t take any photos during the flamenco class — we were all much too engaged in learning and trying not to be embarrassed! But Kiva and I both got photos at Ccochawasi Animal Sanctuary. If you’re coming to Peru soon, definitely include it on your list of fun places to visit!
This friendly little deer was a crowd-pleaser
The spectacled bears wanted to look at us!
Condor in flight, so majestic
Marlitt loving a monkey
Llamas are so photogenic!
Always fun to interact with the weaving artists of the Andes
Ada (the girl in the white baseball cap in these photos) even asked about volunteering at Ccochawasi. I’m not sure it’s going to work out with her school schedule, but I think our visit helped energize her and motivate her in her studies. She’s moving to Cusco this year to begin her medical training as a veterinarian!
The Niños returned from their trip to Lima last night. They left at 1 in the morning, drove 16 hours over the mountains, and arrived home exhausted. But when we asked them if they would like to send thank-you notes to the donors who made their trip possible, they jumped at the chance.
Of course, they talked about how much they loved seeing the zoo, the Nazca lines, and the coast. They also touched on the bonding that happens when the whole family travels together. That bonding is so important, as these teenagers move towards adult life and need all the support they can get.
The kids did not articulate some of what we know as adults — that their world is suddenly bigger, the way they see their place in it is stronger, and new possibilities are open for their futures that were never open before. For all that, we, the adults, thank you!
We’re so grateful to our new volunteer, Kiva Celeste, and our Global Family members Dylan and Henry Presman, and to our Administrator, Kellye Callañaupa, for the additional chaperoning support and photos.
Here are some of the messages from the kids, in their own words and then translated into English:
Ada
Yo estoy muy agradecida por todo el apoyo que nos pudieron brindar, fue una paseo inolvidable, gracias a todos ustedes pude agrandar más mis sueños, me divertí mucho con todos mis hermanos que nos vimos de mucho tiempo, empezar una año de esa manera fue algo grandioso. *Ada*
I was very grateful for all of the support that was granted to us, it was an unforgettable trip, thank you to all who granted my dreams, I had a wonderful time with all of my siblings whom I’d seen for a long time, beginning the year this way was great * Ada *
Luis
Ami me gustó muchísimo el paseo porque fuimos al parque de las leyendas ,parque del agua y fue muy hermoso porque toda la familia estaba en ahi y gracias por todo el apoyo q nos brindaste *Luis*
I loved the trip because we went to the Park of the Legends (zoo), water park and it was beautiful because the whole family was there, thank you so much for the gift of your support * Luis *
Rusbel
A mí me gustó la playa y las líneas de Nazca *Rusbel*
I enjoyed the beach and Nazca lines * Rusbel *
Lisbet
Gracias. Por el viaje. Estubo muy bonita experiencia con la familia. Fuimos al parque de las leyendas donde conocí muchos animales que solo vería en imágenes como jirafa, hipopótamo;tigre y monitos pequeñitos .Gracias a todos ustedes pudimos tener una bonita experiencia. *Lisbet*
Thank you for the trip, it was a beautiful experience with the family. We went to the park of the legends where I met many animals that I had only seen in imagination like the giraffes, hippos, tigers and tiny monkeys. Thank you to you for the beautiful experience * Lisbet *
Soraida
Gracias por la bonita experiencia y por el apoyo brindado ,este viaje fue vivir nuevamente y sentir una familia ,bueno en este viaje conocí muchos lugares y aprendí mucho y en este viaje a Lima el sonido del mar unico el tráfico molesto visítamos el parque de las leyendas , parque de las aguas ,plaza principal de lima ,casa de la literatura,las catacumbas y lo más importante fue ver que los niños maduraron y crecieron como personas y ver el apoyo entre ellos gracias por todo. *Soraida*
Thank you for the beautiful experience, and for the gift of support, this was a trip where I relived and felt like a family. Well, in this trip I experienced many places and learned a lot in this trip to Lima with the uniquely oceanic sound of angry traffic we visited the park of the legends, water park, the main square of Lima, house of literature, the catacombs and the most important part was to see the children mature and grow as persons as well as to experience their mutual support, thank you all * Soraida *
Doris
Yo estoy agradecida por la oportunidad de haber ido de vacaciones con mi familia a conocer un poco más de mí país me gustó más el zoológico del parque de las leyendas pero me dio pena verlos ahí encerrados me gustó también cuando fuimos a ver las líneas de Nasca fue increíble que esas líneas no se borren y sigan intactas como hace 2000 años atrás me sorprendió ver cómo es el centro sobre cómo el gobierno teme a la gente del pueblo y pone tanta seguridad también me gustó la playa y la piscina gracias por esta oportunidad *Doris*
I’m grateful for the opportunity to vacation with my family and to learn a little more about my country. I enjoyed the zoo of the park of legends most, but I was sad to see [animals] them caged, I also enjoyed the Nasca lines, those lines incredibly were never and have been intact over 2000 years. I was surprised to see how the government fears the country people and how a consequence how much security they employ. I also enjoyed the beach and pool, thank you all for this opportunity * Doris *
Zenobia
Muchas gracias por hacer posible este viaje está experiencia fue nuevavpara mi …me gustó mucho ir a todos los lugares que visitamos no nos faltó nada….. Teníamos todo muchas gracias por el apoyo ….. Está experiencia me gustó muchisimo todos estuvimos más unidos y contentos muchas gracias ….. Conocimos muchos lugares *Zenobia*
Many thanks for making this trip possible, this was a new experience for me, I very much enjoyed going to all of the places that we visited, we lacked for nothing, we had everything, thank you so much for your support. I enjoyed this experience very much, we were all so close and happy, thank you so much. We got to know so many places *Zenobia*
Thank you for your ongoing support of Niños Del Sol. With your help, the kids are thriving and growing into healthy, happy, young people with the power to do beautiful things in the world.
Our organization is made up of two separate pieces: The Peruvian organization (headed by Viviana and Avishai) handles all aspects of programming, while the US organization (headed by our Board) handles fundraising and provides some financial oversight.
US Board Elections
This month, our US board held its annual election. Our board members and their current roles are:
Lauren Haas, Chairperson
Joshua Sandstrom, Vice Chairperson
Josh Brazier, Treasurer
Glenn Zahler, Secretary
Ram Krishan Kaur Khalsa, Director
Staff Appreciation Dinner
For a while now, as Board Chair, I’ve wished our board to show its appreciation for our staff each year, but during all the crises of the past few years, it simply didn’t happen.
This year, I am in Peru and Avishai approached me with an idea similar to the one I’ve had — a special dinner for the staff to gather and relax together. Avishai’s idea blossomed into something much more meaningful than a restaurant meal, though.
The kids’ living and dining areas
Roasted trout by Jose
A beautiful meal
Celebrating with ice cream in Cusco
Marco giving us a tour
Visiting the San Blas church
Since the kids have just moved into their new apartment in Cusco and most of us hadn’t seen it yet, we decided to have dinner there. The guests were me (Lauren, US Board Chair), Viviana (Executive Director), Avishai (Associate Director), Kellye (Administrator and full-time tutor), and Benita (part-time cook and all-around friend to the Niños for many years).
The board members sent funding to pay for the day, and the Niños donated their labor to make it happen for us: Raul did the shopping, Jose cooked our dinner, Zenobia made a beautiful fruit salad for us, and Marco offered a guided tour of the Cusco plaza. Afterward, we all went out for ice cream together.
We are really grateful to the Board and the kids for making this happen, and to Avishai for putting it all together. It was a very special day for all of us!
We celebrated Doris’s 18th birthday on February 6 with a surprise party in Avishai and Viviana’s home.
Lots of musicians were there, including a tiny drummer who spent most of her time on Doris’s lap. How typical of Doris’s generous spirit that she didn’t mind sharing the spotlight on her birthday at all. She even laughed when her little friend poked a toe in the cake frosting!
Doris recently finished her apprenticeship studies in fashion design! Her teacher presented her with her certificate at the party.
The party was attended by lots of friends, and we all took turns telling Doris our wishes for her in her adult life. Doris completed the ceremony by offering wishes for our lives in return.
You can leave your own wishes for Doris in the comment space below.
Enjoy some of the impromptu music from Doris’s party!
What’s next for Doris? Hold on to your seat, this is exciting!
Niños Del Sol has had a lot of volunteers from Israel over the years, and Avishai and Viviana have been talking about some of our kids volunteering in exchange at a kibbutz in Israel. Viviana’s nephew went last year to test the waters, and we hear that this experience is just as powerful and life-changing as volunteering in Peru.
Doris (who already speaks Spanish, Quechua, English, a bit of Portuguese and a few words of Japanese) will be the first adventurer among our Niños to make the trip. She and I are going to work together to create a fundraiser for her airfare — I’ll update you on that as it develops.
Please leave your own wishes for Doris below and I’ll make sure she sees them!
Kristen Stuart, a powerful and loving leader in the yoga world who has been a dear friend to the Niños for years, is organizing a benefit concert for us in Alberta!
The concert, scheduled for October 29, will feature the international mantra and pop artist Ajeet Kaur at the Canmore Opera House.
Ajeet Kaur is a recording artist in the realm of kundalini yoga and sacred chant. Her music is a spiritual practice of sound, described by Sound Voyage this way:
From the first note, Ajeet Kaur’s voice feels like the warmth of the earth rising through your body, creating a sense of inexplicable peace that helps you suddenly relax in a knowing that you are connected to every living being through this sacred sound.
Her music is making its way around the world, bringing peace and healing to thousands. This concert is a benefit for Niños Del Sol, and you can help support the event in three ways:
Kristen is looking for donations to sponsor the band so 100% of ticket sales can go directly to Niños del Sol. The band cost is $4000 CAD so any and all donations (suggested min $200) is helpful. You will receive a tax receipt from Niños del Sol (a US Registered Charity) for your donation.
Consider donating an item or service for the silent auction
Purchase a ticket(s) to attend this intimate (100 pax capacity) concert.
E-mail [email protected] with any questions or to offer your support!
I love hearing from members of our Global Family who started with a small donation and are ready to increase it! Of course, I’m also here for people who’ve had a change in their circumstances and need to suspend their monthly donations. Or maybe you just want your donation to be taken out on a different day of the month; I can help with that as well.
Our kids love to cook. If you’ve watched our original video with Mama Kia, you might remember her saying that she never had to deal with a picky eater in this crowd — children who’ve known food scarcity in their youth know how to appreciate the joy of food abundance.
Avishai’s love of food and cooking has rubbed off on the kids. Leo has attended chef’s school, and Zenobia is studying to be a pastry chef. Luis loves to help Leo create, and our youngest, Soledad, spends her spare time inventing new desserts.
But as anyone who cooks knows, when you run out of new ideas, cooking becomes a chore very quickly.
That’s why we’re so delighted when Gina DeVee, a vital member of our Global Family, offered to send us cookbooks earlier this summer. She put a lot of work into finding the right books to work within our approach to nutrition and learning, and then had to coordinate with someone who was traveling to Peru to get them to us — but her effort is paying off spectacularly. The books have brought an explosion of creativity and fun to our kitchen. Here are some photos from last weekend, when the kids whipped up a spectacular fruit dessert.
This kind of creative support from our Global Family has helped our kids to build bonds as siblings, heal from trauma together, experience joy, and stimulate learning. This is why our kids are so successful academically, and I hope that success will follow them into adult life and help them impact their own families and communities in positive ways.
Thank you, Gina!
The kids’ smiles are contagious.
A new Ninos Del Sol logo?
Working together as a team is important.
Working with the cookbook is a fun way to improve English skills.
This process is similar to the way shamans create mandalas for a traditional Peruvian ceremony honoring Pachamama!
In our house, boys and girls work together in the kitchen.
The finished product is beautiful and filled the kids with pride.
Now that our kids are teenagers, we’re often asked why they don’t get part-time jobs to help cover their expenses. For someone who lives in the United States or Europe, this seems like a really natural way for a teen to gain experience, learn responsibility, and help out a household that is struggling financially.
Child Labor in Peru
photo from The Guardian article linked below.
But Peru doesn’t have the same labor laws as many first-world countries. Most teenagers who work in Peru — especially indigenous kids like ours who live outside Lima — have to choose between work and school, because jobs here don’t build their schedules around a student’s schedule.
“Children in Peru engage in the worst forms of child labor, including in mining and in commercial sexual exploitation, sometimes as a result of human trafficking.”
Children with jobs in Peru have died in factory fires and other disasters.
“Almost a third – 28% – of all children and adolescents in the Andean country have a job. They are aged between six and 17, are poor, and often do dangerous work in mining and construction. The government wants to get these boys and girls off work and into full-time education.”
Even small employers in the villages of the Sacred Valley often exploit kids. One of our boys had a job for a little while refilling batteries, which involved working with toxic chemicals in uncomfortable conditions. He did this work for several weeks and then his employer refused to pay him, saying he was offering the boy valuable “job training” instead of money!
What We’re Doing
Leo and Marco guiding a tour of the market in Urubamba.
In Cusco, where better opportunities exist, our college kids are required to seek part-time work to cover some of their own expenses. Jorge does deliveries for a local restaurant, working for a trusted friend of Avishai’s who values his education. Jose Luis, who is studying graphic design, is serving a practicum arranged through the university, editing video footage for a drone company. This kind of work is very valuable for the kids, although it doesn’t provide enough extra funds for them to help support the house.
In Urubamba, we do our best to create opportunities for the kids to work, so they can learn the value of earning money, being on time, and bringing a good attitude to work. We’ve empowered them to create hikes and classes that they can offer to tourists, and you — our Global Family — have been very generous about supporting this program when you visit the Valley.
But for the most part, we focus on healing our kids’ emotional wounds (remember that all of them are survivors of trauma and abuse, in addition to being orphaned and/or abandoned and living through Mama Kia’s passing) and on their education, so they can be empowered to break free from cycles of poverty and labor abuse that are so common here. They contribute to the household by following a schedule of household chores which helps them learn to follow directions, work as a team, and pay attention to details.
Your support allows us to do this work. We receive no government funding or grants at all; we are 100% dependent on donations from our Global Family to pay for staff salaries, therapy, secure housing, school expenses, and college tuition to help these kids break free. Thank you for all you are doing for them, we are grateful every day for your support!
~ Lauren
P.s. Here’s a very powerful video if you have time to learn more about what we’re protecting our kids from.
This quote describes so beautifully why we treasure education for our Niños.
“Because we are Quechua, because we speak our language and live according to our customs, and because we don’t know how to read and write, we live in the world of the night. We have no eyes, and we are invalids like the blind. In contrast, those who know how to read and write live in daylight. They have eyes. It is senseless to stay in the world of darkness because we must progress to be like those who go to school and have eyes. Going to school, we open our eyes, we awake.”
Peru: Inequality of Education for Indigenous Groups, the Neglected Class
Cusco kids have serious problems in education
This is a country where many children are not succeeding in school because of poverty or stress in the home. In the Cusco area, 56% of adolescents are below grade level in communication skills, and 88% of 11th graders are underperforming in mathematics. More than half (52%) of all teens in the Cusco area are enrolled in grades that do not correspond to their age, and dropout rates are high.*
Our Niños are very different
Nearly all of our kids are finishing high school and going on to post-secondary education. Ada, Lisbett, Luis, Soledad, and Rusbel are all at the very top of their class in school. Ermelinda was the youngest student ever accepted into the Chemical Engineering program at Cusco University, and she will graduate this year. Jose Luis and Belisario are also currently attending University, while their housemates in Cusco have all completed high school and are pursuing career education.
Why are our kids so successful?
Because of you.
Our donors know that it’s not enough to feed and warehouse children until they reach maturity — kids who are not nourished intellectually and supported through education cannot easily break the cycle of poverty and abuse that made them orphans in the first place. Your generosity allows us to provide them with a real home life and the clothing and experiences they need to fit in with their classmates and have the cultural literacy of a successful Peruvian.
Many of our Niños are attending private academies or are already at University, which is expensive but vital to their ultimate success in life. Our higher staff to child ratio means we can help with homework, conference with teachers, and support their education in ways a less expensive program cannot.
Thank you for understanding this, and for valuing what we do here. It is your ongoing support, love, and trust that enable our children to thrive beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. <3
~ Lauren
P.S. If you are not already a donor but would like to join us, please click here to visit our donation page. We’d love to have you on board with us!
This update is from Avishai, our Associate Director.
In our recent staff meeting, I found myself saying “In my view, this period of the last few months have been the most harmonious time we had at the Casa since Viviana and I started in 2013.”
The others nodded their heads in agreement.
Now, this is something to celebrate!
There are always challenges, on several levels, some with the Ninos themselves, others with financial issues, staff issues, or other tests and tribulations.
We have all been through intense tests over the last few years.
So what is different now? What makes us say that this is a more harmonious period?
I think all who visited the Casa in the last few months have commented on that aspect.
There are no big fights, no tensions, no conflicts, the Ninos and staff are getting along with one another, La Familia is strong, older helping younger, there is much creativity, mutual support playfulness and laughter.
Most chores are done by the Niños (now teenagers) willingly and on time, often with loud music in the kitchen…
Kelley, who has been the Assistant Director, House Mother, and Administrator for nearly 4 years is fulfilling her role beautifully and shows her love and care with all Ninos daily.
Nitzan and Romi, our Israeli volunteers have been with us for over 4 months and will stay until September, completing 6 months. They are solid, creative, mature and present with the Ninos and our projects. Romi has been inspired to add much art, creativity, and murals, and also making the kitchen and dining room more orderly and welcoming.
Nitzan delights us with very creative desserts, utilizing our heavy duty Vita-Mix more than ever before, and finding creative ways to recycle leftovers, a really important talent! Giving ongoing driving lessons with some of the older Ninos have also been a blessing, and soon some of them will be ready for the test.
Our longest standing staff member, Doña Benita the cook, has been with the Ninos for over 12 years, and provides nourishing, delicious meals during the week.
We emphasize using local, seasonal products, and most of our vegetables are harvested by the Ninos from a nearby organic farm, owned by our friend Javier, who has been donating produce to us weekly for over 3 years.
On the weekends while Benita is at her home, the Ninos cook, supported by the volunteers. Girls cook on Saturday, Boys on Sunday.
We are grateful for our staff!
We are also grateful daily for our international family of donors and supporters.
Without all of you we would not have been able to do what we are doing.
We extend our blessings to all our friends who visit, bring needed supplies and donations, stay in touch, keep the Ninos in your prayers and give what you can.
May you and your family continue to thrive in these interesting, challenging times.
Thanks again and again for sharing this wild ride with us, it takes a big international village to raise our happy, healthy Ninos!
~ Avishai
****
Note from Lauren:
Our donors have made this possible. It’s difficult to find harmony when you’re worried about losing your home, your staff is wondering if they’ll ever be paid, and the kids are competing over scarce resources to fulfill their needs.
Many of our new donors from last year are beginning to fall away. I hope you’ll consider joining us as an ongoing donor this year so our harmony can continue!
We’ve been so lucky to have Romy and Nitzan, a beautiful Israeli couple, working with for six months. They arrived on the day we were departing for summer vacation with the kids and jumped straight into the van with us. This beautiful couple has eased our workload tremendously while leaving their mark on both the kids and the Casa. We will be so sorry to see them go in September. ~ Lauren
Here is a note directly from our beautiful volunteers, Nitzan and Romy
Hello everyone!
After being here for almost 5 months, we began to understand the meaning of our “mission.” We are here to learn and grow together with the kids, to show an example to each other and reflect the lessons we have to each other.
During the days that we are here with the kids, we experience their routine. Waking up at 6:00 to make breakfast or to go for a walk with the dogs is an experience we really want to integrate into our lives. Having the possibility to be for a long time surrounded by the high mountains and diverse nature is a beautiful gift we are giving ourselves in this amazing adventure.
In addition to that, getting to know the kids teaches us to be grateful for our possitive full-of-luck life story and choices we make to create our reality.
So far we succeded to lead a photography class, Boys/girls circles, cooking, driving lessons, competitions, arts & crafts that already made some profit and a good lesson of creating a fundraising event together.
A week ago we had a group of volunteers that came from france to teach us how to work with volunteers 😉 with a big group and a lot of energy !!!
With Rebecca the mural artist and the help of everyone in the house we managed to provide an amazing outcome in a week – working in the garden, building stairs, and decorating the entire house with magical murals all over the walls
The house looks amazing and it makes us really happy every morning when we first go out of the room , we can feel the new atmosphere in the house!
We are here for another month and a half, so it’s a good time for the right new people to arrive as long term volunteers. We highly reccomend visiting and beeing part of this family here in the beautiful Sacred Valley in the Andes.
Definitely a life-changing experience for whoever wishes to grow!
From our point of view, this organization is really making the best from the donations that arrive and we are grateful to be in service here today.
Gratitude and Love to our Global Family for making possible that this garden of life blooms to the fullest! with your ongoing support, the children are able to continue nourishing their dreams and hopes for a good future, breaking the chain of abandonment, abuse, limitation, and poverty. Here’s what each of the kids is up to at the moment:
Our Casa was recently graced with a very special presence. Rebecca Schisler, who is an artist, mindfulness educator, and youth mentor, brought a group of 30 energetic and talented teens from France into our space and they created magic.
The volunteers and our Niños worked together to cover large swathes of bare concrete with magical patterns and colors, completely transforming our space. It was an intense time of creativity and joy for the kids, and the group literally left their mark on our home.
Our new entryway design features monarch butterflies and the phrase “Amor es libertad,” or Love is Liberty. The painter in the photo is Zenobia, who is currently studying to become a pastry chef.
The organic forms and bright colors will add so much life to the space. Our youngest, Soledad, is definitely growing like a tree these days!
The girl with the radiant smile is Sol’s sister, Marlitt, who just joined the Casa in January. She seems to be enjoying the joyful, creative spirit of Niños Del Sol and our many friends!
José Luis, who studies Graphic Design at Cusco University and works part-time editing video for a drone company, is definitely a Niños Del Sol success story. He always wears a beautiful smile, too.
The finished tree art.
The new front entrance to our kitchen says “Conocete” (Know Yourself.)
Our staircase has been transformed into a sea fantasy!
Thank you, Rebecca & friends! It’s safe to say you will always be remembered here. <3
Last year, we had our most effective campaign ever on a platform called “Rootfunding.” This platform allows our supporters to each set up their own fundraising page and commit to finding 10 friends who are willing to donate $25/month each.
A small handful of fundraisers were able to bring in over $1,000 a month in revenue — money we can count on to pay the children’s rent and tuition every month, and to pay our beautiful staff a living wage.
It’s time for another Rootfunding campaign, and we’re hoping for an even larger success. If we can generate $3,000 per month in revenue, we will be able to pay all our bills and staff salaries every month going forward. It’s hard to even imagine living in peace and prosperity after our long dark struggle.
Set your goalI recommend $250/month, which is 10 friends each giving $25/monthly
Talk to your friends. Replace Rootfunding’s default text with a couple of paragraphs telling why you love Niños del Sol. I recommend starting with the sentence “Can you give just $25 a month?” because it will show up in Facebook sharing and it lets people know what you’re asking at the very beginning.
Choose a photo. You can replace our video with your own image or video if you want. A photo of you with some of the kids will be very powerful, if you have one!
Share your campaign on social media and by e-mail.
Keep sharing until you’ve reached your goal! You may only get one donor each time you share, so don’t give up!Last year I shared my page about 3-4 times a week and it took 3 weeks to meet my goal.
That’s it. If you’d like to see what a branch campaign looks like, check out my page at this link. Note at the bottom I said “We are a 501c3 charity in the United States. We hold a Platinum rating from Guidestar, and Great NonProfits has named us a 2018 Top-Rated NonProfit.” Giving people this information helps them know they can trust us to manage their funds well.
Thank you, always, for your financial and emotional support, and for the trust you place in us. We are grateful every day for our donors, supporters, and friends around the world.
Niños Del Sol has earned the Platinum Seal of Transparency from GuideStar. This is the highest level of recognition from the world’s largest source of nonprofit information.
We’ve been working very hard to make sure your donations are treated with the utmost respect and care. We’re doing it for you, but we’re very proud to have this recognition of our work from Guidestar.
To reach the Platinum level, we added extensive information to our Nonprofit Profile: basic contact and organizational information; in-depth financial information; quantitative information about goals, strategies, and progress toward our mission.
