In 2005 The Phoenix Projects began working in three local Kichwa-speaking indigenous schools in the communities of Huayrapungo, Muenala and Urcusiqui. All above 3000m (10,000 feet) in the Andes mountains each school had 1 teacher working across all 7 grades and little access to educational resources. For all the latest news please follow this link.
Since then, in 2007, The Phoenix Projects began work with Larcacunga, a community on the other side of Otavalo. As well as providing daily food and fruit and educational materials we have built energy-efficient stoves, employed local teachers and started Plan Ironwoman aimed to improve the diets of pre-natal mothers.
Sustainable plans including the purchase of cows (Plan Moo) and guinea pigs (Plan Cuy) which were started in 2009 now help cover further education costs of many of the children in the communities.
After ten years, in September 2014, the government closed the schools in Huayrapungo, Muenala and Larcacunga, forcing the children to travel to centralized schools, which included Urcusiqui. We started to bring in University students studying teaching to help in the school in exchange for help with their University costs with the aim to have one teacher per class. We currently pay for six local teachers.
Please follow this link for a financial history of our work in Ecuador and future plans for funding and if you can donate to our work, please click on the photo on the right side of your screen. Thank you!
