Update from SelvaKids!

Hello from SelvaKids!

Sorry it has taken such a long time for an update – between myself and Helen we have been very busy! We have had a brilliant 6 months, and have now embarked on some new much more sustainable projects. The number of communities where we work is growing, meaning we are helping more kids have access to better resources

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So here is what we’ve been up to….
I moved to Ecuador in August 2010 to work for a different organization that works in the same region in Ecuador. The aim was to learn more about sustainable development from an organization that is far more advanced than ours, unfortunately things didn’t work out so I left in November, which was good as it meant more time for SelvaKids!
December 2010
Courtesy of some awesome fundraising by The Community College Chulmleigh, who sold Ecuadorian Jewllery and SelvaKids Christmas Cards at their Christmas Fair, we were able to provide Christmas Parcels to around 90 children in three of the schools that we work with. Janeth (Our Ecuadorian Coordinator) and her husband made the trip to the city of Ambato, about 5 hours from Tena, to buy the supplies as it is cheaper there (also cheaper without the white girls ). We decided to buy small toys, sweets, biscuits, chocolates etc and make up a bag of goodies for each of the kids. So on the Wednesday afternoon before we planned to make the schools trip, I headed to Janeth’s house where there was already a mean production line going on. I was directed to my position by Nayara (Janeth’s 8-year old daughter) and the next few hours were spent in concentrated silence as we made up 90 identical parcels, each containing about 15 different treats. We boxed them up and we were ready to go!

Trip to the Schools – December 17th/18th 2010
Community Reina del Cisne
Me, Helen, Janeth, her husband Vicente and their daughter Nayara set off to visit two of the communities; including a new one that myself and Helen hadn’t visited yet. After the usual 3 ½ hour bus ride out from Tena, along the bumpiest road known to man, we got out at our usual “stop” – which is actually a small wooden house at the side of the track, opposite what can only be described as a path into the depths of the jungle. Some of the kids were there to meet us, unfortunately no donkey to carry the loads this time, so we set off into the jungle…It is about an hour walk to Community Reina del Cisne, I would say we know the way having been there twice before, but unfortunately it still all just looks like jungle to me….luckily the kids were on hand! We got to the house where we were staying the night, the president of the community, dumped out stuff and quickly carried on the extra 30 minutes or so to get to the school. The houses that make up the community are not close together, and the kids can walk up to 1-2 hours every day to get to school, depending where they live. We got to the school about five, armed with the Christmas parcels we had and handed them out to the kids.
Last summer, myself and Helen made the decision that we want SelvaKids to become more sustainable. What we have done the last three years has been great, but there is a limit to how much two white girls going in and handing out school equipment can help. We decided we wanted to come up with more sustainable ways to help the communities – helping people to help themselves. With some advice from Janeth, we decided to trial a pilot micro-finance community bank in Community Reina del Cisne. This micro-finance project will allow members of the community to take out small loans to start small projects, such as planting maize or cocoa trees. They will have to repay the money at a low interest rate, with the interest being split between increasing the amount in the bank and the remainder providing educational resources. So this trip also involved presenting this idea to the president of the community, the teacher at the school and the parents. After the kids were happily munching on their Christmas parcels (no chance of holding out till Christmas day!), we got to work explaining the community bank, how it would work, and what they all thought. We got a really positive response, and everyone was really excited about a project that would mean they can generate their own incomes and help their kids themselves. We decided that the next week, Me, Helen, Janeth, the community president, school teacher and school treasurer would meet in Tena to discuss the details.
We also discussed our new idea of “Plant a Chocolate Tree”. It works on a similar principle to Oxfam’s buy a donkey etc. We proposed that if the school can donate a bit of land (without cutting down any jungle!!) that we will sell “Chocolate Trees” in England. For every chocolate tree bought in the UK, one will be planted in this piece of land. The profits will go to the community bank, meaning the amount will increase, more loans can be taken out and ultimately the school will make more money!
By the time we had discussed all this, it was getting dark, and without torches we still had to make our way back to the house where we were stayed. So we set off, but unfortunately it gets dark very quickly in Ecuador, so by 10 minutes in, it was already pitch black. Finding your way through the jungle in the pitch black, hoping you are not going to tread on any snakes or that you will simply get lost, is a little scary! We had just made it safely back to the house, where upon we heard an enormous snort and saw a dark beast heading towards us…me and Helen screamed, before realizing it was their pet pig….Not really a dangerous jungle beast….
After a large dinner cooked by the president’s wife, and seeing some baby parrots that the kids had rescued from somewhere, we braved the dark again to have a “shower” – which consisted of a large tank of water, 100 metres from the house, and a small bucket – very refreshing after a sweaty day of jungle walking! It was then time to settle down in out tents for some sleep to the music of the jungle…Unfortunately I had to get up in the night and go to the toilet….and once again found myself faced with the jungle pig. I think it thought I had some food, so chased me into the toilet where upon I screamed…and the community president found me face to face with his pet pig looking utterly terrified. I truly am a jungle girl 
7am the next day, and we were up having breakfast of freshly picked papaya. Bad timing, me and Helen had both fallen ill in the night, I had been up since 4am and was not feeling my perkiest. But it was time to move on, so we walked back to the road to catch the bus another 30 minutes down to Los Rios, where we due to catch a canoe to the next community…