Hi, my name is Michelle Borda and I am fundraising to buy tech for a rural community school The Peruano Suizo in Peru

The school is located in the cloud forest of Peru in a town called Oxapamapa, it provides education for over 200 families, and it is a truly diverse and inclusive school. Since 2014 it’s been constantly growing, in size and quality, focusing on outdoor learning, artistic education and languages.

However, the lack of access to technology is leaving children with a competitive disadvantage for their future, it is making computing education and digital literacy learning very difficult to achieve. The school has a multimedia classroom with access to fiber optic internet but with only one computer for all teachers and pupils. Access to technology is the main reason for educational gap between rural and urban areas.

I have been a coding teacher at the school for a year and had worked closely with Herna Waller, the head teacher, and Jesus Huaman, the computing teacher, to implement coding and robotics for the whole school. Now all secondary years are learning micro:bits, it’s been a great achievement. But I know first-hand how difficult is to progress in any computing learning when you are using computers that very few students can bring, most of them are extremely slow, or they simply do not work. Your donation will go a long way in supporting the education of these students.

We have reached a lot, but we need a little more help!

Our goal is to buy 10 durable laptops and we have already managed to get 7! So we need a little bit more…

We have achieved that with the power of our community, we have sold food and drinks at every school event and had cinema nights. All parents, family members and teachers have been involved in making these events happen and we are very proud of our community. But we can’t ask for more as many families can’t afford to donate what it’s required.

Our wish list:

Now we need at least 3 extra laptops (or more!) and a projector for the multimedia room. Ideally we want a laptop for each student but with 10 laptops they can share one devise between two pupils. The projector is needed for the multimedia classroom.

To give you an idea, a donation of $300 can provide a student with a refurbished laptop, while a donation of $700 can provide a new laptop. The funds we raise will be used to purchase high-quality laptops that are durable and capable of running the software necessary for a variety of educational purposes. We will also provide training to teachers and students to ensure that everyone is able to use the laptops effectively.

The risks:

We also need to make sure the laptops are safe at the school and install an alarm system to protect them. Security it is a real concern in Peru so we will make sure that some of the funds are devoted to protect the investment.

Last but not least

Every little count, and your contribution can make a huge difference in the lives of these students.

By donating to our campaign, you can make an impact in reducing the knowledge gap between rural and urban areas. To give you an idea Oxapampa is located next to a major national reserve in the rain forest of Peru. To access there you have to take a bus for over 10 hours from Lima, the closest airport there is is over 5 hours away by car. You will be helping them to receive an education that will open doors and provide opportunities that they would not have otherwise.

Thank you for your consideration and support. We cannot do this without your help.

Credits: Video filmed, edited and produced by AlVaro Durand facebook @alvarodurand