Quote of the weekend - 24 November

'Courage does not always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice saying "I will try again tomorrow'. - Unknown

DIY drink carton wallets - the video

Check out this video that I just uploaded from the 'wallet making workshop' that we ran with the little niños. 

A big thankyou to Lucy Greaves another volunteer at Seeds of Hope who showed us how easy it can be to make these groovy little examples of up-cycling.  

Breathing life in to junk

Last Friday Garance, another primary school teacher and I ran a puppet making workshop with eight of the little ninos using recyclable materials like plastic water bottles, toilet rolls, bottle lids , straws, yoghurt tubs etc.

We really wanted to give the kids a chance to use their imagination and not just copy or recreate a previously conceived idea. This practice seems to be fairly common among the kids here. For a lot of them their concept of drawing is tracing from a colouring book. 

We wanted to foster innovation and creativity, convincing the kids that anything could be a puppet and that recycling can be really fun.

To prepare for this activity we assembled all the recyclable materials on a table at the back of the room and on the white board we wrote a short introduction on what a puppet was and questions for the kids to think about, in reference to their puppet's personaility.

Shy or boisterous
Young or old
Fast or slow
Polite or rude

After a quick discussion about what a puppet was I demonstrated with a rolled up newspaper that anything could be a puppet. Folding the bottom and top ends to make the head and the tail, I illustrated  how different personailities can be conveyed through different puppet motion and voice. For example an older puppet moves more slowly and utters in a croaky hoarse voice. 

We then asked the children to slowly 'wake up their hand' and allow it to adopt its own personality. There was no prescribed way to do this, so long as each of kids invented a unique persona for their hand. We then all took turns to describe some of the key traits of our new puppets.

Before starting to construct their 'títeres' (spanish for puppet) we needed to brainstorm what different body parts the recyclable materials could be and how you could join them together. We were then all set.


Evaluation
Overall the workshop was a great success. Next week we will be repeating this workshop with some changes outlined below.

- We need to stress to the kids the importance of not wasting resources and planning ahead.

- Sometimes I think giving kids less choice enhances their creativity therefore this week we will limit their options and ask them to make some sort of animals rather than a person or animal. That way we could incorporate an environmental education theme and talk about the needs of animals such as clean water, regular food supply, space to build them home etc. By asking the children to create an animal you can also ask them to be more specific about where this animal lives i.e. in the ocean, in a forest, in a desert and so on. We found that a lot of the previous puppets like to eat chicken and rice so by having puppets living in different environments hopefully this will mean they eat a variety of diets as well.

Photos

Quote of the day - 22 November

'People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to choose carefully'. Steve Jobs

Quote of the weekend - 18 November

"If you love what you do every day you never have to work another day in your life" – Confucius

Donate here

When the wave ripples back over you

A very kind friend of mine who is particularly clever with his words commented the other day about how it is the best feeling when you start a positive wave and it then ripples back over you. 

I've felt this warm wave of generosity this week in response to my efforts to raise funds for the Seeds of Hope nutrition project. I've had some really encouraging feedback and  very charitable offers of support in order to promote the cause and collect donations. 

A big shout out to Luke Grealy, Farah Bostock, Tanya Aston and Loren Plummer. Muchas gracias chicos y chicas for all your help. It is very much appreciated by everyone here at Seeds especially the kids.

If you'd like to know more information check out this flyer. Feel free to share it with you friends. 

Quote of the day - 9 November

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, the just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while” – Steve Jobs

This festive season Party for a cause

Are you hosting a Christmas party this year? Is your workplace throwing a Christmas soiree? 

Whether it be a small or big get together, why not party for a cause and collect money to help 50 Peruvian kids, doing it tough, receive the proteins and nutrients they need to reach their full potential.

Once you have tallied all the donated funds you can then go to...

http://seedsnutritionproject.chipin.com/fighting-malnutrition-at-seeds-of-hope-peru-huaraz

Check out the Facebook event at https://www.facebook.com/events/435784236482249/


Muchas gracias & Feliz Navidad!
Sally xo

This Christmas give a child the gift of nutrition

According to UNICEF in the Ancash region of Peru where Seeds of Hope is located 1 in 4 children suffer from chronic malnutrition. 

Image courtesy Kellie O'Donnell http://tllg.net/oBrq

How can any child have a decent shot at success if they lack the basic nutrients required to develop strong healthy bodies and minds?

At Seeds, the impact of malnutrition is clear, the children suffer from stunted growth, rotting teeth, weak bones and lack concentration while studying. When I first started working at Seeds I was surprised to hear how old some of the kids were because looking at them you'd easily think they were 4-5 years younger.

The daily meals we currently provide include eggs, quinoa (a protein rich grain), oatmeal and occasionally fruit. While these daily snacks are beneficial, they are not enough to meet the dietary needs of these budding young students.    

We want to provide the children with other essential food items including red meat, yoghurt, milk, chicken and cheese. In order to achieve this for a 12 month period we need to raise $4000 (US). That's where you can help! 

This Christmas help Seeds of Hope fight malnutrition and give 50 Peruvian kids doing it tough, the proteins and vitamins they need to reach their full potential. 

You're just one small click away from making a big difference.

How will the money be spent?

Food	Quantity	Cost per month ($US)
Yoghurt (litres)	48	83.08
Cooking oil (litres)	2	6.15
Bread (buns)	384	18.46
Chicken (kgs)	28	80.77
Salt (kgs)	1	0.38
Mayonaise (kgs)	4	15.38
Beef (kgs)	19.2	73.85
Milk (cans)	48	49.85
Transport of food	-	4.62
Total for one month ($US) 332.54
Total for one year ($US) 3990.46

Quote of the day - 7 November

"Don't wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them great."- Orison Swett Marden

Quote of the day - 5 November

“Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can plan weird; that’s easy. What’s hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity” – Charles Mingus

Omprakash

Half the trouble in volunteering overseas is finding a suitable place to offer your help.

You want somewhere that's safe, well organised, affordable and where you can make a difference.

Of course there are placement agencies but take it from me - someone who has spent many an hour looking for a middle man that offers a reasonable deal. They exist but are rare and even if they're budget friendly and provide a quality volunteering experience they might not have projects in the locations that you want to travel to.

That's where Omprakash can help

This website does not sell volunteer “programs” instead it enables you to connect with Omprakash Partners that can benefit from your help, and then let the Partner determine if, when, and how you can serve them. This free database offers a comprehensive listing of worthwhile volunteering opportunities. As well as past volunteer reviews and journals, resources you can use while volunteering y muchas mas.

So if you're thinking about volunteering overseas make sure you check out this little gem. I highly recommend it, after all it was this website that made me decide Seeds of Hope was the place for me.

DIY drink carton wallets

We are now on the hunt for empty drink cartons. Lucy who arrived a few days ago, who had volunteered here previously has kindly offered to run a DIY wallet making workshop using recycled drink cartons for the little kids this coming Friday afternoon. She showed us her own wallet that she had made using the same technique and it looks pretty nifty. It'll be great to teach the kids, maybe they can make a Christmas gift for their family or friends or perhaps they could try and sell a few. I'll keep you posted on how it goes. I'm hoping to be able to film some of the workshop so you folks at home can give it a try.

Quote of the weekend - 3 November

“Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try” – Dr. Seuss

Happy Halloween – the little green bug has come out to play

Lying in bed in the dark typing, trying to be semi productive in my gastro plagued state.  At the moment it’s not too bad but this morning…ay  ay  ay  I haven’t had cramps like that for a while. It’s times like these that you wish you were at home in the comfort of your own bathroom. It helps though that there is another volunteer in a similar state, actually she’s had it a lot worse than me but she was kind enough to play nurse for me this morning fetching me some hydralyte. I’m super excited that my friend Rachel from Australia is coming to visit in a few weeks’ time and even more excited that she is bringing an extra stock of hydralyte. Being the day after Halloween today it is a public holiday here. The original plan for today was to go to the cemetery which apparently is a popular destination for the locals on the 1st November.  One of the other volunteers overheard the kids at school yesterday talking about what they were going to sell at the cemetery today. Apparently some of the kids bring buckets of water to sell to people putting flowers on the grave stones of their deceased family or friends.