Otra Cosa Network

1. The ”Yo Cuido Mi Playa” Campaign – One Sunday each month local youth from our partner schools and projects that have received environmental education and training will join us at the beach in fun, interactive activities based on environmental education and carried out through team exercises, petition signing, competitive beach clean-ups et.c. At this event the youth of Huanchaco has the opportunity to use what they’ve learnt in the classroom and take action to work for a cleaner beach and future. This campaign is a flag ship event for the HELP Environment project and the organization as a whole, always involving both the community and many of our volunteers!

2. Trainings and Workshops – We have begun developing and carrying out trainings and educational activities to teach the children and youth in the local schools and our partner projects about the environment, pollution, and global climate change as well as how we can truly make a difference for the future of our beaches, our oceans and our planet. The youth will then be the ones to teach their peers, their families and even adults about the campaign and why protecting our environment is so important. By teaching the children and youth about relevant, local environment issues and what we can do to make it better, they’ll feel more aware and connected to global issues as well. Our hope is that the youth who participate in our workshops will then attend Yo Cuido Mi Playa, and will actively be teaching environmental awareness to others and ask them to join the change for a safe and clean Huanchaco.

3. Promoting local government schemes – Recyclable materials which are not separated but rather thrown away with the regular trash will often be sought out by the poorer population to sell to private companies for 50 cent / kilo. This task often falls on children, and is a dangerous and highly unhealthy task, with a great risk of contracting diseases. We work to promote the newly started recycling scheme in Huanchaco, by educating our partner projects about Why it is important to recycle, and how to go about to become part of the recycling scheme. This is a new and promising governmental scheme, and by promoting it and making sure they reach more households we contribute to the long term sustainability of safe recycling in Huanchaco.

Transforming perceptions and values

We hope that our educational efforts in HELP Environment will not only make it less likely that people will throw or leave their garbage on the beach, but that they will want to leave anyplace they go a little better than how they found it. For example, anytime we go to the beach, if we see some garbage on the beach, we want to inspire and be inspired to pick up at least a few pieces before we leave. Image the results if everyone began to do this!

HELP ENGLISH-provide equal opportunities through accesst to english classes

In Peru the English language is part of the government designed school curriculum. It is technically a requirement for schools to have English lessons. However, the schools in our area, like many others, are neglected and are not provided the resources or teachers to have English in their schools. At private schools children are made familiar with English at a young age however these schools are not within the means of the communities we work with. So this is where HELP English comes in. The goal of this programme is to provide equal educational opportunities to students in local states schools as the children who attend private school receive in the form of English classes. On top of the attempt to close this gap, it is widely recognised that speaking English is very important in today’s world, providing access to more job and educational opportunities.

HELP LITERACY- improving children's self-confidence and social-emotional skills through reading and writing

This project began in 2013 when Otra Cosa Network received a grant from LitWorld, a US-based non-profit, to set up a reading club for girls, known as a LitClub, in the shanty town of Cerrito de la Virgen. LitWorld recognises that literacy provides access to history, knowledge, creativity and democracy and so aims to create social transformation at a grassroots level by funding LitClubs to improving literacy in disadvantaged communities in both the US and around the world.

The focus of the LitClubs is to help the children engage with and enjoy reading, writing and storytelling, whilst promoting self-confidence. Many of the parents in the areas where our LitClubs are based have not completed school and a few of the children have already been forced to drop out of school, in order to help with responsibilities at home – be that cooking, cleaning or looking after younger siblings. This means that for many of them, reading for pleasure is something completely new. The LitClub classes focus on reading, comprehension and creative writing to encourage the girls to use their imaginations.

Our LitClubs run once a week as an after-school activity for children aged 10-15 years old and the leaders of our LitClubs are members of the local Huanchaco community. The LitClubs are single-sex environments and aim to provide the children with positive role models of their own gender, as well as to create a safe space where they can build their self-confidence. The LitClub curriculum is based around seven key strengths which are designed to foster trust and mutual respect between the members of LitClub:

• 
  
• Belonging
  
• Curiosity
  
• Friendship
  
• Kindness
  
• Confidence
  
• Courage
  
• Hope
  

Our Girls’ LitClub in Cerrito was the first LitClub in the whole of Latin America and the project has been such a great success that we opened a Boys’ LitClub in Las Lomas in May 2014 and a Girls’ LitClub in Las Lomas in May 2015. Whilst the Boys’ LitClub focuses on primary-school aged boys, both of our Girls’ LitClubs have both primary and secondary aged girls.

The LitClubs are truly amazing; it is wonderful to watch the girls and boys become more confident in themselves and in their ideas, which they express through reading, writing, drawing and storytelling!