Weltweit – Gesellschaft zur Förderung lokaler Initiativen e. V. Weltweit e. V.

My Corona free School – Lima, Peru

Mainly kids with autism and some with down syndrom go to Cerrito Azul.

Project Summary

Devolping a hygiene concept for Cerrito Azul – a school for disabled children in Lima

Global Goals

Project Manager

Country

Peru

Status

completed in 2021

Budget

5400 €

Partners

  • CIM „Centre for International Migration and Development“

Project goals

  • At least 90% of the staff in Cerrito Azul, a total of 21 people including the volunteers are familiar with the developed hygiene protocol.

  • All of the toilets are equipped with soap and paper towel dispensers, as well as with educational posters with instructions on how to wash your hands properly.

  • 37% of the families, 40 in number, have attended at least one workshop on the topic of hygiene measures and were sensitised to the the importance of supporting this from home.

  • The pupils implement the preventive measures that are foreseen in the hygiene protocol.

  • At least 19% of the families, 20 in total, were trained in the handmade soap production.

In 2019 we met Mariana Vidal from BluoVerda Deutschland e.V. through the recommendation of one of our Summer Academy participants. Mariana is Peruvian, she lives since ten years in Dresden and holds a doctoral degree from the TU Dresden. Together with other friends, most of them from Latin Americaand also specialist in natural resource management, she founded BluoVerda which supports and initiates environmental projects in South America. BluoVerda’s philosophy and approach, and of course it’s pool of founders and members who all are fantastically trained experts, made it a perfect partner to Weltweit e.V. 

In 2020 we started our first project together that was an online workshop on Geographic Information Systems for project monitoring. Shortly after Mariana proposed to apply for some funding support that would help Cerrito Azul to overcome the Corona crisis. Cerrito Azul is a school for disabled children in Lima and Mariana knew the founder Jorge from her childhood days. Both went to the Humboldt School in Lima, Peru, and ever since kept regular contact. The initiation of this project was therefore an affair of the heart, but one that followed our main principle of success: personal insights. 

A life work in support of children with disabilities. Over the past 28 years, Jorge Paredes, founder of Cerrito Azul, has adapted four buildings donated by the church or private sources into a primary and secondary school, a workshop and an orphan house. The schools allow that more than 120 children with disabilities (autism and down syndrome) can receive an education. The orphans’ house is currently home of seven young adults/teenagers (between 15 and 30 years old) with disabilities that live at the Cerrito Azul Center permanently.

Our organisations are helping Cerrito Azul, whereby Bluoverda Deutschland e.V. supports Weltweit in educating students and teachers about, as well as providing them with, hygiene equipment during the Covid-19 pandemic. In close collaboration with Jorge and his colleague Mariella we designed numerous posters for the school to create awareness on how to wash hands and keep social distance, as well as provide the equipment to do so. 

On top of that, we had contact with the Hans-Thoma Schule, a school for children with disabilities in Oberursel, Germany. Dedicated teachers from this school shared their experiences with Jorge and Mariella and thereby inspired them greatly on how a hygiene concept that effectively contains the virus should look like. Ideally, this productive first contact of both schools will develop into a long lasting partnership. 

Peru was one of the countries in Latin America that suffered the highest number of cases of Covid-19.
Peru was one of the countries in Latin America that suffered the highest number of cases of Covid-19.
About 120 kids and teenager from mostly low income families study in Cerrito Azul
About 120 kids and teenager from mostly low income families study in Cerrito Azul
Facilities are very basic. This is one of the better WC.
Facilities are very basic. This is one of the better WC.
Cerrito Azul is a school for disabled children in Lima, Peru
Cerrito Azul is a school for disabled children in Lima, Peru
Mainly kids with autism and some with down syndrom go to Cerrito Azul.
Mainly kids with autism and some with down syndrom go to Cerrito Azul.
Facilities, rent, salaries and all other costs are covered by donations.
Facilities, rent, salaries and all other costs are covered by donations.
With teachers of the Hans Thoma School in Oberursel we organized a digital brainstorming on a possible hygiene concept for Cerrito Azul.
With teachers of the Hans Thoma School in Oberursel we organized a digital brainstorming on a possible hygiene concept for Cerrito Azul.

Location