Yinny in Yantalo
In the mountainous tropical jungles just west of the Andes in the north of Peru, the farmers and small business entrepreneurs of the Amazon benefit very little from tourism or volunteer efforts. The people of the jungle do not appear to maintain as many traditions, but are a proud community. Amongst the great mountains are great valleys, and the relatively flat road to the village of Yantalo is lined with rice patties, cacao farms, banana plantations and other small remote villages and is travelled by well-used taxi cabs, vans and moto-taxis. The Adelina Soplin International Clinic being constructed in Yantalo is expected to serve much of the population in northern Peru, and as such has generated political support, primary in the form of road construction to improve accessibility.
While in Yantalo, I stayed with Señor Augustine, an 88-year-old-life-long Yantalo resident who has converted part of his living space into volunteer-friendly accommodations. Our Yantalo home consisted of an open living and sleeping space and even an outdoor shower. Without consistent water flow, bathing consisted of a coconut shell and a communal bucket of water.
The local government school was closed on the first workday, so I helped bend steel rebar used in the roof of phase one of the clinic. I also met the kindergarten English teacher who is employed by the Yantalo Foundation, Milagros (aka Milly), to make a lesson plan involving bubbles. Kindergarten is separated into 3, 4 and 5 year olds, each with a separate teacher, but are taught 1 hour of English each day by Milly. The English lesson with bubbles created a fun environment for learning and seemed to be an excellent icebreaker, as many of the children are shy towards new faces. While working with Milly, we covered two units: School Supplies and Family; it was very exciting to watch the children learn.
The $723 US in donations converted to $2031.63 soles, which purchased an abundance of carefully selected schools supplies and initiated an addition to the school by funding the engineering expenses for the project. The donated school supplies were an excellent supplement to the curriculum. The addition will be a physical extension of the English department, as well as a much-needed space allotted for professional enhancement of the teachers. The Yantalo Foundation also provides an afterschool English program, led by a young teacher named Luis Miguel, 4 days a week, 2 hours a day. In order to ensure attendance and effort, the program costs each student 10 soles (about $3.50 US) per month. I also helped out in the afterschool English program, and they too benefited from the donated school supplies.
I was fortunate enough to spend time with the visionary and President of the Yantalo Foundation, Dr. Luis Vasquez. He founded the foundation in honour of his deceased mother, a past Yantalo resident. Dr. Vasquez is a kind and gentle man, and he instills a feeling of solace in others with his sense of humour and sharing of his plans for positive change. My experience volunteering for Dr. Vasquez and the Yantalo Foundation was a very positive one; adorned with great hospitality, a welcoming by friendly faces and a knowing that one hundred percent of money donated goes to meet the needs of the community, as per the donors’ wishes. Consequently, I hope that I can return to Yantalo and continue to empower children as they study hard to learn English in an attempt to rise out of the shadows of poverty by succeeding where their parents have failed.
Yinny Chen
The Flash plugin is necessary to view correctly.
