Dear friend,
2019 has been more than we could have ever wished for. It was filled with growth, challenges, partnerships, and dreams coming true. Bringing smiles to children’s’ faces and tears of happiness to our own eyes, we realize: this year has been nothing short of magic! THANK YOU for your support.
As this year comes to an end, we are reflecting on all of the milestones we have passed and all of the mountains we have surmounted. Con Pazion has grown tremendously in the minds, hearts, and spirits of community members in Peru and around the world. We have been active in 3 places in Manchay, Lima, and have approximately 600 underprivileged children, their parents, and community members attend weekly holistic workshops in dance, mindfulness, yoga, gardening, environmental education, English, sports, and art. The children have experienced what it means to have a healthy mind, body, and spirit and how to cultivate healthy lifelong habits. We have seen the children grow and thrive, and through them, our own hearts grew tremendously.
Through our community partnerships, we are no longer standing alone. We are thrilled to be holding hands with Lima Yoga, Colegio Villa Per Se, Adidas, Unilever, ANIA, and Ecoladrillos:
Villa Per Se, our sister school, is supporting us in adapting a holistic curriculum.
Adidas helped us construct a sports field in our secondary school.
With Unilever and ANIA, we collaborated to create a TiNi (Tierra de niños), a green classroom.
The women of Ecoladrillos have become close and heartwarming partners. Our two organizations stand TOGETHER fighting for equality and a better world.
Ecoladrillos and Protecta Security created colorful benches and planters constructed from over 1800 eco bricks filled with 500 kilos of plastic waste!
Local artists transformed the walls of our school with mind blowing color and inspiration, painting murals alongside our school students to transform the secondary area into a beautiful oasis in the desert of Manchay.
The Lima Yoga community has supported us throughout the year, through fundraising yoga classes and growing our community. In partnership with Lima Yoga, we ended the year with a marvelous Christmas celebration at our school. Over 400 children participated in the gratitude ceremony, a yoga class guided by 40 Lima Yoga teachers and Con Pazion volunteers and a chocolatada. It was a magical experience!
Our work could not have been possible without our growing team of strong, resilient, and dedicated volunteers from the USA, The Netherlands, Peru, France, Chile, UK, Germany, Spain, and Australia.
Looking ahead
With the new year coming just around the corner, we have even bigger dreams in our minds and hearts. Our long-term and ultimate goal is to make free, quality education accessible for every child in Peru. The school in Manchay is our pilot project, which will serve as an example for more Con Pazion schools in the future. All schools will serve underprivileged children with holistic education for free. Fighting toward educational equity, underprivileged children will get the chance to reach their full potential and break the cycle of poverty.
Working toward our ultimate goal, we have set sub goals for 2020. First and foremost, our goals include:
Training the 20 teachers at our school in holistic education
Integrating our holistic methodology into our school
Transforming the kindergarten and primary school into a haven where we educate whole children: their hands, hearts, and heads.
We strive for a holistic and innovative approach where we are connecting subjects, cultivating awareness, creating critical thinking minds, and fostering an environment of collaboration instead of competition. We hope to emphasize learning by doing and providing hands-on projects and opportunities. In 2020, our overall goal is that:
Our 350 kindergarten and primary students receive daily quality holistic education for free
We impact 650 students in finding their own individualized truth and pathways for education through our school and workshops
600 parents and community members will receive holistic workshops and will be active in our school community to help and support our children.
We will improve the infrastructure of our school in Manchay. In 2020, we hope to create a water system to provide clean water to children, to construct a comedor where the children consume complete and healthy meals, and to construct a yoga and arts shala so children will have a space to express themselves and grow and share their creativity with our school community. We would like to expand the garden to engage children with the environment around them.
We have big goals and even bigger dreams, and we want to make them a reality. We have come this far with your support, so we would like to extend a big THANK YOU!
We can only go further with your support. As this year comes to an end, we hope that you will continue to join hands with us and support our school and the children of Manchay. We hope you will learn with us, dream with us, and give a part of your heart to our important vision. We hope from the bottom of our hearts, you will take a chance to experience the magic with us at Con Pazion in 2020.
Thank you for all of your support in 2019! Merry Christmas and a very, very Happy New Year!
With love,
Leonie and the Con Pazion Team
