Professor Patricio's little school of english has been running their English, Poetry and Sports program at The Blue Lagoon in the Amazon jungle of Peru near Tarapoto for several years now. Four years ago Patrick and his wife decided to relocate to the Blue Lagoon to live in a more natural and healthy environment. They soon fell in love with the people and location and having had previous program leadership and advanced teaching skills decided to give something back to this community. There are approximately 8000 people living in this primarily agricultural community but tourism due to the lagoon is on the rise and due to this program a fair amount of students are becoming more interested in learning English and computer skills. However the Poetry-English-Sports program is designed to achieve so much more.

This is an after school program that gives these children important life lessons and skills that they would not otherwise have. The program is run at two local recreation parks. This teaches the children that they can learn anytime and anywhere. The three components of the Poetry-English-Sports program all work on a point system with team points for half of the poetry and English focuses and for all of the Sports time. The students are divided into teams by age and gender and spend one hour per day studying English and one hour sports. Students get independent and group points based on attendance. Attendance at schools and other social and education activities in this part of the world is a big issue but with this point system Little Schools of English had been able to successfully tackle this issue. The children also learn to be accountable to each other as a team and work individually and as groups toward gaining points for the end of cycle main event which presents the community with Poetry-English –Sports competition. At this main event children receive awards based on that days contest outcomes and the total cycles accumulated points.

Equally as important is the rotating volunteer and the different skills that these volunteers bring to the children of this remote area that would otherwise not have access to. Each cycle brings new volunteers from different native English speaking countries with different professions and athletic interests. Through this variety of new activities and meeting new people from, different parts of the world these otherwise isolated lower socio-economic-status children gain confidence and empowerment and come to know that they can go anywhere and do anything in this world. This is all achieved through Poetry-English-Sports and the volunteers and donations that support this program.

Along with helping to teach the children of this program English, I will be teaching them about health and fitness and teaching kickboxing classes for them. With the money I am able to raise I will buy kickboxing and sports equipment to improve the quality of the classes. I will be purchasing all equipment when i am in Peru with the help of the Professor Patricio so the money can go towards the equipment and not on expensive shipping cost etc. All equipment bought will be left for the program so they can permanently incorporate kickboxing and other activities into the program. The more money raised will mean more activities becoming available to these children.

Thank You for your support!