What a year! Here are our top seven highlights of 2014

What a year! Here are our seven biggest achievements of 2014

It’s been a huge year for HOOP. From little wins to big achievements, our supporters, volunteers, parents and students helped HOOP grow more than ever in 2014. Here are our top seven highlights:

1. We taught more kids than ever

This year, we taught an astonishing 6,720 hours of English to children in the Flora Tristan community. We were also able to teach our biggest intake of students to date, with 83 kids attending classes this year.

2. Parents got business-savvy

For the first time, we were able to offer parents a new course in business skills in collaboration with Thunderbird University in the US. The four month course gave parents the skills and knowledge they needed to develop their own business plans.

3. HOOP mums asked for English lessons, so we delivered

In 2014, HOOP mums got jealous of their kids’ English classes. So when they asked us to provide a class for them, we were delighted to oblige. Over the year, we taught 20 mothers from the community a total of 1,440 hours of English. We look forward to teaching more parents more English in 2015.

4. A third HOOP student was awarded scholarships to attend a private school

We were really excited to secure another scholarship for one of our brightest students, Daniel, to attend Vencedor Secondary School in Arequipa, thanks to the generous sponsorship of the Kondos family. 2014 was also the year we congratulated our first scholarship student, Elizabeth, for graduating from secondary school.

5. Our volunteer network grew by 24%

We welcomed 72 volunteers in 2014, from 17 different countries, including new representation from Scotland, Brazil, Poland and Paraguay!

6. We helped keep our kids healthy

Through HOOP’s collaboration with Dentists Without Borders, 329 dental procedures took place for 240 people. We also organised 63 general health check-ups, and psychology workshops for parents. Following the HOOP Health Report, we also responded to parents’ concerns about nutrition and hygiene with special health education workshops throughout the year.

7. The first ever parents’ board was voted in

2014 ended on an exciting note for the future, with the election of the new HOOP parents’ board of directors. This will mean the parents will be more involved than ever in how HOOP can help the Flora Tristan community.

We set a good benchmark for ourselves in 2014, and with your help we want to make 2015 even bigger. And we’re going to start big, by building a whole new school in the New Year! With all this progress, it’s an exciting time to be at HOOP - to find out how you can help, email us at volunteer@hoopperu.org.

Written by Tom Hornbrook 
@InTomsHead

It’s Christmas! (Peru style)

The festive season is well and truly upon us in Arequipa, with locals busily snapping their photo beside the huge Christmas tree in Plaza de Armas, and shopkeepers adorning their stores with garlands. All we need now is a freak snowfall and the scene will be complete (but don’t hold your breath for a white Christmas, with temperatures pushing 24C!).

So it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, but beneath the tinsel and Santa Claus pictures, how exactly do Peruvians celebrate the holidays? I spoke to HOOPsters Carlos and Evaldo to find out.

“In Peru, we celebrate Christmas on the 24th of December, known as ‘Nocha Buena’ or ‘Good Night’”, Carlos explained, “when all the family comes together for a meal in the evening. We then spend time together until 12 o’clock, when some people will go to a midnight service at their local church.

“In Arequipa, we really love fireworks, and at midnight the sky lights up with fireworks all around the city. This is something you won’t see in most other parts of Peru, where fireworks cannot be sold. After fireworks it’s time to give and open presents, before bed.”

Evaldo added, “In my family we have a turkey salad and potatoes for Christmas dinner. At midnight we celebrate the birth of Jesus and share hot chocolate and eat panatone - a traditional cake filled with fruit. The next morning some of the family goes to church and the rest prepares for a big family lunch with all my cousins, uncles and grandparents.”

At HOOP, we’ve been trying to make sure no one gets left out of the festivities. We just had our annual Christmas party for the kids and parents of the school, with games, food, gifts and an appearance from Papá Noel himself. You can see more photos from the day on our Facebook or Flickr page.

The kids have also been busy at school preparing to sing Christmas songs and creating decorations for the end of year assembly. Check out our Christmas video for a snapshot of the festivities.

However the holidays are celebrated in your part of the world, from everyone at HOOP,

¡Feliz Navidad!

Written by Tom Hornbrook 

@InTomsHead

Working for an Organization with a purpose

For many people the words non-profit or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are a bit of a mystery. What do those words actually mean, what do NGOs do and what is it like to work for such an organization? This is exactly what we will try and answer with today's blog post.

An NGO is the term commonly used for an organization that is neither a part of a government nor a conventional business that operates on a profit generating basis. NGOs are usually set up by ordinary citizens, and could be funded by governments, foundations, businesses, or private individuals. The funding NGOs receive will not benefit the organization though, but the beneficiaries it is working with. That's why it called non-profit. NGOs are highly diverse groups of organizations engaged in a wide range of activities, from fighting human rights issues, to providing education, medical treatment or disaster relief efforts.

It will definitely be no waste of time working or volunteering with an NGO. When you decide to work with an organization of that kind, you already know that you would like to contribute to the social good and try and do your bit. Your values will probably match those of the organization, which means you will work with a lot more energy and integrity.

Your commitment will almost definitely be shared by your co-workers and the so the work environment can be very rewarding. The atmosphere in a purposeful organization creates the feeling of achieving something bigger, and what could be better than that?

Written and photos by Charlette Voss

How to be a great volunteer

Without the ambitious and caring HOOP volunteers from all over the globe, HOOP could not fullfill its vision and dream of breaking the cycle of poverty in the community of Flora Tristan through education. The 5th of December marks International Volunteer Day and to celebrate this special day and our volunteers, we will dedicate the whole of December to the topic of volunteering. Today's blog post is about how to be a great volunteer.

1. Be open-minded and flexible

A lot of our volunteers are very good at planning and scheduling, because this is what they are used to from their home country. However, living in a developing country often means that local cultures, infrastructure and timekeeping can be very different to what you are used to, so plans can often change from one minute to the next. In such moments great volunteers will remain calm and show flexibility. There is often no point in being angry or disappointed about those things, so you will have to make the best out of the situation. An open mind is one of the best characteristics a volunteer can have.

2. Be committed
Being a volunteer can use up a lot of energy. For example during the day you may help with the projects and at night there might be a fundraising party, you would like to discover your new home town, or just hang out with all the other HOOP volunteers. The day of a volunteer can be very long and tiring. Volunteering is certainly not a walk in the park and you shouldn't start your placement thinking it will be. It requires just as much dedication and energy as any other job does.

3. Be curious

In a new country or even a different continent it is always fun to discover new things. As a volunteer it is therefore almost impossible to not bring a huge load of curiosity, because that is the secret ingredient to bring new ideas to a developing country. It is just how Bernard Baruch once said: "Curiosity! Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton asked why."

4. Be imaginative

Do you remember your favourite teacher? It was probably one with a wild imagination and a better way to teach the subject to you than all the other teachers ever could. It is always amusing and fun to listen to and be around someone who can see things from a different angle and who is not scared to do something crazy. So if you are going to start a teaching volunteer position, try and use all of your imagination and creativity in the classroom, and you will probably find that the kids will give you all of their attention in return.

5. Be selfless

As Ronald Reagan once said: "We can´t help everyone, but everyone can help someone." As a volunteer you will probably want to travel and see as much of your new home as possible. However, you should also remember that you have committed your time to a certain cause, so the priority of each volunteer should always be the passion for the project and its vision. It goes without saying that we love the selflessness of our HOOP volunteers. They are sacrificing their energy and time without expecting anything in return. Our volunteers are happy with the rewarding work they are doing every day, and for that we and the families they work with will be forever grateful.

Written and photo by Charlette Voss

Listen

Following up with this month's theme of health, this weeks blog is about mental health. Thanks to the generous grant from the Oficina Económica y Cultural de Taipei, it will be possible to run a full scale health program next year, which will also include a mental health component.

Not only physical health, but also mental health is a very important issue that HOOP would like to address in the community of Flora Tristan. HOOP will collaborate with the psychologist Marisol Pacheco Pacheco in the following year to implement this program. She is a very experienced psychologist, and already knows the community well.

HOOP volunteers are always happy to listen and give advice to the HOOP students and their moms, but they are not qualified to address issues concerning domestic violence or counselling for example. For that reason we are happy to have such an experienced psychologist on board now. During this past year Marisol already volunteered her time to run all kinds of monthly psychology sessions, but we are pleased to be able to extend these sessions to weekly sessions now.

Marisol during one of her psychology sessions

Written and photos by Charlette Voss

Clean water is not self-evident

The first thing I do in the morning is to go to the bathroom, wash my hands, brush my teeth, and then make a coffee or tea. For all of that I need water. It is an essential resource to start my day comfortably.

I can access water very easibly, but imagine you have to worry about access to clean, drinkable water every morning. In Flora Tristan the only water that is accessible, is contaminated water in various water stations throughout the community. None of the houses have water, so the families to need to walk to these stations to collect water. Contaminated water can cause health problems including Cholera, Hepatitis A, Typhoid Fever and Diarrhoea. The families we work with have to use this contaminated water every day, because authorities are not taking care of improving the quality of the water. That means, that the families need to boil the water every time before they use it for drinking or teeth brushing, in order to kill all the harmful bacteria.

At our school we use water filters that make tab water save to drink. Those filters also ensure that the kids learn the importance of clean water and how it can affect their life. For HOOP volunteers filtering water, is part of the class preparation. To carry the message of clean water to the whole community, HOOP´s health classes teach about the dangerous affects of contaminated water to the mothers as well as their children. Getting such filters though is a big expense that most families could not afford. Their only solution is to boil water which uses up a lot of fuel, so even boiling water is fairly expensive for most families.

HOOP would like to say thank you one more time to the Taiwanese Embassy. Through their generous grant we will be able to continue with medical treatment to the children affected by contaminated water, as well as hygiene classes which will help the children avoiding getting sick in the first case.

Written by Charlette Voss

Healthy Body - Healthy Mind

This month we will focus our media and blog posts on health. Since many of the families living in Flora Tristan have nutritional deficiencies and no access to health care, HOOP is organizing several nutrition and health workshops to learn about healthy diets and mental health. Seeing that it is easier to learn in action than from books, we have organized various workshops with the children and the moms this year. This way it is more certain that the ideas are also implemented on an every day basis in their private homes.

The workshops are informing the community about unhealthy drinks and how many spoons of sugar for example fit in just one small bottle of Inka Cola, amongst other things. Furthermore they get to know, what can happen to their teeth, if they do not keep up and follow through with their oral hygiene.

It is very important to HOOP that the community learns about healthy nutrition and health in general. This for example includes simple things like having three daily meals, because if the kids do not eat well, they can often not focus during class or achieve good grades. 

Since the workshops got initiated, there has definitely been an increase of the awareness towards health matters. For that reason we would like to extend our health program next year and are pleased to announce a partnership with the Taiwanese Embassy (Oficina Economica y Cultural de Taipéi) who kindly provided us with a generous grant to extend our program to include psycholgical support, nutrition classes, hygiene classes, health assessments and treatments. We would like to thank the Taiwanese Government for their generous support und we can`t wait to implement the program next year.

Our two Taiwanese volunteers Nicole and Nikky, the Taiwanese Ambassador Jaime Wu, and our staff members Ali and Tammy in the Taiwanese Embassy

Written by Charlette Voss

Top 5 volunteer qualities that will help make a difference to the Flora Tristan community

Being a volunteer can be one of the most rewarding experiences a person can have, but it also of course benefits local beneficiaries. Below are five volunteer qualities that that will help make a difference to the Flora Tristan community:

1. Great Motivation

If you are traveling abroad because of your strong desire to help and volunteer, then you will already have a great motivation for work. Your ethics and believes as a volunteer will probably be way stronger than of those who work a normal 9 to 5 job. And we all know that if the teacher is motivated, classes are more fun. HOOP volunteers are tutors, mentors, teachers, guides, coaches and supporters all at the same time, and the children will greatly benefit from a motivated teacher.

2. International Experience

Since most volunteers come from all over the globe to work as a teacher with HOOP, students can benefit a lot from these well-traveled and open-minded personalities. They learn to be more tolerant and broader-minded.

3. Enormous impact on the health and stabilisation of communities

Since the families living in Flora Tristan do not have very good access to health care and public education, it can be quite difficult for them to find out how to improve their own health and education without the help of authorities. HOOP volunteers therefore not just teach the students English, they also teach oral hygiene, nutrition and general higiene, in order to create a more healthy lifestyle for the community.

4. HOOP`s three values

Everyone beeing involved with HOOP is sharing the same values: 

Accountability: We are accountable to our beneficiaries, donors, partners and staff.
Integrity: We act consistently with HOOP`s mission, being honest and transparent in what we do and say, and accept responsibility for our collective and individual actions.
Commitment: We work together effectively to serve and empower the larger community with dignity and respect.

5. Critical minds

Most of the HOOP volunteers have already traveled a lot and are interested in foreign languages, cultures and politics. Consequently they are critically thinkers. So many different creative minds can bring a lot of imput to our organisation, along with great, sustainable ideas for HOOP as well.


HOOP wouldn`t be where it is today without the help of all those volunteers that kindly donate their time to us each year and us and the community in Flora Tristan is very grateful for that.

Written and photographed by Charlette Voss

Get your Exclusive HOOP T-Shirt

Would you like get involved with HOOP, but you are not able to volunteer directly in Perú right now? No, problem, because unil the 3rd of November 2014 you have the opportunity of getting an exclusive T-Shirt from HOOP. If you buy a shirt you can create an enormous impact for HOOP students and at the same time you can also help us spread the word about HOOP.

We are selling the T-Shirts in partnership with Teespring. The talented German artist René Siepman kindly designed a T-Shirt for HOOP that will be on sale until Monday the 3rd of November. He designed the guinea pig with a hula hoop as a tribute to HOOP and to Peru.

The shirts are available for men and women and we also have tank tops (international shipping is available!). They sell for $20 and all proceeds of the sale will help raise money to employ a psychologist to work with our community in Flora Tristan.

Please help us reach our target of 50 shirts!

Just click on the link below to choose your style, color and size, and you will receive your shirts 14 days after the campaign ends on November 3rd: teespring.com/hoopperu 

We need to sell 50 shirts by November 3rd for this campaign to happen. If we do not reach our goal, your credit card will not be charged, but sadly the shirts will not be printed either. So please spread the word about this sale by sharing via social media, word of mouth or email. 

So, if you haven`t got any Christmas presents yet, then why not buy this cute shirt for your friends and family?

Written by Tamara Lowe

Teaching kids how to think, instead of what to think

Teachers usually go to their classroom very well prepared, knowing that they have to get the students through standardized tests, and prepare them for the standardized systems of either universities or the working world. This often tends to include teaching the children what to think instead of encouraging them to think for themselves though. But in a world where not everything is always perfect, wouldn`t it be more beneficial for students to become more self aware and stimulate them to think for themselves and also challenge opinions?

Encouraging students to solve problems by themselves and not just say there is only one correct answer is very important in order to improve their creative and critical thinking. A lot of children just have to memorize facts, but then they don`t know how to apply their knowledge in real life. Teachers could assist their students to do exactly that though.

For HOOP teachers it is very important to not crush the genius within the child, but to tickle it out of them, because intelligence is not always about the ability to remember and repeat, but also about the ability to apply one`s knowledge on an every day basis. Most of us are wrong at times, including teachers, so sometimes it is important not take the word of authorities all the time, and challenge them when necessary as well.

Sometimes it may also be worth for teachers to listen to their students too, because a lot of the times when you listen to someone else`s perspective or experience, you learn something new as well, even it is is from a child.


Written by Charlette Voss

Classroom Chronicles: Our Teachers` Funniest Moments at HOOP

As a continuation of our monthly communications theme teaching, we would like to share with you the most fun experiences some of our current volunteers had as teachers so far.

Volunteering in an organization with a purpose can be a very rewarding task and leaves an impression of a lifetime. To get a great insight about the fun and joy a volunteer can experience in a non-governemental organization such as HOOP, we asked our volunteers about their most fun moments in the classroom or on the playground.

A big advantage for HOOP students is to have teachers from all over the world and learn about various nationalities. The HOOP students are therefore confronted with a lot of different cultures with many different appearances on a constant basis. Florian for example is a 22 year old volunteer from Belgium and teaches the Kangaroo class. Apparently he is a lot taller than normal Peruvian people. While their average height is at 5.4 ft. Florian is 6.3 ft. tall. For the students that is quite astounding and Florian`s funniest moment as a teacher with HOOP was when his students painted the below picture for him.

Thanks to so many diverse characters, classes at the HOOP school are never boring and even after school is over, kids have the chance to play at the Cancha - the playground near our school. HOOP volunteers are always involved in every game; sometimes even more than expected. Jakob, our volunteer from Germany for example was just resting for a bit when a little boy jumped on his back and screamed in his ear: VOLAR – which means fly. So Boeing 747 Jakob took off and flew with his little passenger over the Cancha. As soon as they landed there were already a lot more passengers waiting to take a ride in this comfortable aeroplane as well.

One of the daily tasks for the students at the HOOP school is to brush their teeth and learn about oral hygiene. But as you can see in the photo above, the toothpaste is not always going where it is supposed to go, so as you can see, there is never a dull moment at our school up in Flora Tristan. The children always keep the teachers on their feet, but that`s all part of the fun of course.

Written by Charlette Voss

Teacher Tips - Attention Please

On the 5th of October 2014 was the official World Teachers Day. So we decided to put our focus this month to the same topic and appreciate the art of teaching.

There are different ways in educating a child and students learn in very different ways. So as a teacher it is important to know different teaching techniques, in order to reach all students. All of our seven classes in Flora Tristan are in the afternoons, so the volunteers need to know how to get their students motivated that late in the day. The following five tips may help anybody who is considering starting a volunteer teaching position or who has already started one. 

1. SIMPLY EXERCISE

It helps to do a little bit of exercise before the classes start. A few jumping jacks or stretches will do and will aid to stimulate the brain effectively.

2. ROUTINE BREAKER

Do not have the same routines in your classroom every day, as students may loose their interest and get bored easily. Just changing seats every time, as well as changing the way of teaching will help. The main idea is to shift between lecturing, reading, audiovisuals, demonstration, discussion and teaching others, to create a different and exciting routine every single day.

3. PROFESORITA - COOPERATIVE ENVIRONMENT

Let the kids help and work with each other. This way the students can show their learned skills and memorize through collaboration. Instead of getting bored, really good students can show their leadership and perform skills as a little assisting teacher, a profesorita. 

4. MAKE ME A BETTER TEACHER

Everybody feels more appreciated if you play with open cards. So why not let the kids teach you and ask them directly for an evaluation on your teaching methods. They may have suggestions that you have not even considered. Getting feedback from students can be a great way to change your teaching to the best. 

5. RESPECT UNIQUE TALENTS AND DIFFERENT WAYS OF LEARNING

There are three different learning types: auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. Students most likely learn best through a combination of all three of them. But still, not everybody is the same. Consequently it is essential that teachers know different techniques and steps to reach every student. Teachers have to balance time wise and not tailor the students to the slowest and fastest kid. Slow students still have the opportunity to catch up through homework help or practice sheets. 

Written by Charlette Voss

Dental Week - All people smile in the same language

With the great help of Odontologos Sin Fronteras/ Dentist Without Borders, we had the opportunity to provide free dental aid to the community of Flora Tristan from the 15th until the 20th of September.

Dentist Without Borders is an organization with a multidisciplinary team of oral health professionals. They are providing social projects, tools and consulting services, as well as giving advice to companies, institutions, municipalities and regional governments in order to improve dental health and the quality of life of citizens around the world. 

Photos by Robert Els

During the dental week our classrooms were turned into a dental practise and with the help of Dentists Without Borders we were able to provide 329 treatments during 240 dental sessions. Almost 45% of the treatments were dental restorations and 17% were extractions. While the afternoons from Monday to Friday were used to provide treatment to our students and their family, on Saturday we opened up the free treatment to whole community of Flora Tristan as well. It was so exciting to see so many children and their families benefit from these dental outreaches, which was only made possible through the help of the 22 volunteer dentists from Dentist Without Borders.

Photo by Robert Els

The myth that dentists are scary were not confirmed by our children. The wonderful dentists just knew how to break the ice with the kids.

Photo by Robert Els

This little girl for example didn`t show any fear before or during the treatment. We are so proud of our students for being so brave and really excited to see the new, healthy smiles on their faces.

These are just some of the wonderful dentists who volunteered their time to help our community

We want to give a big thank you to all the volunteer dentists, coordinators and other participants for helping implement this extremely important project. And to keep our students` teeth healthy we implemented a daily teeth brushing routine into all of our classes as well.

 - Written by Charlette Voss 

Wich animal can breath through its bottom?

Did you know that turtles can breath through their bottoms? I have learned this important fact during one of the weekly trivia night fundraisers hosted by HOOP Peru at the Wild Rover Hostel in Arequipa.

In last week's fundraiser, HOOP volunteers raised over 200 soles towards funds to hire a social worker at HOOP`s Flora Tristan School. HOOP and its devoted staff have continuously held these fundraisers in the name of education and well-being for the community members of Flora Tristan. Each Wednesday night, HOOP volunteers organize the trivia night, come up with questions and host the actual quiz night for knowledge-hungry backpackers from across the world.

These fundraisers are necessary because the children HOOP works with live in difficult circumstances and they need staff that can regularly cater to all their needs, whether it be academically or emotionally. A social worker would provide that additional support for the children and their parents and would also be able to uplift the confidence of individuals and make them realize their potential for achieving success in the years to come. Furthermore a social worker would be able to strengthen relationships and resolve personal, family and social problems. 

One of our bonus rounds is often a limbo dance, which is always great fun!

If you are based in Arequipa then why not attend one of HOOP`s weekly quiz nights and use your brain for a very good cause? We would love to see you there!

- Written by Sam Eisenberg

Serendipity: A beautiful and unexpected journey in Arequipa

Living in and being a part of HOOP in Arequipa has been such a journey. Everything over these last two months has exceeded my expectations: The lovely students, volunteers, locals and city.

Coming from Melbourne, having worked with a lot of NGOs beforehand, I thought I would be coming to Arequipa to be a typical volunteer. I expected to be working a few hours at the school each day and returning to a relatively calm hostel life. But oh how I was wrong. Working for HOOP and with HOOP-ers, I have learnt to embrace much more than just teaching. For starters, there has been the lively and warm volunteer community. I did not expect that the other volunteers that I have worked with and currently work with, would become an almost family away from home. There are friendships I have made that I know will not end after our HOOP experiences.

Then there is the myriad of things to do and places to go in and around Arequipa. Whilst you have Cuzco and Puno as your standard weekend trips away from Arequipa, there are also so many things do see in Arequipa. There is the monastery, museums, the lovely eateries and cafes, and of course, the salsa clubs! One of my favourite places in Arequipa is the Mirador de Yanahuara. It is a viewpoint only 20 minutes walk from the Plaza De Armas, where if you have good weather, you can see the sunrise in the most heavenly way. 

One of my favourite experiences outside of teaching the loveliest students at Flora Tristan, took place in a quaint house just outside the Arequipa centre. A local I was dancing with in my salsa class invited me to join her and her theatre group in a rehearsal at their director's house. I did not know what to expect and until we entered the house and started vocal and body exercises, I was completely in a state of curiousity. Michaela, an Austrian volunteer who I had persuaded to come with me, was absolutely confronted as well. Here we were in a fancy lounge room of a theatrical director's house, singing, dancing and acting with the cast from the Spanish version of Cats, the musical. It was an eclectic mix of people from diverse ages too. I will never forget that day!

There is so much more I could say but I feel like it is better conveyed through experience. I know everyone who comes to volunteer with HOOP will have a unique time due to the most unexpected experiences that come about with just having an open mind. Serendipity is a word that comes to mind. 

I urge you to have an open mind, come down to volunteer with HOOP and experience exactly what I mean.

WRITTEN BY

Ayes S.