CHICUCHAS WASI

Chicuchas Was Alternative School for Girls promotes gender equality, personal self-esteem, and human dignity for the ignored, indigenous female population in rural Andean Society in Cusco, Peru by educating, preparing and empowering girls for a womanhood of economic survival, leadership and opportunity. Our parent classes teach the value female education, the worth of girls and women and female leadership preparation, the value of family support, and conflict resolution to stop violence against women and girls.
We are preparing future leaders to end gender inequality, child abandonment and oppression of women in Cusco, Peru.

Peruvian law states public school grades 1 through 12 are free, but in reality public education is not available to many poor families living on $1.00 (US) or less a day. These parents cannot afford hefty registration fees, uniforms, books, school supplies, and transportation, thus making it impossible for many children to attend public school. Therefore, female human rights are continuously violated by keeping them uneducated and impoverished.

The CW Alternative Primary School for Girls has an enrollment of 100 girls for the 2013 school year. We provide free primary education grades K-6 for poor indigenous girls, emphasizing personal empowerment, academics, and stressing personal values, integrity, self-esteem and responsibility for an adult life of quality, dignity, gender equality, and financial independence.

We teach group problem solving for the classroom and society, working and cooperating with others, resolving conflicts calmly with self-confidence and without verbal or physical abuse. We expect students (with parental support) to meet the CW school van on time, complete assignments, participate in activities and to strive for academic achievement. The regular academic curriculum is augmented with these classes and programs:
* Daily hot meal program is essential for every student mid-morning to enable student focus and concentration on studies and maintain healthy bodies. This is often the student's only daily meal.
* Hygiene, Art, English, and Quechua.
* School uniforms, textbooks, school supplies and dental care.
* Transportation program to deliver girls safely to and from school to a central location in school van. School attendance is maintained at 99% with transportation provided to families unable to pay bus fares.
* Students participate in school and community events, parades, celebrations, and demonstrations for Women's Human Rights. CW Girls marched in the streets of Cusco in 2012 to protest Violence against Women and Girls and to educate the community of the value of women and eliminate domestic violence. Our students participated in the 2012 International Day of the Girl, promoting female empowerment.
* Our Strategy is:
-To provide academic skills needed for a secure future of economic independence.
-To empower girls to believe in their own self-worth, self esteem, gender equality and dignity.
-To prepare leaders to advance the family, community and society with the women examples and change the outdated beliefs.
-We provide needed nutrition, transportation and uniforms to support the ability to participate in the academic program.

CW was founded in 1987 to provide an emergency shelter for the many abandoned children living by their wits on the streets of Cusco, Peru. Chic Chas Was witnessed the cause of child abandonment during the 10 years working with street children and re-directed CW project in 1997 to address this issue. Young uneducated mothers unable to provide for their children frequently abandon their children due to female illiteracy, poverty and desperation. Education is the key out of poverty and oppression.

The CW Alternative Primary School was established for these indigenous girls forgotten by mainstream public education in 1997. We accept poor girls, from 4 years of age, from illiterate rural families to enter kindergarten and progress through grades 1 through 6 and completing their primary school education. Our local professional teachers are specially trained to address the needs of this particular group of female students. The schools beginning was difficult due to the deeply held belief that girls are not smart enough to educate. We had to beg mothers to allow their daughters to go to our school. Today, parents beg us to accept their daughters. We are making a difference already. We have 26 years experience working with the poor indigenous of Cusco.

The current school year 2014 has 105 students enrolled. We have learned the value of our nutritional program and are planning a school garden to supply vegetables, and raise chickens and guinea pigs for animal protein to address the anemia many students have due to poor family nutrition and poverty.
CW celebrated our first graduating class to public high school on 12/2013. We have hight hopes for their success. The promotion students are demonstrating their confidence, self-esteem and academic achievement in secondary school with the preparation they received during 8 years in the Chicuchas Wasi primary school educational program. The CW school teachers and the director Ruth Uribe have established a trust and bond with the students over the years and will be mentoring the girls as needed going forward.

Challenges:
The handed down belief of rural uneducated women reinforces that they are inferior to men and destined to suffer from human rights violations of hunger, poverty, rape, beatings, and inability to care for their children because they are women, and need a man to provide for them. Women believe that they have no power to make decisions to change gender inequality that keep them impoverished and silent. This belief is deep seated and hard to change in this society.

We do see success with our students and families and in their communities. For the larger city of Cusco to embrace gender equality and the value of females will take time and more schools like ours to provide education to more girls denied today. The belief that the female is of no value persists due to the societies firm hold on male superiority. Unemployment, stark poverty, alcoholism, family abandonment and depression still keep the family down and some men resentful that females are rising above them in their families.

Success:
CW has 105 thriving students enrolled for the 2014 school year. Chicuchas Wasi School graduated our first 6th grade class onto public high school last December 2013. These CW students are seeing their own value and the families are learning through their daughters. The achievements are noticeable and so are the grades and leaderships skills some of our girls demonstrate.

We have 99% student attendance, 99% student assignments completed, Special projects suggested and implemented by students with great enthusiasm: Ecology Expo in the school, where students worked alone or in small groups investigating, researching, and preparing their projects to demonstrate to the other students in the upper grades in the school. They were bright eyed and very proud of their achievements.

In addition to educating students, we also educate and prepare their mothers on how to improve their own lives with workshops, and classes to inform them about women's rights, finding voice, job training resources, co-operating in groups to identify and solve problems.
Parent's classes were only 50% attendance initially, but have improved to about 80% of mothers and a few fathers. Most children are from single mother homes; only 20% of fathers are home. About 25% of fathers are absent as they found jobs far from home-some return, many never return. In 2014 the parent participation in the parent classes is about the same as 2013. We are seeing more parent interest in the school over the last 6 months with approximately 80% of the mothers and about 15% of the fathers actively participating in school events, with enthusiasm.

Our teachers continue to receive ongoing training in CW methods of teaching and together update the curriculum each January and to identify and follow CW protocol when suspected child abuse.