We had a good turnout for the annual Latin Music Night at the Yardbird Suite, a special thank you to all the performers, volunteers and Pam and Nico from the Yardbird.
Follow the link for photos from the event:
http://www.pbase.com/tracyk/2018_10_28_supc_latin_music_fundraiser_at_the_yardbird
Looking forward to another trip to Arequipa in January to visit the agencies.
Our annual Peruvian dinner was a success – great food as usual by Carla Tamayo Aragon: http://www.pbase.com/tracyk/image/168273544
and a wonderful performance by Rueda de Casino Edmonton.
http://www.pbase.com/tracyk/2018_10_13_rueda_de_casino_at_supc_fundraising_dinner
We will be holding our two annual Fall fundraisers in October, the Peruvian Dinner will be Saturday October 13th at Holy Trinity Anglican Church, 10037 84 Avenue. Once again, we are fortunate that Carla Tamayo Aragon has agreed to cook for the dinner.
Advance tickets are $35 single, two for $65, children six to ten $15 and under six free. In addition to Carla’s great food and pisco sours we’ll also have a silent auction with both Peruvian and local items available. We’ll also have entertainment by a local performer.
The Latin Music Night will be at the Yardbird Suite Jazz club on Sunday October 28th tickets are $25. Lineup details will be announced soon.
We’re offering a special price of $50 for both events.
Tickets are available by calling 780-289-2405 or through supcsociety@gmail.com
It’s almost Fall in Arequipa and the school term is beginning, including at the Cuna Jardin Corazon de Jesus. When the parents, usually single mothers, don’t have alternative child care arrangements the children come to the Cuna Jardin over summer holidays – January and February. Once the regular term – for nursery and kindergarten as well as the homework club for the older children – commences then about 120 children attend.
The Cuna Jardin is open from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM, providing both pre-school and after school care for the children. Because of the extended hours parents are able to work knowing their children will be well taken care of. Without the Cuna Jardin many parents would not have alternative child care arrangements; a common sight in Arequipa is a mother selling goods on the street with accompanied by her child (ren). Although extended family care is still the norm in Peru, many of the poorest families have left their traditional homes in the country to come to Arequipa in the hopes of finding employment and to provide for their children.
Pictures from the visit can be seen here: http://www.pbase.com/tracyk/2018_03_06_cuna_visit
I was in Arequipa for a few weeks and visited both the Cuna Jardin, Corazon de Jesus and IRID. So far this year the weather has been better than last year and there’s been no issue with rain. Because of summer holidays the Cuna Jardin doesn’t have the full number of children, but there are some in the homework club and several younger children come daily while their mothers work. A volunteer has been coming in to work with the children. Photos from the visit here:
http://www.pbase.com/tracyk/2018_01_18_cuna_jardin
There are 35 living at IRID, an American group is volunteering several days a week with the children, and doing work around the grounds including building benches and picnic tables. The Government has required IRID to make changes to emergency lighting and fire extinguishers but is not providing funding for making the changes.
Photos from the visit here: http://www.pbase.com/tracyk/2018_01_24_irid_visit
We had a huge turnout at the annual Latin Music Night at the Yardbird Suite,people came to enjoy the music bid on the wide array of Silent Auction items and to support the work of SUPC in Arequipa, Peru.
Thanks, as always, to the musicians and dancers for volunteering their time and talent: Los Rebeles Musicales, Jorge Vargas, Mariachi Mundo, Oscar and Judith Garica and Marco Claveria group.
Thanks as well to the volunteers for helping at the door, with the food and the silent auction: Board members Brandy Berry (and her daughters Skye and Sage) and also Aisha Oboh,: volunteers Hope Martynuik, Doris Lachat, Cecilia Acat. And special thanks to Pam Josey of the Yardbird Suite.
Photos from the event here:
http://www.pbase.com/tracyk/2017_10_29_supc_latin_music_night
Volunteers, Board members with cook Carla Tamayo Aragon .
We had a good turnout at our 7th annual Peruvian dinner with food once again provided by Carla Tamayo Aragon. In addition to the food and a dance performance by Ines Castañeda we held a silent auction of Peruvian and local items. Photos from the evening can be seen here:
http://www.pbase.com/tracyk/2017_09_23_supc_peruvian_dinner
We will be holding our annual Peruvian fundraising dinner at Holy Trinity Anglican Church on Saturday September 23rd.
Once again, in addition to the fabulous Peruvian food (and Pisco Sours) we will have entertainment and a silent auction with both local and Peruvian items to bid on.
Tickets available through SUPC – supcsociety@gmail.com.
We also went to visit some of the families whose children go to the Cuna Jardin. Most of the parents are single mothers whose partners have left, however we met a single father caring for his child as well.
The area where many of the families live was affected by the rain – the roads are made of gravel and were washed out, we had to make a long detour to get to one of the homes.
Another road was also blocked and we walked to the home..
The homes are basic, two have tile floors; the others were concrete. One mother, whose partner had left her, was living with her child in a single room the only furniture a single bed and a two burner hotplate for cooking.Peru has been undergoing severe rainy weather the past few months with mudslides, rivers overflowing and infrastructure collapsing. Arequipa has been spared the brunt of the rain although some of the roads and bridges have collapsed and water has been cut for almost a week because of broken pipes and almost all the city has been without running water. Classes officially began at the beginning of March but the Government has cancelled all classes since last Thursday as it it’s considered unsanitary to have the children in locations without access to water in bathrooms. However IRID is a home as well as a day school and the Cuna Jardin has taken children whose parents have no alternative for childcare, both are coping with the lack of running water with delivery from water trucks. Once the dirt roads have been restored we are planning on making home visits the second week of April. We will also be visiting IRID again and will send an update on both agencies in April.
It’s Fall and traditionally the end of the rainy season, but this year the forecast is for the rains to continue until the end of April. Once water is restored the Cuna Jardin will have more than 120 children attending classes, work still needs to be done on the ceiling in some of the classrooms which buckled because of the rain and the roof will need to be repaired and a moisture barrier added. All of the classrooms also need new chalk boards. Although there is a small fee that parents are asked to pay at the Cuna Jardin, many families, especially women raising their children without support from the fathers, are not able to pay anything. As well, the fee only covers a small portion of the costs, the funds we donate help to cover the costs of children whose parents can’t pay as well as the difference between the fee and the on-going expenses.
Photos from the Cuna Jardin visit can be seen here:
http://www.pbase.com/tracyk/