Flora Tristan School Scholarship Scheme

The students who come to Flora Tristan School to learn English all attend local public schools. Not all of these have a particularly high standard of education and many classes hold up to 40 students. This further reduces the quality of the education they are receiving, as they cannot all have the individual attention they deserve when they need it. As the families in the community are all very poor, they cannot afford to send their children to private school.

Li, the School Coordinator, has done a lot of fantastic work on setting up a scholarship scheme, to enable one student a year from Flora Tristan to attend private school. Students who have the highest attendance rates at Flora Tristan and who work hard and are committed to their own education have the opportunity to be put forward for this scheme, funded by Traveller Not Tourist.

Next week, one of the students, Elizabeth, will be sitting the entrance exam for the private school. The exam consists of questions on Spanish, English and Maths. If she passes, then she will join the private school in the new school year, commencing in March.

To enable Traveller Not Tourist to fund the scheme every year, money needs to be raised regularly, not just as a one-off. As such, Tom and I have decided to use some of the funds we raised in England to hold a fundraising event here in Arequipa. As well as contributing to raising funds for this first year of the scheme, it will create local awareness and therefore hopefully generate funds for each year to come.

Work has already commenced on the fundraising event. On Saturday 26th November, we shall be holding a football tournament (football is incredibly popular here) for both adults and children. There will also be food and drink for sale, face painting for the children and a raffle. Traveller Not Tourist will of course have a stand, providing information on what the organisation does and also advertising the Spanish School and Tour Operator which they run.

So many thanks to those who contributed to our fundraising back in England. The donations you have made will help provide the opportunity of a much brighter future for Elizabeth and other students like her in years to come.