MySmallhelp Cusco

Thursday 20^th May, 2010

Ten volunteers from the Loki Hostel in Cusco came to help load and unload 1400 adobe bricks which were transported from Paucarbamba to the new land in Ankapachar. Despite various problems (including telephone signals being down and flat tyres) all of the adobe bricks which had been made by the  Paucarbamba community during the past week were moved safely to the new land. Members of the Paucarbamba community also gave their time and energy to make sure that the work was done on time.

Wednesday 19th May, 2010

We are pleased to announce that the Paucarbamba arriba community of 25 familes have all confirmed that they want to join the new contract with the Casa Hogar del Sol for the “Cuylandia” project. In addition, a further 20 families from the nearby Huayronkoyoccpampa community have also confirmed that they would like to be involved if we can confirm that funding is available to continue the project.

Below you can see photos of some members of the Huayronkoyoccpampa community receiving gifts of emergency survival blankets and torches from the Casa Hogar del Sol.

A contract is being drawn up for Carlos Gibaja the president to sign on June 10th on his return from Brazil.

Each member of the new contract will be responsible for providing 260 adobe bricks to help with the construction of the Cuylandia training centre to ensure that this project can move forward to help rebuild the lives of as many flood victims as possible.

Thursday 13th May, 2010

Over the past week the problems of jealousy between the upper and lower communities of Paucarbamba have escalated. It has been decided between the Paucarbamba community and the Casa Hogar del Sol that the Cuylandia project must be moved to neutral ground. Despite agreements from the community that they were happy to have the guinea pig resource centre built on communal land in the top community, the levels of jealousy between the top community and the lower one, coupled with infighting and village politics, has meant that we cannot continue to work specifically in this community.

Having taken advice from various NGO’s in the area, we have taken the decision that is no point in trying to implement a project that the community do not want and that the community do not unite behind, hence the reason for our decision. However, we feel positive that we will continue to progress in our flood relief work over the coming weeks.

Members of the Paucarbamba upper community still really want to receive our help and are extremely disappointed that Cuylandia will not be built on the community land. The Paucarbamba upper community have therefore offered to provide the remaining 7000 adobe bricks at no cost to the Casa Hogar del Sol. This will enable us to recuperate the money lost in levelling the community land which is now not going to be used.

A new contract will be drawn up in the near future to include all family members from the Paucarbamba upper community who still want to be part of the Cuylandia project. In addition, the Casa Hogar del Sol will be inviting members of other local communities that have been affected by the floods to join the project, with a maximum number of members being set at 35 at this initial stage.

Volunteers from Loki hostel and other friends of Leander’s came to help move 2000 adobe bricks to the new land, which is situated just outside Pachar (between Paucarbamba and Ollantaytambo). The remaining adobe bricks will be collected next Thursday and construction will start on the new land in the very near future..

Watch this space!

 Thursday, 6th May, 2010.

Loki Hostel and The Real Mccoy pub brought 15 volunteers from Cusco to help start the building of “Cuylandia”. The volunteers were split into 3 groups. One was responsible for working with a pick to knock out rocks, another responsible for collecting and removing stones in different sizes and another for creating mountains of earth to be used for bulding adobe bricks.

The Paucarbamba community members are also working in shifts to help build “cuylandia”. They have started to feed water on to the land to prepare the material which is needed for building the adobe bricks.

The Asociacian Casa Hogar del Sol wants to say a big thank you to all the volunteers for their time and strength and hopes to see them again soon!

It has been three months since the floods devastated the Sacred Valley …… and the community of Paucarbamba. Almost 40 families lost their homes, livestock, crops, and their personal belongings. One thing they have not lost is their will to improve themselves. For the past three months, Casa Hogar del Sol, MySmallHelp, and Desana (the group now known as Sueños) have been working with this community….. first with food lines, then temporary comedors, then dental treatments, and now the next phase….. helping the families that want to participate in a long term growth plan for each family in the community.

Today, we held the ‘kick off’ meeting with the community members to explain the plan. We are so fortunate to have Nelida Huillcanina (our Agronomist) and Carlos Gibaja (Casa Hogar del Sol) to help us ‘outsiders’ understand the local culture. Nelida had prepared an easy to understand contract for each family to read while she explained what would be expected from each family and what they would get in return.

At the moment the community of Paucarbamba are busy harvesting their maize. Much of the community’s crops were destroyed in the January floods, however at the moment time is being spent seeing what can be salvaged from the maize fields.

The maize that is completely black or waterlogged is useless, that which has speckled leaves and is ok inside can be used as animal feed and those with clear white leaves can be sold on the local market for tamale making (a traditional maize dough wrapped in maize leaves) and the corn dried, and sold on the local market.

We invited a team of volunteers from Loki Hostel in Cusco to come and help Marie Elena with her Harvest. Marie Elena is a single mother with 2 children. We had already helped her fix the door to her temporary house, and wanted to offer her more support. With a fantastic Group of volunteers, kindly organised by Pauline from Loki, we all enjoyed helping Marie Elena out, getting to grips with farming Peruvian style and of course, trying the obligatory chi-cha (locally made beer from maize).

Thank you so much to all of our volunteers and we hope to continue to offer assistance with the harvest whenever we are in the community.

As massive thank you goes to George and Kathy (from our partner charity Desana Giving in the US) for organising a dental mission to the community of Paucarbamba.

The team from the US and Peru worked tirelessly for 2 days treating adults and children in the community. For most members of the community it was the first time they had ever sat in a dentists chair and there was definitely a nervousness in the air when we arrived!

The dentists and their teams did an amazing job, treating people in the comedor and in a disused classroom in the school. There were huge problems with the community’s teeth as no-one in the community could confess to brushing their teeth regularly, mainly due to the cost of toothbrushes and toothpaste. The dentists gave classes on brushing techniques and left everyone with a toothbrush and some toothpaste.

 As a result of this mission, we have decided to include monthly workshops within the community covering Basic personal health and sanitation to try to ensure that when the dentists return, they are not pulling out so many teeth! ( We were depressed to see 18 month old babies with decaying teeth….).

Pictured here are the Dentists, Dental Assistants and Dental Students. Left to right: Tula Oros Camargo (Dentist – Cusco Peru), Kathy Meyer (Dental Asst. – Sioux Falls, SD), Dr. Mike Houk (Dentist – Team Leader – Sioux Falls SD), Dr. Mel Thaler (Pediatric Dentist – Sioux Falls SD, Sherrie Lura (Dental Asst. – Sioux Falls, SD), Angela Cook (Dental Student – University of Nebraska Dental School), Dr. Craig Crooksley (Pediatric Dentist – Sioux Falls, SD), Melissa Guerreo (Dental Student – University of Nebraska Dental School), Addison Killeen (Dental Student – University of Nebraska Dental School), Loo Thaler (Dental Asst – Sioux Falls, SD), and Vladimir Oblitds Cuba (Dentist – Cusco Peru).