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Primary objective: .................... AND POOR CHILDREN OF PERU INTO EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS - First Step: Create and produce a 2 hour musical spectacular, including song, drama, dance and narration; first in Trujillo, and then – depending on it’s success – take it on the road to the entire country, preceded by an advance team to organize local participation and gather together a force of professionals, students and community representatives in each population center to carry on the real work after the show has excited the population. The story of four child laborers who progress over the course of the event into young adulthood (or not), is meant to challenge the accepted view that child labor, though not particularly good, is an acceptable reality within the "Peruvian condition". It is meant to expose, challenge, inform, excite and to suggest solutions; to motivate a broad section of the population to begin to do something to make a change. At best it will become a popular national movement to get child laborers into education; at least it will improve the prospects for a lot of child laborers in and around Trujillo. It is our good fortune to have in place a team of internationally experienced
and awarded artists, organizers and professionals to create and produce
this sort of show. - To challenge, encourage and help educational institutions (State, parochial and private) to introduce educational programs adapted to the needs of child workers. To demonstrate examples of this through our own educational programs for child workers, including new techniques such as virtual education.. Length of proposed project: Six months (for budgeted Trujillo project), [Two years for non-budgeted expansion into a national project - this awaits proof of success of the show/project in Trujillo before being launched]
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Part I CONTACT INFORMATION Name of organization: Bruce Peru ong ...........bruce@bruceperu.com |
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Part II EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This is the pilot part of a national project to improve the lot of child laborers in Peru and to assure that all children have access to and are made to participate in effective educational programs. It begins with the creation and production of a musical/theatrical
extravaganza designed to capture the attention and imagination of a broad
sector of the population to the effect that they will want to participate
in a project designed to achieve the above goals.
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Part III a - PROBLEM STATEMENT PERUAccording to the Government's National Statistics Institute, about 1.83 million children between ages 6 and 17 work in Peru.. -- more than one-quarter of the country's children and teenagers. And the institute's figures on child labor in Peru would be more dramatic if children under 6 were included in the study. Peru currently budgets 3% of GDP for education but in fact only comes up with about 2% (as I write this a national teachers strike enters its third week with no solution in sight).. Last year Peru signed two treaties with the ILO agreeing to raise the minimum work age to 15 and to eradicate child labor in by 2010. But until now nothing has been done to implement these positive steps – the law permitting 12 year olds to legally be employed is still on the books; there are no new initiatives to help the poorest families gain employment so they won’t have to send their children out to work just so they can all eat. Child laborers are a familiar feature of the landscape in every part of Peru. In the country they work on farms and make up work gangs. In the cities they are everywhere, washing cars, shining shoes, selling sweets, delivering drugs, picking pockets or begging; at night some of them are used in the prostitution business. This condition has existed for so long that most people accept it as being normal in Peru. TrujilloA well preserved colonial city whose picturesque center belies the fact that its sprawling barrios are home to hundreds of thousands of people as poor as can be found in Peru. Where the necessity of surviving the next twenty four hours is perceived to be a much higher priority than getting ones children educated. Where hopeless poverty and Latin American machismo combine to leave many mothers abandoned by their mates, having to raise their children alone: children who must then work. In the barrios there are thousands of homes without water or electricity, and many thousands more with electricity only. Adequate nutrition, sanitation and good health are in short supply where most of Trujillo’s children live. Crimes against children, mostly by older children or young adults is a feature of every day life in the barrios. Bruce Peru works with these children. We sponsor 15 mothers clubs in the barrios where we feed them, provide clothes and offer social and medical services to both children and mothers. This is of short term benefit to them but if it were all we did it could actually become a long term detriment to them: making them dependent and complacent. Our real goal is to get the mothers to become self sufficient so their children can stop working and go to school. We train them in handicrafts and market skills and help/push them to earn what they can, while our social workers do their best to get the children into educational programs. For those children who we cannot get to stop working we send out basic education instructors ( and we are founding members in a network with other groups who do the same) to teach them where they are. We also send instructors into the local youth prison to teach trade skills. Why, I hear you asking, are we putting these things on the PROBLEM page? Because they belong here. Our programs sound good on paper, but, with a few shining exceptions, they are actually accomplishing little by comparison to the magnitude of the problem; the growing number of child laborers who go without education and feed the cycle of poverty, ignorance and depression. Most of the children we get into schools have behavioral problems and are already behind their peers; indeed often are older than the other students. They face discrimination, low self esteem is debilitating. Shamelessly underpaid teachers, with their own problems and priorities, have little patience for the children we place in their classes. There are happy exceptions to this but they are not the rule. Peru offers free education, but the reality is that school costs a parent several hundred Soles a year per student; uniforms, supplies, transport, project money: Many parents are unable to afford this. And parents who make the sacrifice often withdraw it when the children’s behavioral problems or poor learning skills result in unsatisfactory reports. Peruvian society has come to accept that a large percentage of their children should work and not go to school. Institutions and politicians pay lip service to changing this but very little is getting changed. Someone has got to do something; shock them, revolt them, excite them, encourage them until they are ready to begin to reverse this cycle. Our show, ARRIBA.YA!, is being prepared to do just that… |
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Part III b – IMPLEMENTATION & WORK PLAN May (of the year the musical project begins) June (of the year the musical project begins) July (of the year the musical project begins) - To organize and coordinate university and college students * - To sell tickets and promote show (put up posters etc.) - To take the "Education Revolution" message to schools and .........student organizations – recruiting all the time. - To prepare to be ushers, ticket takers and sellers of promotional material and show ..........paraphernalia. - To recruit, indoctrinate and organize leading educators to work in their own institutions and to ..........carry the message to other institutions – especially those in a position to revitalize their programs for educating child laborers (and ..........initiate new programs to the same end). Also to promote the universities and institutes which ..........train educators, social workers and psychologists to assign their best students to work in the .........."Education Revolution" program as pre-professional volunteers (something which all ..........university graduates do in Peru) - To form a group of senior police officers who will insure police cooperation and enforcement of ..........existing child labor and truancy codes .- To form a group of women who are already coordinators of mothers clubs in the barrios to ..........enthuse the mothers clubs to work with " Education Revolution" vis a vis the child laborers in ..........their clubs. * - To form a team of leaders among Trujillo’s child laborers to give free tickets to the show to their ..........peers, and to recruit their peers into the "Education Revolution" * * Note: These task forces will also be called on to gather statistics on the results of the "Educational Revolution" when the show ends and the real work is carrying on. - Make costumes for the performers - Write the narrative portion of the show. - Work with the three task forces responsible for gathering data to register all child laborers in ..........Trujillo not currently enrolled in education programs Invite them all along with their parents to ..........be our guests at the show, and already begin working with these children (and their families) ..........to get them enrolled in educational programs. August (of the year the musical project begins) Rent one 40 seat buses (length of rental 3 performances) and four 15 seat micro-buses (length of rental 3 months) for use by the task force in the barrios and between the barrios and city center. Work feverishly with all of the task forces to complete their work before the night of the performance. Hold dress rehearsal. - Invite all task forces members to attend, and to report on their progress. Invite potential sponsors of a national tour of the show. Invite the press to attend and hold a press conference – launch a press blitz that will last until after the performance ends and the "Education Revolution" ..........is launched and spreading. Perform the show. Run it for two nights and one matinee. - Arrange for cast members in costume (accompanied by task force members)
to visit schools, ..........community centers
and places where child laborers work in numbers and street children ..........congregate September (of the year the musical project begins) October (of the year the musical project begins) |
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Part III c – Expected Outcomes Number of beneficiaries to be reached According to the latest census, and Government statistics there are currently 30,949. child laborers in Trujillo. With the show, publicity, the media and word of mouth we expect to be able to let 80% of child laborers and their parents know that something positive is happening in Trujillo, something especially for them. With the registration of child laborers and the enrolment blitz we expect to be able to work with 8,000 child laborers during the course of the budgeted part of this project. Of these we expect to be able to get 800 enrolled in educational programs during this period. We expect to be able to ignite a popular movement in Trujillo, one which makes it "the required, the fun, the popular thing to do", to get child laborers out of work and into school. We expect to be able to enroll support and participation from many quarters, more than enough to override what opposition may come from some parents, employers and even the children we are out to help. We expect to be invited to repeat this project (under the banner of the show) in other cities throughout Peru, and to attract local participation and commensurate sponsorship. We expect to be able to raise a loud enough cry that the Government will be able to hear that the people of Peru are no longer prepared to accept the abuse of child labor, and that something had better be done quickly to rid the streets and the countryside of this degradation. |
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Part III D – Management and staff load Project coordinator - Our chairman, Bruce Thornton Assistant coordinator Co-Producer Volunteer Coordinator- One
of our directors
Enrolment coordinator Playwright/Director Music Choreographer Webmaster - Our Webmaster Misc. - 12 experienced volunteers are coming out from Europe and the US to coincide with this project. Some will replace our staff in their regular work during the period of the project, others will work in the task forces |
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Part III e–Monitoring and evaluation plan Monitoring the work of the task forces Each task force activity will have a team leader, and each team leader will be required to fill in a "Daily Activity Report" at the end of each day’ s work. Early each morning there will be a breakfast assembly of all task force workers and our staff at project headquarters at which the progress of the previous day’s work will be discussed, questions answered, problems dealt with, ideas shared, good performance recognized and cheered, and the troops rallied and enthused for another day’s blitz on the child laborers of Trujillo. A number of task force leaders and workers will not always be available during week-day work hours, these will work from their offices and institutions and will be monitored by telephone, personal meetings during their lunch breaks and in the evenings. Some will be able to attend breakfast assemblies before going to work.. Monitoring and evaluating the progress of the project Every Saturday morning we will hold an assembly/rally in a local auditorium for everyone involved in the project, including newly enrolled child laborers and their families, new recruits to the task forces, the general public and press. These will include entertainment from the show, weekly progress reports from the task forces and a general report on how the project is progressing. Monitoring the progress of child labor enrollment There are over one thousand mothers clubs throughout the barrios of Trujillo. We recognize 320 of these as remaining active year round, and another 300 as being active as and when they have food and resources, or when they can be inspired to participate in a project which they perceive to be good for their members and children and not costing them any money. We will have invited the officers of all these clubs as our guests to the show, and provided transport for many of them to attend. These mothers clubs will be among the main focal points of our task forces. They will put us in contact with child laborers attached to their clubs and in their neighborhoods, and they will have helped us to register these children and their parents. They will also be called upon to work with the task forces in getting these children into educational programs, and in monitor the progress of each case on a weekly basis. They will fill in a weekly form which a task force will collect on Friday and present to the assembly on Saturday morning. Mothers clubs will be given small prizes to be offered to each child laborer who enrolls in an educational program, and will be encouraged to hold events to promote enrollment – and will recruit some of the enrolled children as recruiters and monitors of their fellow child laborers. The results of this work will be reflected in their weekly reports. We will also work with local educators, community leaders, boy scouts, children’s clubs, churches and associations in the barrios who will have joined the "Education Revolution" either as a result of the show or personal contact with a member of the task force. Each of these will also make weekly reports on their activities in behalf of the project, with an emphasis on enrolling child laborers in educational programs. Project evaluation At project headquarters we will compile and maintain daily, weekly and monthly statistical reports on the progress of the project. |
Part IV Capabilities Project Coordinator / Producer of show - The Chairmen of Bruce Peru Has nearly 40 years of experience on forming and running projects of five continents – including orphanage in France, homes for homeless, new centers for Emmaus International, Refugee protection in Asia in cooperation with ICMC, famine relief in Ethiopia and Somalia, street children homes in south and central America, earth quake relief in Mexico. Producer of Show Co-produced the musical review which became "UP with people" in the mid 1960s (known as "VIVA LA GENTE" in Latin America). Similar to the show proposed in this project, Up With People had a positive message for youth and became a sort of worldwide movement – at its height in the late 60’ early 70s there were more than one hundred companies touring permanently in 60 countries. It ran for almost 30 years, and in the early 90s was the halftime entertainment at an American super bowl. Our producer was also owner and producer of the National Academy of Drama, Carnegie Hall Building, NYC, USA from 1968 – 1971, when it won the off-Broadway repertory company in ’69 and owned of managed 4 off-Broadway theatres. Under him the academy’s president was the late Rev. Gilbert Hartke, founder of the School of Drama at Catholic University, Washington, DC; and its alumnae read like a whose who of theatre and cinema in America from the 40s to the 60s. The academy was acquired by Actors Studio in 1971, whose founder, Lee Strasburg was a former teacher at the academy. Playwright/director - Head of our Drama Academy Carlos Ortecho Rojas is recognized in Chile and Peru for his child oriented plays and even more for his mounting and directing of theatrical events in aid of children’s causes. His work has been recognized by UNICEF and numerous institutions and governments in Peru. His CV is attached Assistant coordinator - Our President, Ana Teresa Rosell Grijalba In addition to being a tireless worker for children’s causes, Ana Tere is a popular member of a large influential family, having "the right connections" both locally and nationally. Co-Producer - One of our Directors, Rev. Max Berendson Loyer, A Priest of Trujillo, director of a large parochial school, producer of all the Catholic Church’s events in Trujillo ( currently produced a musical event in the coliseum which attracted 7,000 people, 29 May (of the year the musical project begins)) Volunteer coordinator - One of our Directors, Econ. Jaime Mendiola A respected local businessman and philanthropist. Jaime is also president of Agro Futuro , an association which is introducing hydroponics agriculture to poor and arid communities. Choreographer ex Director of our dance academy,
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Budget Name of project ARRIBA YA! (an Educational Revolution) Bruce Thornton will match any donor's participation for the first five months, and assume all cost thereafter – Rental of micro buses, employment of publicist will not be continued after first 5 months. |