Dear Friends of Q’ewar,
It is mid-year and we are in the midst of our Winter. After working at a
continuous pace yet with an overriding feeling of harmony all the project
members are being offered a one week paid vacation! The women will be
vacationing staggered in pairs so as not to affect the labor demands
required to fulfill the work before us.
On July 17th the first block of the Waldorf early childhood teacher’s
international training seminar begins. It will run for 6 weeks at the
Lima Waldorf School. It is our great satisfaction to have been able to
send four members of our project to this training. They are Lucy, Tania,
Vilma M., and Violeta, all of whom will revitalize and give new shape to
our childcare program called Wawa Munakuy, meaning “giving love to the
children”.
The second and third block of this seminar will be carried out on July
2006 in Cali, Colombia and on July 2007 in Buenos Aires, Argentina
respectively. The annual fees of $250 per person has been made possible by
the donations of two U.S.A. friends as well as a Swiss
foundation oriented toward training poor women of the third world. We wish
to thank our USA friends and a Waldorf teacher from Wetzikon, Switzerland
and remain confident that our more extended circle of friends will give us
their generous support so that the final two blocks can be completed. By
the end of this month Wawa Munakuy is going to be moving from the village
into our project facilities to relieve us from the rent charges and also
to please the mothers who would prefer to have their children closer to
them. We are constructing from mud and straw bricks, two extra big rooms.
One is going to be used to incorporate a log oven so that the children can
make bread and a log stove to dye more of our products naturally using the
local plants and cochineal so typically coloring Peruvian fibers. The
other room is going to be used for sculpture work.
Continuing with our pedagogical goal, Eulogia and Vilma K. are being
sponsored by Q’ewar to attend a machine-sewing course, twice a week, in a
technical educational center in the neighboring town of Urcos.
Additionally, the Project is providing funds for a month’s course on auto
mechanics, two hours per day, for the three men who work on the Q’ewar
land and construction projects. Remigio, Jose, and Florencio, are very
enthusiastic about this opportunity.
In the fields of the project we have four terraces in cultivation and in
the lowest one, we have recently planted maize using not only organic
fertilizers but also biodynamic agricultural compounds that where given to
us by Demeter biodynamic agriculture friends in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
We are extending the variety of doll models that we prepare and new doll
clothing. We now make red and blond haired dolls, even darker skin dolls,
as well as mini-babies to be carried on the back of the girl dolls. Lastly
we are making smaller 8-inch dolls. Additional viewing and information
about these new doll products can be attained by emailing our American
distributor JoAnne at Dolls@qewar.com.
I say goodbye to you, affectionately, and thank you from all of us at the
Q’ewar Project. With your continued support we grow and change the lives
of all who are touched by this marvelous Project.
Chau, Julio