Students on the Peru service learning trip worked with three different service partner organizations in Cuzco: AbrePuertas, Corazon de Dahlia, and the comedor.AbrePuertas was started by a SUNY alumna and is situated in the district of Coya, Peru, in the Sacred Valley outside of the city of Cusco. The organization works to improve community literacy, empower teens through leadership and public speaking trainings, engage families who may undervalue traditional education, and bolster the value of learning and art.
Corazón de Dahlia was started by a Binghamton University alumna. The organization provides afterschool programming for children, a bi-lingual and media library, and an educational toy and game library.
El Comedor Popular is an organization made up of local women and provides a source of food for families who would otherwise lack an adequate food supply in the form of a soup kitchen.
Students were asked to compare the similarities and differences between how each service partner tackles local development.
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"All of these programs fill in the gap between communities and local governments by providing services to their communities that otherwise would not be available." - Karly Armstrong
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"Abre Puertas uses their goal of improving literacy and education while empowering the children within the community as a way of fighting the issue of poverty. While Corazon De Dahlia provides services for children like Abre Puertas I think they also focus on family development through education." - Charlecia Chung
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"From what I observed at AbrePuertas, Ellyn looked at local development from the bottom up. That is, she saw children as a great way to introduce positive change into the community. At Corazon de Dahlia, local development also started with children. However, the work at Corazon de Dahlia was more specifically focused on providing educational and emotional support to children." - Sarah Glose
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"At Corozon de Dahlia, the mission, as stated by Laura, the head of the organization, was to foster the growth of the children of the community primarily with affection and love. By emphasizing kindness and solidarity this organization aids in changing the general mindset of the local family." - Alison Gryzlo
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"Of the three service partners the Comedor is the most different in terms of purpose. It is specifically to feed local women and children in Tika Tika a large lunch, which they otherwise would not be able to afford. On average they serve 50 meals a day. The Comedor approaches local development from the stance of fighting hunger and malnutrition. " - Bridget Kunz
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"AbrePuertas and Corazon de Dahlia have different communities. Some families are more willing to follow through with education as a step to higher success, while others believe more on work and providing money for the family." - Helen Li
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"At [AbrePuertas] it seemed like they were very integrated into the community and had interaction with parents and kids daily. They seemed to have a bond with many of the families of Coya as most the children came back each day and parents felt it was a safe place for their kids." - Diana Reyes
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"Corazon de Dahlia also has volunteers that specialize as psychologists to offer the children with additional support, an aspect unavailable at Abrepuertas." - Ally Sanchez
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"El commodore provided meals to those in the community whom needed food or meals. This brought the community together and made them close knit and caring. This program was very small but powerful in the basic sense of family and support." - Elizabeth Pisani-Woodruff---
"Virgen de Fatima is similar to a soup kitchen, they offer very cheap meals to up to fifty people a day. By providing people cheap meals and giving them nutrition it helps local development but trying to keep people healthy and taking some stress off their shoulders. By offering meals, they don't have to worry about starving and can focus their energy on working or doing other constructive things for the community." - Elizabeth Saturnino
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"While both Abre Puertas and Corazón de Dahlia focus on providing additional education services to children from poorer communities in the hope that education will help these children break the cycle of poverty, they differ greatly in their resources, funding, relationship with the municipal government, and relationship with the local community." - Mohini Sharma
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"Corózon de Dahlia is strongly supportive of providing a loving environment to enhance learning capacity. They also have a separate program that focuses solely on girls to empower them for their future. Programs are also held that aim to educate parents." - Meredith Summers
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"When members of a community are well fed and do not have to worry about where they will find their next meal, they can better focus their energy on bettering their society and helping others." - Dina Truncali
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"Abrepuertas and Corazon de Dahlia focus on shaping productive and educated citizens. These service sites try to create a bright future for children by ensuring that what they need for such a future is fulfilled." - Anton Vlahek
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"Corazon de Dahlia is a bigger NGO with more resources than the site of AbrePuertas. It provides workshops for parents. It has an empowerment program for women. There are also psychologists for children who have emotional problems." - Jianhang Xiao
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"The comedor may have issues in the future, as they continue to help the poor and malnourished in the community, but what their community needs even more is programs to help improve the lives of the poor so that in the future they would not need to go to a soup kitchen for food. These sorts of programs would contribute much more to local development – but, what they are doing now is vital in this moment, so they must continue to be supported monetarily and with other service contributions." - David Zatyko
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