By Yannick Wende, Program Director
Sihua is one of the projects I often go to and find a lot of different stories of students at the primary school, most of them come from very poor families in which children are often found in physically and mentally unhealthy situations.
The thought of this plus the usual difficulties of living in an isolated community drives me often to imagine that going to school for some of these children is sometimes a relief and not only that but also an escape from their reality.
It is usually taken for granted that if a child comes from a very hard situation at home, this child is more likely to having problems in other aspects of his life (school activities included).
But from now visiting communities and having the chance to observe projects like the Sihua primary school, you come to realize that in the communities you can not take anything for granted.
Brayan Choque Huaco is a student in 3rd grade of the primary school in Sihua. He comes from a family in which the father is an alcoholic as well as the mother, they are not of ANY HELP when it comes to academic activities, in fact Brayan dresses himself and does his homework all by himself most if not all the time. If you were to hear his story before his performance at school you would just assume that this child does have difficulties due to his situation, but it is often now that I am proven wrong time after time in the communities of the Andes. In fact Brayan is not only a good student, but he is one of the best in his class, and not only that he is very socially active and enjoys school probably more than any other student in the classroom. He is wise and always willing to participate.
Stories like this seem to always prove me wrong, and teach me to not take anything for granted. Stories like this make me feel good from being wrong about what I would normally take for granted.
Brayan Choque Huaco
Brayan (Far Left) hanging out with his buddies from school.