Quechua children in Peru face discrimination in local schools due to their ethnicity and their evangelical faith. The Peruvian Mennonite Church decided to establish an alternative to the local school system by founding PROMESA, which offers an academically advanced, Christian education that also frees children from experiencing discrimination at school. Visit PROMESA’s website (in Spanish) here.
PROMESA's new building
PROMESA started in 2005 with 11 students; today, nearly 300 children, both Quechua and non-Quechua, are enrolled. Many children were being turned away due to lack of space and insufficient facilities, so the church purchased land in the mountains outside Cusco to construct a new school building. Volunteers from Engineering Ministries International (EMI) have created a three-phase construction plan. Walk through the planned campus here.
Just over $1 million is needed for site preparation and phase one of building classrooms. With our support, many more Peruvian students can have access to a safe, high-quality, Christian education.
A creative way to help
For the second year, EMM has a fun, unique way for you to help PROMESA build its new school. EMM and Steep Adventures, an adventure company, are partnering to offer the second annual adventure fundraiser for the new school. In this adventure fundraiser, called the Peru Trek for PROMESA, adventurous and charitable people ask community members to sponsor them as they complete a strenuous trek in the Andes Mountains of Peru. The money goes towards constructing the new PROMESA building. The first trek, which happened in 2017, raised over $58,000!
Would you like to help PROMESA? EMM has a fun, unique way for you to help PROMESA build its new school.
- Sponsor a trekker! Give to a trekker, or to the trek as a whole, on GroupRev. You may also send a check to EMM, with “PROMESA Peru Trek — (trekker’s last name)” on the memo line.
- Become a trekker! You have until February 1, 2019, to sign up for the trek. Register by December 1 for a $100 discount. Learn more and register here.