Easysearch Total Update

Our Easysearch total has now reached £35.99! That's almost enough to feed one young person for a month. Easysearch is a highly effective way to support The Colour of Hope at absolutely no cost to you! See Sept 27th entry for more details.

Video of MIT D-Lab Charcoal Technology

Equipment & Furniture Donations Still Needed

A big thank you goes to Jason from Lima who donated a computer to The Colour of Hope last week. This will be of great help in our training sessions, enabling us to teach our project participants basic word processing and internet skills.

But we're still in need of some other equipment and furniture for our training centre. If you live in Lima and have any bits of furniture or electronic equipment you no longer use or want, please pass them on to us. Any donations will be greatly appreciated. We still need the following items in particular:

* Tables (mesas y escritorios)
* Chairs (sillas)
* Whiteboard (pizarra acrílica)
* Filing cabinets (cajones)
* Files, folders & ring binders (folders)
* Sofa and armchair set (juego de muebles)
* Computer (computadora) (the one we now have is great, but the more the merrier!)
* Printer (impresora)
* Projector (retro proyector)
* Flip Chart (rota folios)
* Books/workbooks (cuadernos)
* Pens (lapiceros)
* Blankets (frazadas)
* Sheets (sabanas)
* Pillows (almohadas)
* Beds (colchones y tarimas)
* Clothes for young people (ropa para jóvenes)

If you can help out or would like more information, please email Amy New (director) at a.new_ceaapris@yahoo.com or call 90336722

Thank you very much for your support.

WebSpanish December Donation

WebSpanish has made another donation to The Colour of Hope from its Spanish student tuition fees throughout December. Thank you very much for your ongoing loyalty and support WebSpanish!

Easysearch Total Update

Our Easysearch total has now reached £34.61! That covers a month and a half's accommodation rent for one young person. Easysearch is a highly effective way to support The Colour of Hope at absolutely no cost to you! See Sept 27th entry for more details.

MIT Charcoal Technology Photos

Drying the corn cobs to make the charcoal.

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Sorting the dry cobs from the moist ones.

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Filling the drum with corn cobs and husks.

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Setting the drum alight from the top and bottom.

Burning off the excess smoke.

Sealing the drum to allow for the charcoaling process to take place.

MIT D-Lab Teach Charcoal Technology in Peru

Last week The Colour of Hope teamed up with Lima Kids, a social welfare programme for disadvantaged children living in orphanages or on the streets of Lima, and representatives from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) D-Lab to learn how to make cheap, efficient and environmentally friendly charcoal.

D-Lab is a series of courses that focus on international development, mainly taught by MIT Senior Lecturer and MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, Amy Smith.

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Last August, Amy headed the first International Development Design Summit (IDDS), which united more than 50 people from 18 countries, many from developing nations, to build technologies for improving the quality of life in the developing world.

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"I believe very strongly that solutions to problems in the developing world are best created in collaboration with the people who will be using them," said Amy. She and her team are here in Peru until the end of January to identify local problems and begin working on their solutions. They kindly dedicated part of their trip to teaching The Colour of Hope, Lima Kids and care home, Sagrada Familia, their pioneering charcoal technology.

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The charcoal is made using agricultural waste, such as corn cobs and sugarcane waste (bagasse). Traditionally, these products are simply thrown away or burnt because they have no apparent use. But D-Lab has now shown us how to convert them to charcoal, simply using an oil drum, 3 bricks and a wooden pole! (Click here to find out more)

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Until now, Sagrada Familia, has been buying wood (leña) for cooking fuel, which gives off a lot of harmful smoke and comes at a price. But now it will be able to use this new technique to produce its own cooking fuel. The Colour of Hope is going to work together with Lima Kids to promote the technique amongst other care homes and young people who leave the homes. One or more groups of young people could adopt the technique and form small businesses to market the charcoal, and thereby become self-sufficient.

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Many thanks to D-Lab and to all the team members who gave up their time to teach us this innovative technology.

Donation from REAP South Missionary Organisation

In the last few days of December, The Colour of Hope received a kind donation of blankets for young children and babies from American Missionary Organisation, REAP South. Although we don't work directly with these age groups, we always try to find good homes for any donations and in fact some of the young people we work with have babies and children.

We've handed out at least 11 blankets so far to single mothers and women living in conditions of extreme poverty all across Lima. Natali, one of our project participants, took a couple for her young son and some for her sister and sister in law who also have little toddlers. They all live in a shanty town called Canto Grande in the district of San Juan de Lurigancho. Another couple went to a lady in Villa El Salvador, another extremely poor area of Lima, and another is going to a young girl in Manchay, a shanty town in southern Lima.

We only have a few left now, but if anyone knows of someone in Lima who would need a blanket please let us know. There were all kinds of sizes, colours and patterns, but the ones we have left are mainly for toddlers, although I think there are a couple of tiny ones still. If we don't find anyone else to give the blankets to, I will take them to Reina de la Paz, a refuge for young single mothers in Salamanca.

Thank you very much REAP South!

Furniture and Equipment Donations Needed

To all the Lima Colour of Hope supporters...

We're desperately in need of furniture and equipment for our new training centre. If you live in Lima and have any bits of furniture or electronic equipment you no longer use or want, please pass them on to us. Any donations will be greatly appreciated. We need the following items in particular:

* Tables (mesas y escritorios)
* Chairs (sillas)
* Whiteboard (pizarra acrílica)
* Filing cabinets (cajones)
* Files, folders & ring binders (folders)
* Sofa and armchair set (juego de muebles)
* Computer (computadora)
* Printer (impresora)
* Projector (retro proyector)
* Flip Chart (rota folios)
* Books/workbooks (cuadernos)
* Pens (lapiceros)
* Blankets (frazadas)
* Sheets (sabanas)
* Pillows (almohadas)
* Beds (colchones y tarimas)
* Clothes for young people (ropa para jóvenes)

If you can help out or would like more information, please email me at a.new_ceaapris@yahoo.com

Thank you very much for your support