In September we focused on our educational system in the orphanage. The problem we have is that the children that come to us, in general, have little or no formal education. That means that we have children who are 12 years old and are in second grade. This presents us with the situation of sending a 12 year old to a second grade classroom, which socially and intellectually will not work out. Thus, we have to have our own special school in the orphanage. With the special school we have tried different methods and now we are testing individual study with a licensed school teacher. It is working and the children are doing well. Our goal with the special school is to bring them into public schooling.

Another item that we are focused on is our library at the orphanage. In Peru, there are very few libraries, and they are very inadequate. Our goal here is to build our library with good Spanish books so that the children can open up their world. We currently have 50 Spanish books that are geared mostly toward preschool age students. About 20 books are geared to 4th grade and above. We welcome gifts of Spanish books from groups and individuals that would like to contribute. The library is probably our best tool in giving our children a good education.

We are also focused on using the laptop computers that were donated to us incorporating them into educating our children. Right now, we are teaching classes and developing their skills. These classes are very difficult to teach to young children, but we are having some success. The next step is to teach them about the computer and then have them start on some educational programs.

The last item we are focusing on is teaching English to our children. It seems in Peru that when you have a good command of English then a lot of educational opportunities open up as well as job openings. The volunteers that come from the U.S., Canada and England help to teach these classes.

I would like to invite everyone to our new revised website at http://www.hogardeesperanza.com. Paul Roy dedicated a lot of time and energy to improving this site.

Thanks for all the prayer and financial support.

Chau,

Dave