Our Story
It all began when I was 7 years old, when I had just started school.
In my class there were 3 children from rich families, and 3 times a week they used to pick on me for no reason at all other than that I refused to give them my mid morning snack. This was always something very simple: eg potato, oca or toasted maize. Even though I did give it to them sometimes, they didn't eat it, but, instead, threw it on the ground and told me:" If you want it, take it: it's dog-food." I used to wonder why they chose to do it to me: was it because I was poor? Perhaps it was because, as a little boy, I didn't wear normal shoes like other boys; for school I wore a type of shoe that my father made from sheepskin or cowhide. Like all small children I used to dream of being able to defend myself when I was bigger. (Even as a child, I could do so, but there were three of them to one of me.)
I put up with these attacks for almost two years, then one day when I'd refused to hand over my snack, the boys got very angry and threatened to pay me back after school. One of them tried to knock me down to the ground, and as I was falling, I put my arms out and unwittingly hit another boy, making his nose bleed. I was really frightened, thinking they'd want to kill me. I tried to explain to each of them that I hadn't intended to hit any of them, but one by one, they just went away. At that moment I felt free and strong, and thought: "Those rich boys are only good for a punch-up."
However, my happiness was short-lived, as I realised they would go to school the next day with their parents and I would have to explain myself to the head teacher. I had a sleepless night and told my father the following day that I didn't want to go to school. But he insisted I went. Luckily, when I arrived at school, there were no parents there and, when I went into the classroom and greeted the three boys, they responded by bowing their heads. Again I felt really free and strong.
From that moment on, I became the defender of poor children: they nearly all searched me out if they had a problem with those wealthy children. There was an exchange of roles: from then on, I was nearly always the one who wanted to fight them to show them who was strongest, but they always ran away.
You could say that Tinkuy Peru was born at that moment. From then on I planned to help the poor, especially the children, but my problem was finding a way to do it, when I, too, was poor.
The idea of the voluntary work programme arose during one of my visits to USA to demonstrate my weaving art in American galleries. I talked about my weaving skills and about the poverty and miserable life led by a lot of children who had little or no opportunity of a good education. The journalist asked me: "Tino, what would make you happy?" My reply was very clear: "I want to help a lot of children to find fulfilment, but I don't have the money for it. The journalist suggested I started a volunteer program and cultural exchange program. He asked if I had a web site and I told him I didn't and that I had no idea what a volunteer program was. It was a wonderful surprise when I found out what it was: exactly what I'd been looking for. It felt like winning the lottery.
I am convinced a good education can change these children's lives. With the work of our volunteers and some financial help, I'm sure we can make our plan a reality: together we can give them the education which will change their futures and make them happy. I am grateful for the many volunteers who share this vision with me and who are helping to make it a reality.
We have a large plot of land, which cost S/19,355.60 ($6,451.87 USD), but in order for the government to give us recognised status as a school we've had to buy an extra 200 square metres at a cost of $5,500 USD. The building materials are being given me on credit by friends. Our debt so far is S/ 1,650.60 ($616.8 USD).
The Government is delaying authorising the installation of drainage pipes to the houses so no one has a toilet. Many have to wait till night-time to go outside to relieve themselves and this leads to a lot of contamination and health problems. Therefore I wanted to build toilets and showers as well as 7 classrooms, a playground and sports field. As of today we have done some of these things. We now have an amazing playground, some temporary classrooms and have been working recently on the installation of toilets. By doing this, we will have the facilities we need to help the children enjoy their childhood and get a good foundation in social, cultural and economic education which will increase their self-esteem and prevent them feeling disadvantaged in comparison with well-educated children.
We need more volunteers, not only to work here, but also for the financial contribution they make to the programme. Ultimately, our goal is to have enough volunteers to be able to teach our 80 kids and have this supplemented by highly experienced local teachers to cover core competencies in other areas. This is our long term goal, and local authorities in Peru are watching the progress of our project closely as English is such a valuable skill in Peru.
Leoncio Tinoco Rodriguez - Tinkuy Peru Founder and Programme Director