Nonprofit helps Peruvian schools

A handmade tapestry with Jessenia's name, from a school in Corralpapa Peru to say thanks for the Ready for School program she founded. A handmade tapestry with Jessenia's name, from a school in Corralpapa Peru to say thanks for the Ready for School program she founded. Photo: Alex Von Kleydorff / Hearst Connecticut Media Photo: Alex Von Kleydorff / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Nonprofit helps Peruvian schools 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

NORWALK — They walk through the wooded mountains carrying plastic bags to hold their books, stepping over roots and sometimes snow, in their open-toe sandals made of tire rubber.

They go to school in Corralpampa like this for years, but often drop out by grade six — the journey is rough, the schools are underresourced, and their parents need their help on the farm.

In some ways, the poverty in Norwalk can’t compare to the poverty in the rural mountains of northern Peru.

“I am from Cajabamba. I’ve lived here many years since I was 2. I’ve seen the needs of the students in the rural areas. To be able to help them — I didn’t hesitate. I’m helping with enthusiasm, and I’m going to keep doing this for much longer,” Evellyn Llajaruna, an accountant in the Cajabamba district where some of Peru’s poorest schools are located, said in Spanish.

Speaking over the phone from Peru, Llajaruna explained how her cousin and Norwalk resident Yessenia Martinez approached her with a request: Could she help her nonprofit by helping assure that Norwalk donations reached Peru’s neediest?

Martinez founded her nonprofit Ready for School Inc. in November last year, after four to five years of informally raising money among her friends and family for the schoolchildren in Cajabamba, Peru. The nonprofit is already up to 15 volunteers and has four board members.

In July, Ready for School held its first fundraiser at the Muse Paint Bar in Norwalk. Martinez said she raised a little over $300, which will go toward building a $1,500 playground in Peru. She’s also holding a drive for shoes and uniforms for the children, so they don’t have to walk almost-barefoot in the mountain’s freezing temperatures. Donations can be made at readyforschoolperu.org.

“We should teach our kids and ourselves not to forget where we came from, to help other countries that need help. We have it easy here, so we can do that,” Martinez said.

‘So much with so little’

Martinez and her sister Yessica Zucca moved to Greenwich from Lima, Peru, when they were 11 and 15 years old. The contrast between the schools stayed with them.

“It was very traumatic move for me to the U.S.,” Martinez said. “My brothers and sisters went to the same school, but I was all by myself. I was bullied because of my accent. I remember the kids that I would play with didn’t know how lucky they were.”

Zucca remembered transferring from a nice private school to public school with no roof — even in Peru, the contrast in education was startling, she said.

“I always struggled with that in my heart,” Martinez said — nobody seemed to appreciate what they had.

“Once I had kids, I wanted to give back, and what better place than the country I came from?” she said.

“That’s when we created our nonprofit, to step up and help. We wanted to get our kids involved so they learn to share and why helping is important,” Zucco said.

Last year, she traveled with some of her family members to Chichir, the poorest school in the state, located in northern Corralpampa.

Llajaruna, her Peruvian cousin, had found the school by obtaining statistics on the neediest schools in Peru through the country’s Department of Education equivalent.

The school had no cafeteria — just a fire pit outside the building. But it was working on constructing an indoor room for eating, so Martinez raised money to buy tables and chairs for the future cafeteria.

“It was so crazy, we were on 4x4s on dirt trails, the long tables in the back. We got up to a bridge that looked so weak, I was so scared. Then we had to walk about a block, so we had to carry all this stuff up the hill. It was crazy,” she said.

Last May, her family raised $900, which in Peru translated to 116 uniforms for the children of Corralpampa Elementary School. When her father came back from helping distribute the uniforms and told her about the schools there, Martinez realized she needed to bring her fundraising up a notch.

“That was my biggest motivation right there, because we could do so much with so little,” she said.

Last November, they added the schools in Otuto, Coima and Chichir to their list, gathering up second-hand toys and school supplies and distributing them to hundreds of children — on one occasion, Llajaruna held an impromptu lesson on how to play chess.

“They welcomed us in the best way. They’re really sweet kids, kind and happy. They filled us with hugs and kisses, so grateful that we visited and cared for them,” said Llajaruna. “They showed us their notebooks and how they studied. Such tender children. There’s no bigger satisfaction that to see the look of happiness on the kids’ faces, when they see that we care about them.”

SFoster-Frau@CTPost.com; @SilviaElenaFF