Little lives are being transformed daily at the Promised Land Preschool in Peru.

The preschool is in one of the poorest areas just outside of Chimbote, about 6 hours north of Lima. Women’s Global Connection helps trains its teachers and also provides classroom materials. Between 8 and 15 children (it varies daily), ages 4 and 5, attend this tiny, one-room school situated in the middle of one of the Peruvian desert’s poorest areas. It’s on the outskirts of Nuevo Chimbote, and the entire residential zone – resembling the colonies on the Mexico-U.S. border – lacks basic services such as running water. Homes consist of used plywood or crude bricks. Roofs are almost always made from large thatched grass mats since it rains less than three times a year.

Tanya is the primary teacher here, and she and her supervisor Angelita oversee regional teachers trained by WGC. Children play games on the playground (a sand-and-gravel lot), and colors and numbers are taught oftentimes in English. At Christmas, paint comes out for a fingerprint Christmas tree collective art project.

WGC sponsors an Incarnate Word missionary in the area who works in Nuevo Chimbote and at the Tierra Prometida school during 2-year terms. As a volunteer with Sembrano Infancia – an early childhood nutrition and development program started and supported by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word – the missionary works with the project aimed at promoting child health and parent education. The goal is to raise health and development literacy in the community while training local promotors to advocate for better and more consistent health and public services.