Chicuchas Wasi School For Girls School teaching team

Key Staff and Responsibilities:

Administrator/Director/Teacher: Ruth Milagros Uribe Barrios

Assistant Director/Teacher: Gloria Socorro

Teaching and support staff
Psychologist 24/7 : Dr. Alejandro
Teacher – 4th grade: Karen T.
Teacher – 2nd grade: Elizabeth
Teacher – 3rd grade: Yessica Mamani
Secretary: Yony
Teacher – 6th grade: Giovanna
Teacher – 1st grade Yessica Pamela
Teacher – 5th grade: Haide
Teacher – 4 y/o Kindergarten: Rosa
Teacher – 5 y/o Kindergarten Luz

Administrator/Director/Teacher: Ruth Milagros Uribe Barrios
Assistant Director/Teacher: Gloria Socorro

Support Staff
Cook: Maritza Zapata Flores
Assistant Cook: Zaida
School Bus Chofer: Simeon Curo Yucra
Security: Ignacia Chilca Mamani

Ruth Uribe Administrator/Director of CW School for Girls

Ruth, a Peruvian teacher, born, raised and educated in Cusco, joined CW Shelter in 1989. She had intimate knowledge of the abandoned children living on the streets of Cusco due to her years of volunteer work beginning as a teenager for the Catholic free meal program for hungry children. With that knowledge and her experience as a primary grade teacher before joining CW in 1989, Ruth created the Chicuchas Wasi School for Girls that we have today. Ruth is passionate about educating CW girls and is the driving force behind the school’s success since 1997.

Why do you like your school?

“Because it is my dream. And It is where I have the opportunity to teach these girls to be better women and better people.”

Is there one word (or phrase) to describe why you love your education or your school?

“It is the only way to have positive CHANGE in this country.”

KarenT Mendo Tecsi

Chicuchas Wasi: 5 years
Teacher of 4th Grade

“Every morning when I get to school for me it is an immense joy, because I know that when we step out of the bus our little ones are waiting for us with thousands of kisses and hugs. When we feel that affection we forget all the problems and sorrows we have inside. For me it is an adventure full of knowledge, experiences and a life that is lived within our school, and to be able to know in depth the beautiful personalities with their joys and strengths, many dreams and a desire to live despite all they experience in their homes. Sometimes with parents who do not value their talented and beautiful girls.

This year my girls will leave one stage and start a new stage in which there are many changes and responsibilities. They will be 11 years old and be promoted to the 5th grade in 2019. With them a new cycle will come that will bring fears, doubts and assume responsibilities within and outside the classroom and with my help and from his parents we will face this new stage with great care.

For this year we have organized a lunch just for us in a place outside the school and with effort and determination have managed to get together to buy a 1/8 chicken and enjoy a wonderful day to celebrate this new stage of changes and see it in a different way reborn and see that every change is for the best.

These and many more experiences during my 7 years as a teacher of “Chicuchas wasi” has helped me grow as a person and human being by putting myself in the place of each girl in my care, and like them I have burned stages in my life that help me understand that life is not easy, but it is not difficult if you get strong with each fall.

Dreams can be achieved with the effort and love you put into everything you propose.

At the moment it’s my turn like the girls, to live a new stage of fear of leaving CW one day, that for me is my second home, my strength, my girls, my classroom, the playground, the lunches we share every day. I think that now I fear that soon my little ones will finish primary school and today I am in their place and it is not pretty. I want the time they are by my side for them to have the teacher I always wanted and be an inspiration to follow this great career of being a teacher and making happy the childhood of many girls.

Chicuchas Wasi is my portal to the dreams I had as a child a place where you can laugh and cry of happiness, have real friends and sometimes be a girl again”

Pamela Zegarra Aguirre

Chicuchas Wasi School:

Teacher of 1st grade

“I would like to start by saying that the I.E. Chicuchas wasi, is not only a school, but rather it is a family, where you are treated with respect and mainly with a lot of love.

Working at the Chicuhas Wasi school has helped me grow as a person, to learn from each of my girls, together with them achieve, enjoy our goals and overcome our difficulties.

I want to thank Professor Ruth, and Professor Gloria for the treatment of each one of us, for teaching us with love and respect, for their patience and mainly for their dedication to each of our girls, often forgetting themselves. I also want to thank all the people who help this family keep growing.

I must admit that I have worked in many state educational institutions, where respect and love for the other have been lost, so I want to emphasize that the Chicuchas Wasi school is not only a school, it is much more than that, it is a FAMILY, that welcomes you with a lot of love and helps you grow as a person, thank you very much to each of the members of the Chicuchas Wasi family for accepting me with each of my defects.”

Luz Marina Espinoza Becerra

Teaches 5 year old students

Haide Lenes Fanola
Lead Teaching Experience: 8 years
Chicuchas Wasi School: 3 years
Teaches 4th grade

Why do you work for Chicuchas Wasi?

“Everyone needs to work to live, however it is gratifying to be a part of the CW organization responsible for the education of at-risk girls who are economically disadvantaged, plus the emotional support we give them and that they need so much.”

“For me this a peaceful space to work, with a director so committed to her social work, and with my colleagues who understand the benefits of our part, educating girls, who are the reason of our existence in the organization. “

Why are you still working in the organization?

“For many reasons:
•     For the girls who are a joy to me every morning with their antics, occurrences, with everything they do.
•     For the harmony that exists in the workplace.
•     For the experience that I achieve every day in this way to educate.
•     And because of a director who listens, who is a friend, who ignores our nonsense many times and for giving us some good advice.”

Yone Yesenia Sucno Maza
Work experience: 14 years
Years with CW school organization: 6 years, School Secretary

Why do you work in the CW organization?

“I arrived 6 years ago and all this time I have have had a great experience of sharing happiness, sadness and working with such a wonderful person full of warmth.

I also want to express the fact that I have known girls with a lot of tenderness and innocence, that all they are looking for is affection and family understanding, something they do not find in their home, thanks to such wonderful, generous and great-hearted people (Aunt RAE and Prof. RUTH) the girls have that special treatment that is the difference from other schools and that’s why I feel so happy and proud to be part of this CHICUCHAS WASI family.”

Elizabeth Pereira Franco

Teaches 1st Grade

Giovanna Calderón Pareja

Chicuchas Wasi since 2016

Teacher of 6th grade

“My first impression was the landscape so welcoming and the tranquility of it that I felt in my heart. I entered Chicuchas Wasi School as a 4th grade teacher with 16 girls in my charge. Professor Ruth and Gloria welcomed me and explained the main priority of the foundation were our girls and for me it was easy to integrate into the work system that only asked for LOVE .

This is my third year in this wonderful school and I feel that I grew up in many aspects. My girls are part of me. For me this is a job, I feel that they are my family.

Today as the 6th grade teacher, I have thirteen girls whom I consider my daughters, I am free to hug and kiss them and they are too. Nearing the end of the year I have mixed feelings because they will leave for high school and that takeoff saddens us all.

Since coming here to work, my experience has been very beautiful. When I arrived, the girls received me with a big hug and a kiss and that filled me with energy and the joy that each one radiates. We come into the classroom and start working, always looking for fun.

With their positive attitudes they teach me many things, because I consider that we human beings never finish learning.

I am a teacher because it is my vocation. I believe that my profession is of the utmost importance because we work with little people. In our hands are the minds of the new generations, that is why I am very proud to be a teacher.

I am grateful to Aunt Rae, Aunt Jane and all the benefactors and especially to Professor Ruth for giving me the opportunity to teach here and be a part of it.”

Ruth Carmen Rosa Quispe Chuyacama

Teaching Experience 7 years

Chicuchas Wasi 2 years

Teacher of 4 year olds

“I began my teaching career in 2011 with 5 year old students and for family reasons I had to leave. Joining this beloved academic institution, CHICUCHAS WASI foundation was the best thing that could happen to me. I learned that a woman can be strong despite the difficulties that life gives her and to replicate this teaching in the lives and families of our girls.

Personally my CW experience helped me a lot, while I was going through some painful moments. When I came to the Chicuchas Wasi family I was taught to be stronger for the good of the family

I will always be grateful for this professional opportunity, I was so impressed and in love with the love that our girls offered. In other institutions where I worked, it does not look anything like CW School, because people had lost faith in humanity. At Chicuchas Wasi we bet on a better world for our girls

In 2017 I joined CW as a 4-year teacher working with girls, it is the most beautiful thing that could happen to me, I love my girls. Coming to work is the most beautiful gift that God could give me since in this community I can find love that the teachers Ruth and teacher Gloria, give us.”

Yessica Mamani Velasque
Chicuchas Wasi: 3 years
Teacher of 3rd Grade

“When I came to work at the Chicuchas Wasi school I was welcomed with open arms. The school has a supreme goal and it is the girls, without leaving aside the parents, and the people who surround our girls, this includes all the teachers, each exposing the difficulties, problems at home of each of the girls as well as the achievements and how we got to those achievements.

The meetings of all teachers to address problems of our girls and see how to solve them together, allowing each their point of viewing to feel the support of all, made me feel that I did not face a single problem and that I could count on each of them to face any difficulty. I had a very hard childhood which makes me put myself in the shoes of each of my girls, as well as when making decisions on what they face at home, likewise while trying to understand the parent actions with their daughters.

During my first year in chicuchas wasi I had a very hard experience with Sayuri since she did not allow me to be close to her, or to correct some of her actions; she challenged me with her eyes and did not apologize when she disrespected her classmates. She is different now and interacts with all her classmates; she apologizes when she makes a mistake or accidentally has an accident with someone. Nayeli was a very quiet girl and did not express her feelings. One day I started playing with my girls, after the game Nayeli approached me and said: “I never saw you laugh before teacher”. There I realized how much I had changed when Nayeli told me what she was thinking. I kept quiet because I did not know what to answer; I transmitted so much confidence to my girls, talking to them about facing their fears and that they do not have to be afraid to tell the truth, that we can all make mistakes and that from these mistakes we can learn. I worry, and I got absorbed in them and I had not noticed in myself the change that was inside that came out in a game. It was observed by one of my girls and told me something that I had not realized. I did not know whether to laugh or cry so I just embraced it and said let’s go to the living room. I believe that I am growing along with the girls and that I have the same support that my girls have. I feel that if we continue as we are doing now, one of them will one day lead this country, one of our girls with these values and these principles — thank you very much chicuchas wasi.”

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Gloria Socorro Vera Barrios

Teaches 4 y/o Kindergarten – Assistant Administrator/Director and part of the Chicuchas Wasi team since 1997

“I felt that there was something I needed to fill a void in my life. I asked the Divine Mother to guide my way when suddenly Ruth contacted me. She told me the CW mission and invited me to participate in the beautiful loving family; without hesitation I knew that CW was my destiny and I fell in love with the idea. At first it was very difficult; people did not trust us with their daughters to start kindergarten in a room of the house in Cusco. I remember very well that in the mornings the room was a classroom and in the afternoon we piled desks to one side of the room and turned it back into a family dining room. Those years were difficult because we did not have much of a budget, but we believed in a beautiful dream, that our CW school would be different. Our personal experience of having studied in a public school was that we were just another number in the list of students and teachers were focused on academics and nothing more. We understood that quality education was important, but there was no concern for the emotional health of students – this is how it still is with public education in my country. In order to make a difference we understood that comprehensive education was important and needed, and combining academics and an improved positive emotional state would prepare girls to be intelligent women, confident that they are capable of making good decisions. I identify with many of our girls, motherless at a very young age, hoping that in school they will find a loving maternal person – never found in our public schools. CW school is in sharp contrast; Ruth says that our girls not only look to us as teachers, but we are also like second mothers to give them the love that they might not have in their homes – they respond like loving daughters and we are so well rewarded. I have no children yet, but when people ask me I tell them we have 110 daughters and I am very proud of them. Ruth taught me to love what we do and if God and our Divine Mother will let me, I want to continue until the end. Thank you for allowing this beautiful dream to continue to grow”.

Edyeni

English Teacher

Yolanda

Bakery Teacher