Asociación Incawasi

Información generál

Incawasi currently serves forty-five children between the ages of 5 and 19 throughout the entire calendar year. Our beneficiaries are from the marginalized areas of Cajamarca and live in overcrowded, mainly female-headed households that have very limited access to basic services. The families we work with lack the resources to support their children’s education, to provide nutritious daily meals and to attend to their medical needs as they arise. Given these realities, Incawasi has adopted a multi-pronged approach that incorporates education, nutrition, health and social support to ensure that children can develop and grow in a holistic manner.

Education
Incawasi offers students a safe place in which they receive tutoring support to strengthen their reading, writing and numeracy skills. Beyond receiving help with their homework, students also build their critical thinking abilities and are encouraged to develop their creativity through a number of different activities, be they sports, arts and crafts, computer science classes or theater workshops. The education component of Incawasi’s programming also includes covering the costs of attending school for beneficiaries. Incawasi, thanks to the generous support of donors who give through the education sponsorship program, helps families pay for students’ uniforms and school supplies to ensure that these costs are not barriers to children attending school.

Nutrition
Children attending Incawasi receive two warm meals a day, Monday through Friday. Incawasi’s beloved cook, Sebastiana, prepares all of the meals with local seasonal products she purchases from the market. For a number of Incawasi’s children, these two meals are the only ones that they receive daily. The menus have been developed by a nutritionist who is aware of the nutritional realities and needs of our beneficiaries. We provide meals that are balanced and that include meat, vegetables and fruit so that children can get the protein, calcium and vitamin intake they need. Incawasi covers the costs of serving these meals through the generous support of donors who give through our nutrition sponsorship program.

Medical Assistance
Incawasi strives to ensure that children grow up healthy through preventative care and ensuring that treatable diseases are properly addressed. By being enrolled at Incawasi, children are automatically signed up for health insurance, a luxury that most families would not otherwise be able to afford. As such, they can visit local clinics should any issues arise.
In addition, children undergo two check-ups a year with our local doctor. The doctor does a thorough check up that includes testing for parasites and malnutrition, two of the most prominent health issues that Incawasi children suffer from. He monitors progress throughout the year, and Incawasi has noted a significant improvement in beneficiaries’ overall health.
Incawasi also maintains close ties with local health organizations so as to participate in vaccination campaigns and dental check-ups. We also have health workers come to Incawasi to lead workshops on dental hygiene, nutrition and how to best take care of their health.
Within the center, Incawasi makes sure that children practice hygiene including washing their hands prior to meals and brushing their teeth after eating.

Social Assistance
Incawasi strongly believes that to best serve our beneficiaries, it is critical to maintain close relationships with their families so that we can be partners in providing students the tools they need to succeed. Incawasi staff regularly conducts home visits to foster that bond and better understand the family situation of each child.
We also organize periodic meetings with mothers (given that most of the children we work with come from female-headed homes) to allow them to be involved with their children’s academic development and to keep abreast of what is going on in the organization. We also prepare workshops for the mothers that include promoting hygiene, give them tips on how to best support their children academically, providing resources to deal with subjects such as domestic violence. We also respond to ad hoc requests from families, especially for those who may have very limited literacy.
We also encourage mothers to volunteer a small portion of their time at Incawasi when their schedules allow, ensuring greater buy-in and involvement on their part. They are sometimes rostered to help our cook Sebastiana with the preparation of the main lunch time meals.

If you would like to get involved within any of our sponsorship programs, please visit our website for more information.