Fundraising for a state-of-the-art
Community Learning/Cultural Centre
for the disadvantaged in Peru
a Pauline-Coates Trust Ltd project
The Project
About
News
My name is Richard Coates and I am the co-founder of this Project with Profesor Fernado Flores Cuba.
It would be an understatement to say that this is a very ambitious project; to build a
state-of-the-art Learning/Cultural Centre for the disadvantaged in Lima-Peru at a cost of US $1 million. (approx £660,000 GBP).
However, as anyone involved with "The Arts" knows, the Centre will result in many benefits to the local communities; not least in the education of the youth through the ground-breaking Performing Arts courses with an emphasis on "inclusion".
There is also a longer term objective which we seek to achieve; to improve the level of "social inclusion" in Peru through "The Arts".
On this web site you will find our business plans and, through our "Questions & Answers" pages, hopefully all the answers to your questions. Please contact us should you require any further information.
We would also encourage you to read "Current Project" on Richard Coates' personal blog as this provides the background to this ambitious Project.
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Helping the disadvantaged children
of Peru to achieve social change through
To build a state-of-the art Community Learning/Cultural Centre for the disadvantaged in the district of Villa MarÃa del Triunfo in Lima-Peru.
This will be built at a cost of US $1 million dollars (approx £666,000) with completion estimated to be in 2014.
This Centre will be the first of a network of eleven Centres located in urban, disadvantaged but established districts in the nine largest cities of Peru.
"There is a need to encourage the next and subsequent generations of disadvantaged children so that they may better placed to compete on equal terms for Higher Education"
Despite the growth in Peru's economy in recent years, Peru remains one of the countries with the highest degree of economic and social inequality in the world.
There are many reasons for this inequality.
Arguably the main contemporary reasons are:
- in-adequate state education, and
- persistent social exclusion.
Only 2.5% of GDP (2006) is spent on State Education - this is incredible. (In 2005: Sweden: 7.5%, UK: 5.6% and Spain: 4.2%)
State education is so bad that approx. 50% of disadvantaged parents in Lima send their children to Private schools!
They know the importance of education and are prepared to pay in order that their children will have better opportunities.
Social exclusion is there for all to see, together with the
resulting lack of opportunities and sometimes open racism
against the disadvantaged.
This situation is in-tolerable and in-excusable.
The state-of-the art Community Learning/Cultural Centre will offer a variety of courses in the Formal Arts, (Theatre, Music, Folklore Dancing and Ballet) and, in conjunction with locals schools, ground breaking Performing Arts childrens' development courses.
The courses will follow the Government's National Curriculum and be given by qualified teachers.
The Centre will also offer a diverse range of productions in the Performing Arts from both the professional and community sectors in an auditorium seating 400 people.
There will be a cinema, a variety of (free) Exhibitions, and provide much needed conference facilities which may be used by local schools, organisations and companies who presently have to travel out of the district.
The Centre will liaise closely with local schools and community projects and will also include a full time child psychologist.
It will be Community owned, have its own Director, and be managed by a Board of Trustees.
This web site provides details of the courses that will be offered.
Notably the ground breaking Performing Arts childrens' development courses that will be run in conjunction with the local schools during term time for a minimum of 1,600 children per annum.
The Community Learning/Cultural Centre is targeted at the community as a whole; it is thus imperative that it is located in disadvantaged districts so as to benefit and enrich community life.
The first Centre will be located in Villa MarÃa del Triunfo in the south of Lima (Cono Sur).
This is one of the poorest, yet established districts. (L) It has a catchment area of 800,000 inhabitants and has no Cultural Centre nor has it any Conference facilities.
This will be the Headquarters and will be the model for all subsequent Centres.
A number of Cultural Centres do exist in Lima. (L) However, these are not only located in the more affluent areas, but are not inclusive of the disadvantaged; they are too expensive and too distant for the majority of the disadvantaged population.
Most disadvantaged people do not attend nor participate in the Performing Arts due to distance and costs.
It largely depends on when we are able to raise the US $1m.
Fundraising will start in end 2011 and we are confident that we should be able to raise the money by late 2012.
We estimate 12 to 18 months to build the Centre meaning that we should be able to open the doors to the public in mid 2014.
With your help - initially. We then expect that companies in Peru will enter into a "Matched Giving" agreement when they see the support being provided by the International Community.
International help (you) is required to kick-start this Project.
International opinion matters.
This project is bottom-up, created at grass-roots-level, and without the overheads and challenges associated with a top down approach. It is also "homegrown"; it capitalises on nine years of achievements in the District by Profesor Fernando Flores Cuba. He has created a 30 strong Theatrical Troop, and, for the last 4 years, with the support of the Asociación Atocongo, (the NGO arm of Cementos Lima), Prof Flores Cuba has given Theatrical Workshops to some 5 schools.
In April 2010, with the support of the Asociación Atocongo, Prof. Flores Cuba started to give ground breaking Performing Arts childrens' development classes to 160 children in one local state school.
But there are 180 primary / secondary schools in the District - and the children in these other schools do not benefit from these courses.
Peruvian governments need to recognise what the International Community already knows :
"The performing Arts is critical to the development of today's youth"
