Education Programs

The Huilloc community has both a primary and secondary school. The primary school (grades 1st-6th) has 170 students while the secondary school (grades 7th-12th) has 110 students. ACP has been working with the leadership of primary school since 2017 in their efforts to improve and broaden the student educational experience. In 2022 we will begin working with the secondary school. We have helped school leadership in their efforts to publish a student-created book on Huilloc culture, to launch a student-led radio station and to broaden the student’s perspective with visits to other parts of Peru.

  • Cultural Preservation

    ACP funded publication of a bi-lingual book on Huilloc culture written by Huilloc students, parents and faculty as a way to improve writing skills and help keep students connected to the Huilloc culture.

  • Students & Elders Collaborated

    Students worked each week with village elders to collect the lore of the community and then worked in class with teachers to write it out. The result is the Huilloc cultural story as written by the students, parents and faculty of the Huilloc School.

  • Internationally Recognized

    The effort and resulting book won a global award for educational excellence, the first school in Peru to have received the award. The Huilloc students are the first to have a published book in the national library in Lima.

Adult Literacy

Over half of the adult population in the Huilloc community is Spanish-language illiterate. The inability to complete forms and/or understand written communication provided results in lack of access to necessary medical care and citizen frustration with the process.

Improving adult ability to deal with the governmental healthcare processes, ability to complete the necessary forms and understand the medical advice given are essential to helping improve the health and well-being of the community and enabling community members to be their own best advocates in the system. ACP is working with the school Principal and teachers to fund weekly adult literacy classes. Our initial program kicked off in May, 2022 planning for 40 adult students. The response has been incredible and the class size has doubled to 80 adult students including adults from neighboring villages.

School Cultural Experiences

While many visitors to Peru experience Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley, few from Huilloc get the opportunity. Unlike many schools in the US, school trips to historical and cultural sites are not possible for the Huilloc school –– for one reason, lack of funds. So ACP has funded overnight trips for 6th grade classes.

Each year 6th grade classes, along with their teachers and parent chaperon, have traveled to Peru’s cultural treasures in Arequippa and throughout the Sacred Valley including Machu Picchu. For many of the students this will be their only experience outside the village.

Rimana Wayra Wasi

In 2022 we helped the school launch their own student/faculty-run radio station. Remote classes, school announcements and general Huilloc community news is now broadcast to the entire village everyday on Rimana Wayra Wasi (Words on the Wind).