Grant Application
Date of application: March 10, 2014
Legal name of organization: / CARE (Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere)
Date organization was founded: / 1945
Mailing address: / 151 Ellis Street, NE
Atlanta, GA 30303
Phone: / 404-681-2552
Fax: / 404-577-5977
Website: /
Number of staff: / 12,000 (globally) / 200 (Peru)
CEO/Executive Director: / Helene Gayle, MD, MPH
CEO phone:404-979-9100 / CEO e-mail:
Primary contact person for grant: / Carrie Davis, Executive Director of Development
Phone:404-979-9328 / E-mail:
Proposed title of project: Phase II – Quality and Equity in the Intercultural Education of Puno
Estimated project start date:July 1, 2014
Estimated project end date:December 31, 2016
Budget Request:
Year: / Year 1 / Year 2 / Year 3 (6 months)Amount (USD) / $150,705 / $121,930 / $77,365
Executive Summary
Through this new proposal for the next phase of the KAWSAY II project in Peru, CARE seeks to increase access to quality education and performance and learning opportunities for girls and boys under age 3 as well as improve reading and writing skills in Quechua and Spanish for primary school students. The project will therefore contribute to the implementation of the Puno regional government’s curriculum project and, above all, to the enactment and execution of policies that make effective the right of vulnerable children to have quality education from the start of their lives. The KAWSAY II project will continue to operate and increase our impact through advocacy activities in Azángaro and Melgar provinces (current) while also coordinating with the Regional Directorate for Education to expand the project into eight districts of Puno province (new), focusing on implementing 58 Early Stimulation Programs (PAOs) and supporting 56 rural primary schools.As part of the overall process, CARE is committed to work with all stakeholders – teachers, students, parents, community leaders and education and provincial authorities – to ensure a seamless transition between preschool and primary school educational levels so that no learning is lost in transition.
I. OrganizationalOverview
Founded in 1945 with the creation of the CARE Package®, CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. Last year CARE worked in 86 countries, supporting 927 poverty-fighting development and humanitarian aid projects to reach 97 million people.While it is CARE’s strength and commitment to work directly with the poorest and most marginalized communities, CARE’s programs have indirectly changed the lives of many more women, men, boys and girls. We estimate that in 2013 more than 260 million people benefitted from CARE’s programs through policy changes, replicated innovations or change that has been initiated by direct participants.
CARE has maintained a permanent presence in Peru after responding to a devastating earthquake in 1970. Today, CARE’s work in Peru is structured around empowering vulnerable groups, especially women and girls, indigenous groups and rural populations, to exercise their rights, and focuses on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.CARE’s programs in Peru benefit more than 500,000 people and address national priorities including education, gender equity, maternal and child health, HIV and TB, nutrition, water and sanitation, economic development and climate change. As CARE develops and validates innovative interventions, we work with the Peruvian government to then take those interventions to scale as well as conduct evidence-based advocacy to change or implement new policies on behalf of those groups that have been excluded.
One of CARE’s first major education achievements in Peru occurred through our advocacy efforts to get approval for the national law on the Promotion of Girls' Education in Rural Areas (2001), which has since become the benchmark for gender equality policies in the Peruvian education sector.
II. Project Background and Rationale
(a)The Problem
On the education front in Peru, there has been much progress over the past decade but gaps remain in addressing problems of inequality and quality of education. In particular, indigenous children are the most excluded, having limited access to intercultural and bilingual education. There are more than a million indigenous children of school age (645,081 boys and 439,391 girls); however, 73 percent of them are behind in school for their age, while nearly 29 percent of indigenous children do not attend school at all. In terms of educational achievement, only 28.7 percent of second grade students reached the desired reading comprehension level. But the results among indigenous students are even worse: only 6.9 percent of Quechua and 1 percent of Aymara fourth grade students achieved the desired achievements in their native language reading comprehension level.
Although Peru’s official languages include both Quechua and Aymara, classes are conducted in Spanish, making it extremely difficult for the indigenous children who do attend school to understand what is taught, much less excel in the classroom. Teaching methods also leave a lot to be desired, with teachers relying for the most part on rote methods that do not engage students. In addition, education does not hold a lot of appeal for unschooled parents whose first concern is for their family’s survival. It is understandably difficult for parents to look past the concrete reality of their next meager harvest and see a brighter future for their children through education. Yet without a quality education, indigenous children would be further marginalized as adults, lacking the knowledge and the Spanish language skills to forge ahead in the larger Peruvian society, imprisoning future generations in the cycle of poverty.
Poverty is deepest in the country’s southern Puno region, where nearly 68 percent of the population lives below the poverty line and 30 percent survive in extreme poverty. On the whole, it is the minority Quechua and Aymara indigenous peoples – marginalized because of their race and culture. Many parents have no choice but to enlist the help of their children, consequently preventing them from attending school. Moreover, a relatively high percentage of Peruvian children go to primary and secondary school, but indigenous boys and girls still face unequal access to early education. While 55 percent of native Spanish speakers go to kindergarten, only 32 percent of indigenous children attend. Furthermore, there is a scarcity of early childhood education programs for children under age 3, especially in the poorest parts of the Andean highlands.
Currently at the national level, the Ministry of Education has been going through a process of educational reform, prioritizing access to a quality education especially at the pre-school level. The aim is that all girls and boys between 3 and 5 years old are receiving formal education, especially in rural areas. At the primary school level, the improvement of student learning focuses on the development of integrated communication, reading comprehension, writing and mathematics, in addition to civic and citizen education.
In the Puno region, the results of the 2012 Education Evaluation Census were not acceptable. The evaluation showed that at the primary level, out of 100 children only 17.7 percent in math and 35.6 percent in reading comprehension presented results at the satisfactory level, meaning that a student has achieved a score of at least 14 out of 20.
As a result, Puno’s Regional Directorate of Education has set a goal of improving the academic performance of students, knowing that the problem must be addressed from early childhood in order to achieve a good basis for developing early social-emotional, cognitive and psychomotor potentials. This requires the existence of community education programs for children aged 0-2 years in rural and urban areas, to offer adequate stimulation and preparedness for the introduction to reading and writing at the age of 3-5 years. Accordingly, early childhood education is a condition to ensure a good learning process in primary education, something that is not happening now.
Another problem is that many children in Puno do not receive a pre-school education despite it being compulsory. There are no centers for the promotion of early development in rural areas. As a result mothers and parents have little or no knowledge of the importance of emotional, cognitive and affective nutritional stimulation, thus there is a disconnect between the preschool and primary school levels, especially in the first grade the processes of socialization that children go through are not taken into account, which consequently can jeopardize their learning.
Within this context, CARE aims to strengthen the contributions of the KAWSAY II project as an appropriate strategy. There is high potential for CARE, with support from the Douglas B. Marshall Jr. Family Foundation, to contribute to improving the quality of education and more broadly, in generating the conditions necessary for rural children to be able to exercise their right to education.
(b)Approach to addressing the problem
This proposal is based on the continuation of the Equity and Quality in Intercultural Education in Puno - KAWSAY II project, which is currently implemented in Puno’s Azángaro and Melgar provinces with support from the Douglas B. Marshall Jr. Family Foundation. The project started January 1, 2012 and is set to end on June 30, 2014.
The goal of the current KAWSAY II project is for children under age 5 to significantly develop their cognitive, social and emotional potential through the operation of Early Stimulation Programs (PAOs) and non-formal Community Early Education Programs (PRONOEIs) in pre-school education, as well as improving the learning of students at 32 primary schools. To date KAWSAY II has achieved the implementation of 116 PAOSbenefitting 833 infants under age 3, complemented by PRONOEIs that are led by educational promoters whose actions have focused on providing support to the parents of 1,091 boys and girls between the ages of 3 and 5. At the primary school level,65 teachers are now incorporating intercultural processes and research in the classroom as well as systematically carrying out classroom learning assessments under the Ministry of Education’s regional curriculum project.
This proposal is based on the need for CARE to consolidate the results achieved by the current project, which incorporates an advocacy component for regional public policies in favor of intercultural and bilingual rural early childhood education and primary education. At the same time, we are proposing scaling up our KAWSAY II project experiences to other new target areas, with co-financing from local governments.
In particular, CARE’s approach to the next phase of the KAWSAY II project will be oriented toward the development of public policies that improve the quality of pre-school (PAOs for children under age 3) and primary education in rural areas. It will have two components:
The first component is aimed at influencing authorities of Puno’s Regional Education Directorate and regional government, including local governments, to make the implementation of PAOs part of the public education services offered by the state across the Puno region. The current project has taken first steps in the advocacy process but needs to continue this effort in order to achieve the development, approval and implementation of the education policy for children under age 3. Moving forward, our advocacy work will include the development of diagnostic studies about infrastructure, human, technical and financial resources that will be required forthe government to put programs into practice. In addition, there will be ongoing meetings with authorities for the development of a PAO policy, joint field visits with stakeholdersto share CARE’s PAO experience as well as workshops on pedagogical methods and effective management of these cost-effective programs.
The second component is focused on improving the reading, writing and mathematics skills, in Quechua and Spanish, of primary school children. In doing this, CARE will provideintensive training for teachers, workshops for specialists, monitoring and follow-up, educational materials and bi-weekly evaluations of student learning.
In this way, the purpose of the new project will be increase access to quality education to improve the development and learning of children under age 3, and also improve the oral and written communication skills in Quechua and Spanish of primary school students.
The proposed project will continue to operate and increase our reach in Azángaro and Melgar provinces and expand to Puno province (new). These provinces and number of target districts are highlighted on the map to the right.
(c)Evidence and Strategies
The KAWSAY II project will continue to make significant contributions to the evidence base on what works to improve educational outcomes. One important achievement over recent years has been the adoption by the Puno regional government of a curriculum project, which aims to implement guidelines to improve the quality and equity of education. The curriculum project specifically addresses intercultural and bilingual early childhood education as well as supports primary and secondary school levels. This is a result of CARE’s prior efforts in demonstrating successful curriculum innovation strategies, working with teachers, villagers and local leaders in Azángaro communities in the Puno region.
As we move into this new proposal process, CARE has been encouraged by the decision of the Regional Directorate for Education in Puno to support the scaling up of KAWSAY II in a new and influential area (Puno province) in addition to the commitment of a provincial local government to invest public resources to replicate the experience. These are indicators that positive momentum is building based on our work during the current phase of KAWSAY II.
Moving forward, CARE will follow-upon our initial advocacy activities for the 116 PAOs implemented in Azángaro and Melgar provinces and broaden the scope of the KAWSAY II project to include eight districts in Puno province where we will implement 58 new PAOs to complement 58 PRONOEIs as well as support 56 primary schools. This work will involve the signing of an agreement with the Regional Directorate of Education to improve education quality and working directly with a total of 25 local governments in the three provinces to advance the evidence base for policies and longer-term investments in early childhood development.
Key strategies include:
Advocacy will be the strategy used (primarily inAzángaro and Melgar provinces) to ensure the continuation of the advances achieved in the first phase of the KAWSAY II project. CARE will seek to ensure the commitment of local education authorities and provincial and district municipalities to support the implementation of the PAOs in their zones. The process will incorporate the participation of parents and teachers of PRONOEIs, in such a way that it will be a combined action of all educational stakeholders.
CARE will strengthen the capacities of social actors involved in educational processes for early childhood, especially mothers and fathers as they conduct stimulation activities in their homes and are key in the multiplying effect generated in their communities. It has been recognized that the Andean population’s most innovative work occurs when families themselves create their own experiences, combined with the experiences of their neighbors. Strengthening their capacities will help them to make informed decisions about incorporating new patterns and styles for upbringing their under age 3 children. In regard to primary school education, the capacity-building of teachers is another key to improving education quality, especially in the transfer of knowledge and application of reading/writing and mathematics strategies. These are two areas which contribute to basic character development, which should be emphasized in the first years of primary school that students can effectively use in subsequent years.
CARE will work with educational networks to enhance the geographic proximity of schools, sharing knowledge, exchanging experiences, joining forces and cultivating the practices of reciprocity to be replicated in the students.
We will engage educational actors in all project activities to ensure innovation in their application of concepts, strengthen their capacities and further motivate them tofulfill their commitments. CARE’s experience has shown that a participatory process is one of the most effective ways of achieving success in the development of educational projects. Even though it does take more time, the results lead to greater impact and sustainability.
Another strategy involves promoting equal opportunities for girls and boys. In addition to mothers, we will work directly with fathers so that they have greater involvement in the care and early development of their under age 3 children. Working with teachers we will support educational campaigns geared toward avoiding stereotypes about gender roles in the classroom, accompanied by teacher materials using gender-sensitive language and communication elements.
III.Project Goals, Activities and Impact
The project’s main goal, within the framework of implementing the Puno government’s regional curriculum project, is to contribute to the generation of public policies that improve educational quality of pre-school and primary school education. Our specific objective is for pre-school and primary school girls and boys to have access to quality and sustainable PAOs as well as to a bilingual and intercultural communication program that improves their holistic development and oral and written skills.
Result 1: PAOs are adopted and implemented by the Ministry of Education through the Regional Directorate of Education and the local educational management units.
1.1: Facilitate visits to PAOs by educational decision-making authorities to meet key players (parents, teachers, students) and observe presentations with the aim of forming an advocacy network that achieves a commitment from regional governments in early childhood development programs. Briefs with program results fromAzángaro and Melgar provinces will be prepared and issued to support our advocacy actions.
1.2:Organize meetings with educational authorities to subscribe norms (resolutions and/or directives) approving the implementation of PAOs under the Ministry of Education’s management. In these meetings CARE will present the analysis of infrastructure, human, technical and financial resources for the operation of PAOs. We will suggest that educational promoters and teacher coordinators, who are currently teaching 3 to 5 year-olds, be the ones who deliver the PAOs, since PRONOEIs are being integrated into formal school programs as kindergartens. This recommendation will not require a special public budget, only the decision to transfer financial and human resources of PRONOEI to the first level PAOs, especially in rural areas.