FairPlay’s first project, and the one that remains at the heart of what we do, is our Spanish school. Motivated by the shocking fact that almost three-quarters of Cusco’s poorest people are single mothers and their children, FairPlay’s founders decided to target these women and help them out of their poverty trap.
Two groups of such women have so far been trained to become Spanish teachers. Those who completed the course successfully were offered employment at FairPlay’s Spanish school, which is run as a not-for-profit social enterprise affiliated to our NGO.
Two-thirds of the cost of our Spanish lessons is paid directly by a student to their teacher. Every teacher takes home a guaranteed minimum wage, which is on average around three times what they would have earned – sporadically and with the help of loans from relatives – before they worked with us.
This improvement and new-found stability in their financial situations enables our teachers to provide better food, clothing and accommodation for their children, to send them to better schools and fund healthcare where needed.
If you would like to read an example of how working for FairPlay improves the lives of our teachers, please see Martha’s story.
FairPlay is currently in the process of expanding this highly successful approach to offer a new service: salsa lessons. This time, we are training disadvantaged young people between the ages of 16 to 25. In September, after four months of intensive training, they will be ready to work for us as salsa teachers, and FairSalsa will be up and running.
For more information on how the FairPlay model works – and why it is needed in Cusco – please see the How It Works page of this website. For more details about the great language courses, volunteering opportunities, homestays and other services we offer to tourists, please click here.
FairPlay’s next big project is based on the idea that helping people to help themselves and their families can start early. As such, we are looking for donations to build a daycare centre for mentally handicapped children that will benefit parents who could not otherwise afford such a facility as well as the children themselves.
We will provide the medical and social care, education, support and advice they need to get the best out of life. In collaboration with Manos Unidos, a Cusco-based charity that specializes in caring for and teaching children with mental disabilities, we will build a place where such children can be looked after and their parents can get advice and training.
Of course, the parents of non-handicapped children sometimes need support too, and our centre will also be a base from which we will run nutrition, education and healthcare programmes in disadvantaged communities around Cusco. With our support, these parents and their children will be better equipped to look after themselves and seize opportunities for a brighter future.
For more information, please see the Future Projects and Ways to Help pages of this website, get in touch or see our blog.
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The FairPlay NGO
Welcome to FairPlay, and thank you for your interest.
We are a not-for-profit organisation that was founded in September 2006 and helps disadvantaged people in Cusco build stable, prosperous futures for themselves. We provide high quality services to tourists, including Spanish tuition, facilitating volunteer placements and homestays, while helping local people to help themselves.
We do this by offering free and comprehensive training through our NGO to determined, talented Cusceneans who could not otherwise afford the education they need to get a properly paid job. We then provide them with employment so that they can put their new skills to use and earn a living wage for themselves and their families. These previously marginalized people earn money, but they also earn the respect of their communities and a new place in society.
While our Spanish school is a successful social enterprise, the support that we receive from sponsors and donors worldwide is vital to the ongoing training and support work that the FairPlay NGO does, as well as to our future projects. If you are interested in making a donation, or helping out by offering materials, expertise or time as a volunteer for FairPlay, please see our Ways to Help page on this website.
We are a not-for-profit organisation that was founded in September 2006 and helps disadvantaged people in Cusco build stable, prosperous futures for themselves. We provide high quality services to tourists, including Spanish tuition, facilitating volunteer placements and homestays, while helping local people to help themselves.
We do this by offering free and comprehensive training through our NGO to determined, talented Cusceneans who could not otherwise afford the education they need to get a properly paid job. We then provide them with employment so that they can put their new skills to use and earn a living wage for themselves and their families. These previously marginalized people earn money, but they also earn the respect of their communities and a new place in society.
While our Spanish school is a successful social enterprise, the support that we receive from sponsors and donors worldwide is vital to the ongoing training and support work that the FairPlay NGO does, as well as to our future projects. If you are interested in making a donation, or helping out by offering materials, expertise or time as a volunteer for FairPlay, please see our Ways to Help page on this website.
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