2025 was our biggest year ever—just barely edging out the massive year we had in 2024: since March we’ve been working with 55 teachers and principals weekly, as well as the 1,530 kids in their classrooms spread out over five schools. We do what we do because we believe it’s a seed of the reign of God Jesus announced 2,000 years ago was breaking in. We believe children in Arequipa should be able to grow up learning to understand what they read. And to make that work long-term we need teacher transformation.
So it’s a joy to share about three teachers this year who have caught the vision and where an impact is so readily seen. Long after these schools have graduated our program, these teachers will continue blessing new cohorts of students that come through their classroom. Praise God for amazing teachers the world over.
The following three impact stories are shared by Lucía, and translated by yours truly:
The first success story corresponds to Professor Giovanna, from third grade at José Gálvez School of Miraflores, who has demonstrated deep vocation and academic and experiential rigor in her pedagogical work. She is a teacher who always receives with gratitude the instruction she is given and exceeds both our expectations and her own. She researches, innovates, and creates her lessons with great judgment and study. Always willing to improve and reach her own goals, she faces significant health difficulties, but these do not limit her in responsibly dedicating herself to her work.
The second success story corresponds to Professor Luis, from sixth grade at José Gálvez School in Miraflores. He initially showed reservations about the program’s intervention at his school. He was not convinced and was unwilling to participate, even expressing his disagreement in a prior meeting. After the first month of work, his attitude changed; his enthusiasm for the program grew, and he is now successful in his monitoring sessions. Luis is an example of transformation. Here is a photo as well as a brief video interview with Prof. Luis and a quick interview of a few of his students.
Note from Jeremy on the videos: I recommend turning on captions (CC) and then clicking “Auto-translate” and choosing English in order to see subtitles.
The third success story corresponds to Professor Erick, from third grade at Colegio Carlos Manchego Rendón de Socabaya, who was a participant and beneficiary of the Living Libraries Program at Colegio Alfred Binet in 2018. At that time, he was an outstanding teacher and was certified with honors. Years later, he achieved an official teaching appointment with the Ministry of Education of Peru, and immediately invited the Living Libraries Program to benefit his school and fellow teachers. Professor Erick is once again being trained under the updated program and is also taking responsibility for mentoring his colleagues and modeling in training workshops. For all this additional work, he will be certified as a trainer.
