Wasiymi Wasiki

'Conectados' is installing computer labs in Peruvian schools

Wasiymi Wasiki is Quechua for 'my home is your home' and is an NGO set up by two UWC Atlantic College alumni, Matt Jeppesen and Katie Marney.

Upon leaving UWC Atlantic College in 2007 Matt took a gap year working in an orphanage in Lima, Peru where he got thinking with a group of like-minded individuals about how they could expand their influence and increase the impact they could have on the kids in the area. The product of these discussions was Wasiymi Wasiki. During the planning of their first project in Autumn 2009 Katie became interested and got involved.

The NGO received a grant of $10,000 from Davis Projects for Peace to install two internet-equipped computer labs in schools near Lima which will give hundreds of pupils the opportunity to learn IT skills who would not have previously had the chance to do so. Katie also used her Extramural Centre activity leader experience to help devise a new classroom style aimed at producing more successful teaching.

Wasiymi Wasiki is growing fast and is looking to install two more computer labs by June 2011. Matt places huge importance in his UWC education for the existence of the NGO, " without the UWC network and without having experienced what I experienced at UWC Atlantic College the projects would simply not exist."

For more information on Wasiymi Wasiki and Conectados please click here