21 young people finished their studies this year despite the pandemic

Over a year and a half after the pandemic started, we were able to reunite with 6 of the 21 young people who finished their studies in 2021. Paqari Wayna, our Youth Hub (in the city of Cusco), re-opened its doors so that the young people could share how they felt with the team about their accomplishments and the next steps they were going to take in their professional journeys.

Thilo, External Consultant, catches up with Luis Brayan.

Thilo welcomes Urbano with a hug.

Luis Brayan, Eva, Cristina, Urbano, Richard and Cesar John were received with open arms by team members. After quick individual catch-ups, they all sat in a circle and Cristina began by sharing her feelings: “I’m excited to have finished my studies, but I’m also a bit afraid, because I don’t know if what I’ve learned online is going to be what I need to know at work.” “Virtual learning is very different,” added Luis Brayan, “other difficulties came up and sometimes I didn’t fully understand the lesson, or I forgot what we were told.” In a country where public education tends to lack proper infrastructure, the pandemic forced the already unprepared sector to transition to online learning where students had to struggle with connectivity and not having access to appropriate equipment. Similarly, teachers navigated their own problems accessing internet connections whilst trying to teach their students to the best of their abilities.

During the toughest months of the pandemic, Amantani met with the Parents Council in order to discuss some of the recurring challenges impacting the young people´s education. As a result, the team proposed to pause their studies for a short period of time in order to provide the universities and institutes with the time they needed to improve and further develop their online teaching platforms. “I also felt upset when we were told we weren’t going to study for a whole semester,” said Eva, laughing. The young people’s greatest worry was falling behind in comparison to their other classmates and having to postpone their goals even more.

When returning to their studies, the young people were able to get back on track with their objectives. In hindsight, many of them mentioned that they did find positive outcomes from these changes. “Not everything was bad,” said Cesar John. “We were forced to learn new virtual tools (like Microsoft Teams). We also learned how to do online surveys, take exams online and chat with our friends online too.”

These young people will now seek out fair and formal employment in which they can put into practice everything they’ve learned as they either begin to develop or strengthen their financial independence. Looking into the future, many of them reflected upon their lives and imagined where they would be without their education. “Before joining the Pathways Programme, I didn’t know how to access higher education,” said Urbano. Today, some young people even dream about saving money and continuing to study something else in the future, whilst others aim to become entrepreneurs.

Members of the team and some of the young people pose for one fun, last photo.

The meeting ended with final reflections and words of encouragement to the young people, before sharing some snacks and giving them some space so that they could catch-up with each other. “Thanks to Amantani’s support, a door opened for us,” said Richard as a final comment,” We all have different goals in life but now that Amantani has supported us with getting an education, it’s up to us to achieve them.”