After a magnitude-8.0 earthquake devastated southern Peru this August, more than 220,000 children could not go to school. Now, several ISU students plan to spend their Winter Break helping those schools rebuild.

Diana Rodriguez, senior in apparel merchandising, design and production and president of relief effort ISU for Peru, is a native of Peru and has family and friends who have been tremendously affected by the earthquake.

After the earthquake hit, Rodriguez decided she wanted to be a positive force for her country and began planning a community service project that would help the situation and give hope to those who were negatively affected.

“The idea that I could have lost everything I had made me want to do something,” Rodriguez said.

The group is composed of five students with five different academic backgrounds, which gives the group a broad perspective and a broad range of ideas for the project.

The members are Andrea Ochoa, senior in anthropology, Jose Alamo, graduate student in computer science, Cassandra Olds, freshman in pre-architecture, and Basil Mahayni, alumnus.

The group’s goal in traveling to Peru during the first week of January is to provide schools with computers and computer-based learning tools, and to give students and teachers the technical background to use them.

“The project is two-pronged,” Mahayni said. “The technological aspect, and the art and expression, science and technology, cultural understanding, and team-building aspect.”

Members of the group have also come up with hands-on activities that teachers can use when computer-based tools are unavailable.

The group is currently in the process of submitting proposals to companies for computer donations and supplies in order to set up computer stations at the school.

They also are reaching out to other businesses for financial contributions, as well as different offices on the ISU campus in an effort to include everyone in the process of this project.

The organization is planning on holding fundraisers in order to help with its goal, and has already started fundraising.

International Student Services and the Study Abroad Center have also agreed to help with the fundraising effort, and donations for the Peru trip can be sent to either of the two organizations.

Mahayni is not sure whether the project will be long term or not, since most of the group members will be graduating this school year. However, he hopes this project will continue in conjunction with other ISU programs, such as the Peru study abroad program.

“It would be really neat to tie this in with Iowa State, so that it is just not a one-time thing – that it continues to build forth and work on that relationship,” Mahayni said.