booksbygaia
The Process
Illustrating the first book
October 2022
Andrea Valencia volunteered to illustrate the Lucia en Urubamba book and we had many zoom meetings to discuss the characters and background
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Writing the second book
November 2022
Wrote a second story, Luis en la Selva, and worked with a learning specialist to adapt the language used in both texts to make sure it was suitable for the children’s age category.
Illustrating the second book
January 2023
Mary volunteered to illustrate the Luis en la Selva book and we had frequent in person meetings to discuss them.
Supporting local businesses
February 2023
I selected the products I was going to sell. I came across artisanal tableware products woven by a community of Peruvian women in the North so I purchased them and brought them to London.
Research
March/April 2022
Commenced the researching process to find charities in the region of Cusco in Peru and found Niños del Arco Iris Foundation. I contacted them and arranged the dates for when I was going to volunteer.
Volunteering
July 2022
Visited the foundation for 10 days and helped by teaching 3rd grade children English. I also taught them a range of other subjects such as art, PE, etc and I worked at the library after school hours.
Writing the first book
August 2022
Wrote the first draft of Lucia en Urubamba and researched publishing companies willing to help me. I decided to start working with Rayo Verde publishers in Peru.
Brainstorming
September 2022
Started brainstorming of self funding project ideas and carried out research about local Peruvian products which I could sell in London.
Fundraising
April/May 2023
Sold the products in local stores and markets weekly and researched charities in South America in order to be able to distribute the books to other charities apart form the Niños del Arco Iris Foundation.
Preparations
July 2023
Final editing of the books and contacted charities to ask how many they required depending on their sizes.
Launch
July/August 2023
Books finally went into printing and organized the delivery of the books to the different charities I chose to support.
I also started to work with Andrea on the website design, production and launch.