La Choza Chula

15/01/2024

NEWS: We would like to announce some big changes at La Choza Chula. After 12 years, we are closing the organisation as it currently stands, including our shop here in El Paredón on Wednesday 24 January. This is mainly because we have been working towards a more sustainable version of the organisation, especially a locally-led education team, and the time has come to make that a reality. For many years, we have been working alongside community members in the education system in El Paredón, to find the best way to support children and young people and their access to quality education, as well as sharing knowledge and training with teachers and librarians.

In the Buena Vista Library at the primary school, the literacy programme and Help for Homework Club will continue, and will be led by Majo who is currently La Choza Chula’s Education Manager. Our Executive Director of the last 7 years, Sonal will be coordinating private funding with current donors and local businesses to ensure the continuation of these Education projects as well as for the secondary school.

All our tour guides will continue to work with El Paredón Tours a new business run by the wonderful Lydia who is our Operations Manager at the moment. We encourage you to work with our reliable guides who offer tourists a real insight into community life. El Paredón Tours will be donating a percentage of each tour to the secondary school that was built by La Choza Chula and Surf for Life in 2015.

We would like to thank our founders, donors, partners, staff, volunteers, customers and the community of El Paredón for the incredible support over the years, we are so very grateful. We encourage you to visit our shop before we close on Wednesday 24 January with all products at 50% off, and to donate to our secondary school fundraiser (link in bio)! ✨Thank you once again, we could not have done this work without all of you!✨

30/05/2023

PEOPLE: After a year and a half we say goodbye to Sian our lovely Operations Manager. Sian has done a huge amount of work to improve how we do things in the community as well as look after all our wonderful volunteers and has been a much-loved member of the team. She will always be part of our Choza and El Paredón family and we would like to say a massive thank you for everything and best of luck in your new job! With all endings there is a new beginning so we now welcome Lydia to the team as our new Operations Manager! Lydia joins us from Germany and is excited to use her sales and marketing background to work in sustainable community development. Welcome Lydia!

GENTE: Después de un año y medio nos despedimos de Sian, nuestra encantadora Gerente de Operaciones. Sian ha hecho una gran cantidad de trabajo para mejorar la forma en que hacemos nuestro trabajo en la comunidad y ha sido un miembro muy querido del equipo. ¡Ella siempre será parte de nuestra familia Choza y El Paredón y nos gustaría decir un enorme agradecimiento y la mejor de las suertes en su nuevo trabajo! Con todos los finales hay un nuevo comienzo, así que ahora damos la bienvenida a Lydia al equipo como nuestra nueva Gerente. Lydia viene de Alemania y está encantada de utilizar su experiencia en ventas y marketing para trabajar en el desarrollo comunitario sostenible. ¡Bienvenida Lydia!

20/03/2023

Únete a nosotros por la tarde para el club de tareas . Es gratuito.
Nos vemos allí 📚

08/03/2023

NEWS: Happy International Women's Day everyone!
Today at La Choza Chula, we're celebrating all of the amazing women who make up 85% of our team. We are incredibly appreciative of all the fantastic work they do for us; including volunteers, tour guides, production team, Executive Director and Operations Manager.
Here's to many more years of growth, empowerment, entrepreneurship and leadership by women!

NOTICIAS: ¡Feliz Día Internacional de la Mujer!
Hoy en La Choza Chula, estamos celebrando todas las mujeres increíbles que componen el 85% de nuestro equipo. Estamos increíblemente agradecidos por todo el buen trabajo que hacen para nosotros, incluyendo voluntarios, guías turísticos, equipo de producción, Directora Ejecutiva y Gerente de Operaciones.
Brindemos por muchos años más de crecimiento, empoderamiento, iniciativa empresarial y liderazgo por parte de las mujeres.

14/02/2023

16/11/2022

PEOPLE : We are sad to say goodbye to our Operations Coordinator, Linda, from France. Before starting her trip, she was working for a non-profit organization in logistics and donation management. At la Choza Chula, she has been working on different projects : translating tours, organizing a trip for the guides and finding sustainable funding. She also helped the homework club by doing some workshops to explain climate change and find solutions with them to reduce their footprint. Thank you Linda!​​​​​​​​
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Welcome Lubomira as our new Operations Coordinator from Bulgaria. She worked in the retail and luxury industries.Looking for some more ethical purposes in business, passionate about helping people and improving development in rural communities, she joined la Choza Chula to work on more sustainable business projects. We are excited for her to use her skills to help us improve the production aspect of the business. ​​​​​​​​
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GENTE : Nos apena decir adiós a nuestra coordinadora de operaciones, Linda, de Francia. Antes de iniciar su viaje, trabajaba para una organización sin ánimo de lucro en logística y gestión de donaciones.. En la Choza Chula, ha estado trabajando en diferentes proyectos: traduciendo tours, organizando un viaje para los guías y encontrando financiación sostenible. También ayudó al club de tareas haciendo algunos talleres para explicar el cambio climático y encontrar algunas soluciones con ellos para reducir su huella ecológica. ¡Gracias Linda!​​​​​​​​
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Bienvenida a Lubomira como nuestra nueva coordinadora de operaciones de Bulgaria. Ella trabajó en la industria del lujo y el comercio minorista. Buscando algunos propósitos más éticos en los negocios, apasionada por ayudar a la gente y mejorar el desarrollo en las comunidades rurales, se unió a La Choza Chula para trabajar en proyectos empresariales más sostenibles. Nos entusiasma que Lubo utilice sus habilidades para ayudarnos a mejorar el aspecto productivo del negocio.

18/08/2022

PEOPLE: We are excited to welcome Lily and Ellen who are our new Operation Coordinators! Lily is from London, and is currently studying English Literature and Spanish at university. Before coming to El Paredon, she was working as a journalist for a newspaper in Malaga, so has taken over our social media and our newsletter. She cares about giving everyone a voice to share their story, and believes that access to education and employment is the key to achieving this! ​​​​​​​​
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Ellen is from Ireland and was working in finance before she joined us. Next year she will start a masters in Human Rights in Latin America, and having studied languages for her undergraduate degree at university, she is an asset to the team and enjoys interacting with tourists from all over the world. While here, she is planning to finetune our fundraising campaigns as well as working closely with the guides to deliver workshops on customer-facing skills. ​​​​​​​​
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GENTE: Nos complace presentarles a las nuevas coordinadores de operaciones. ​​​​​​​​
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Lily viene de Londres, y estudia literatura en la universidad. Antes de venir a El Paredón trabajaba por un periódico en Málaga. Ahora se encarga de las redes sociales y está desarrollando nuestro boletín informativo. Se preocupa por dar una voz a todos, para que puedan compartir sus historias y crear conexiones. Cree que el acceso a la educación y al empleo es la clave para lograrlo.​​​​​​​​
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Ellen es de Irlanda, y trabajaba en la financia antes de unirse a nosotros. El año que viene, va a empezar su maestría en Derechos Humanos en Latinoamérica. Habiendo estudiado idiomas en la universidad, es una riqueza para el equipo y disfruta interactuar con turistas de todo el mundo. Mientras esté aquí, tiene previsto perfeccionar nuestras campañas de recaudación de fondos y trabajar estrechamente con los guías para impartir talleres sobre habilidades de servicio al cliente.

04/07/2022

EDUCATION: The global pandemic has had a huge impact on the education of children in El Paredón. It is only in the last two months that the primary school has reopened and with so much time away from a formal learning environment, the pre-existing issue of children not being able to read and write to national levels by 6th grade, has been made even worse. To address this, we are excited to announce that Majo and Dalia, La Choza Chula’s two educational specialists, have started a ‘Help for Homework Club' every afternoon to improve the children’s learning outcomes. This is a space where all grades can receive dedicated help with their homework. Thank you to everyone who currently donates their money, time or effort to us, we cannot do this work without you. Please consider making a regular or one-off donation via the link in our bio, a little goes a long way in El Paredón!

www.lachozachula.org/donate
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EDUCACIÓN: La pandemia mundial ha tenido un enorme impacto en la educación de los niños de El Paredón. Sólo en los últimos dos meses se ha reabierto la escuela primaria y, con tanto tiempo alejado de un entorno de aprendizaje formal, el problema preexistente de que los niños no sean capaces de leer y escribir a nivel nacional en 6º grado, se ha agravado aún más. Para solucionar este problema, nos complace anunciar que Majo y Dalia, las dos especialistas en educación de La Choza Chula, han puesto en marcha un "Club de ayuda para las tareas" todas las tardes para mejorar los resultados de aprendizaje de los niños. Este es un espacio donde todos los grados pueden recibir ayuda dedicada con sus tareas. Gracias a todos los que donan su dinero, tiempo o esfuerzo a nosotros, no podemos hacer este trabajo sin ustedes. Por favor, considera hacer una donación regular o de una vez a través del enlace en nuestra bio, ¡un poco hace mucho en El Paredón!

28/06/2022

PEOPLE: We are sad to say goodbye to the amazing Monica. Monica is from Guatemala and has been with us for the last two months as Operations Coordinator. She has spent a lot of time working with the community and creating some training plans for the guides and connecting us with new volunteer groups. Monica is going on her next adventure to work with an organisation called Where There Be Dragons! The future for Monica is bright and we wish her the best of luck for her next step. Thank you, Monica!​​​​​​​​
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GENTE: Nos entristece decir adiós a la increíble Mónica. Mónica es de Guatemala y ha estado con nosotros durante los últimos dos meses como Coordinadora de Operaciones. Ha pasado mucho tiempo trabajando con la comunidad y creando algunos planes de formación para los guías y conectándonos con nuevos grupos de voluntarios. ¡Mónica se va a su próxima aventura para trabajar con una organización llamada Donde Haya Dragones! El futuro de Mónica es brillante y le deseamos la mejor de las suertes en su próximo paso. ¡Gracias por todo Mónica!