Photo: The front table at the event - famous Peruvian congresspeople, athletes, artists, singers - and then there was me.
The Press Conference for the
Bridging the Divide was this afternoon and . . . it went spectacular. We had a room filled with press and invited guests (a few famous television actors and musicians) and a staged filled with political and entertainment dignitaries.
The real test of the success of our Press Conference will be in the coming days. Will we get any newsprint media to pick-up the story and write an article? Who knows. One thing we do know is this - our message - is getting out there and people are excited to work together.
Pasted below are my remarks from the event (don't worry, I did not read this entire 'novel'). Rather I asked people to consider how they might become a bridge in their own lives. I asked people to take on the challenge of becoming change agents in their own communities. I asked people to become the
Bridge!
Thank you for all your continued support -
PRESS CONFERENCE REMARKS, December 05, 2011 - Thank you for being here this afternoon. We are excited to tell you about our inaugural Bridging the Divide event, but before we do that – a few acknowledgements must be made.
We are humbled by the support we have received from a number of very notable dignitaries, business leaders, sports figures, actors and artists. Support from congressmen and women, the Minster of Health of Peru, the Mayors of San Borja, Rimac, and Villa Maria del Triunfo and from a number of famous Peruvians. Irregardless of vocation, all of these people are Bridges – who share the conviction to make a difference in the lives of their fellow Peruvians.
We especially want to thank Congresswoman Karla Schaefer Cuculiza for her support in putting this important project together. Congresswoman Karla has been making a difference throughout Peru in the work of her NGO and the many civic charities she is involved with.
A special thank you to our collaborating partners, organizations and individuals who are building bridges everyday in Peru. Organizations like: Minestra de Inclusion Social y Desarrollo who work with marginalized groups around the country to provide support and advocacy, the Peruvian Ministry of Health who has invested heavily in making the health of all Peruvians a major priority, Union Biblica del Peru and their work with abandon street youth, the Anglican Church of Peru and the efforts of their NGO to bring health and social services to the poorest Peruvians, the Catholic Church and the Missionary Society of St. Paul and Father Alex Busuttil who runs a model program that provides daily feeding, on-going medical care and social supports to a community of almost 30,000 people in the Alto Cayma area of Arequipa, Vida Peru a Peruvian run organization that strives to bring equipment and health care professionals to the poorest areas of Peru, and OPRECE a blindness prevention program run by Dr. Daniel Bueno Rojas and Dr. Francisco Cisneros that provides desperately needed eye surgeries for marginalized people all over Peru.
Finally, we are very appreciative for the participation of the media. Your attendance at this Press Conference is vital to the success of disseminating this Bridging the Divide event. We hope you find our story to be one of hard work together for the betterment of all our brothers and sisters.
The inaugural Bridging the Divide event is rooted in our belief that there is a moral obligation to bridge the economic, social and physical distances that exist between the rich and the poor.
Our message is simple – I am the bridge, you are the bridge, we all must be the bridge to create change. There are a record number of government programs, non-governmental organizations and concerned citizens dedicating their time and resources to working with the poor. For the past few years, Peru has been growing at a record rate. This economic prosperity, however, has come at a significant price; and that price is the growing gap that exists between haves and have-nots. The wealthiest socioeconomic sectors of Peru’s society enjoy a level of economic freedom never before seen. And yet, today, over 50% of Peru’s population lives in poverty. And, it is estimated that over 19% live in abject poverty - living on less than $1.00 per day.
I picked up a “Peru 21” newspaper boarding the plane from US to Peru two days ago and I was struck by the front-page article. The article outlined the massive changes occurring over the last 5-years in the housing market of Lima. More and more Limenos are purchasing homes. More and more Limenos are living in places like Miraflores, San Isidro, Surco and San Borja, and more and more Limenos are purchasing their dreams. However, that dream of home ownership and the freedom that comes having economic equity is not making its way into the lives of people living in places like San Juan de Miraflores, Villa El Salvador, and Villa Maria del Triunfo. People, separated by only very short physical distance, live in shockingly different worlds. The challenge is to narrow the distance between these worlds and build bridges of support to serve the needs of every community.
Please don’t get me wrong – massive economic changes have occurred in Peru for the better. The middle class is growing at an accelerated rate. The gap between rich and poor, and between Lima and the rest of the country, is also shrinking.
There is, however, a challenge to this economic enhancement. The new wealth of Peru has not been evenly distributed to all Peruvians. In the pueblos jovenes life is a daily struggle. For some of the poorest communities, less than 25 percent of homes have access to running potable water. This can all change. A different picture can emerge.
I want to tell you a story. A story about a beautiful young Peruvian girl who has changed my life.
Her name is Ines and she suffers from a very rare skin condition. A condition so rare that there are estimated to be only a few cases in all of Peru. This condition causes her skin to blister and peel off in sheets from the slightest trauma. The simple act of walking or eating causes the development of painful blisters on the soles of her feet and the roof of her mouth.
For most of her young life she has suffered with an enormous amount of daily pain. Through the generosity of a donor group in the United States, HBI has been able to help Ines and her family. Donations have been used to make desperately needed repairs on their impoverished home, money has been used to pay for private school (Ines was told she could not attend public school because their was a concern she was contagious), and resources have been mobilized to help stabilize her condition. There is no cure for her diagnosis. But there is hope for a better life.
Thanks to the support and leadership of Reverend Pat Blanchard and the Anglican Church, today the program that was originally developed to help Ines has been expanded to provide support for a whole group of medically fragile children. By working together with
The problem with this story – there are thousands of children with medically fragile conditions. On any given night there are hundreds of thousands of children working and living on the streets, and there are millions of children living in poverty, whose families may have lost hope that their children can live in a different reality. Our hope is to assure that every child has access to the services they need, the services they morally deserve, by building bridges.
This dramatic change will not come from any one organization; and, it will not come from money alone. It will only come from a collective response. A response that has organizations working together to share their resources, their ideas, their skills and their talents to better the lives of people living in desperate poverty. Change will happen . . . but only through collaboration.
Why, you may be asking is an organization based out of Portland, Oregon in the United States here, in Peru, telling this story. Why are three “gringos” running 100 challenging kilometers through some of the poorest areas in Lima and Arequipa?
Why? - Well, for the 3 of us running – the answer is quite clear. We are committed to our work in Peru – and, we recognize that the only way we are going to truly make a difference is to mobilize more Peruvians to become the change agents. 3 things: It is a small demonstration that the physical distance between Villa Maria del Triunfo and San Juan de Miraflores is a short distance reachable by foot, but the individuals living in these areas are worlds apart. Second, is to raise money for our organization all of which will continue supporting the work of our Peruvian partners. Lastly our commitment is not only to mobilize ourselves, but all Peruvians to act as change agents in their own communities.
HBI’s commitment to empower local leaders to better serve the healthcare needs of the poor and underserved, means that we need to help mobilize more resources to our partners. This two-event run will bring greater attention to the needs of the poor and highlight opportunities to better support Peruvian organizations.
Mario Vargas Llosa commenting on violence and atrocities of the terrorist movement, wrote "[the war] did not leave innocents; we were all stained, by action or by omission." If we choose not to help, or if we don’t pay attention to poverty at all, we are not innocent, we are all stained. In tough economic times our collective actions will help to remove that stain and help to extend the reach of our resources. By working together. By collaborating our resources – our talents, our skills, our knowledge, our ideas – we can help to dramatically re-shape the lives of people living in extreme poverty. We can continue the process of ending extreme poverty in Peru, but we can only do this together.
We invite you all to run with us, to create change with us, to build bridges with us. Yo soy el Puente.
We appreciate the support we are receiving to make this event, these runs, a reality. We invite everyone to join us on December 07 at the Plaza de Armas of Villa Maria del Triunfo in front of the Municipality building at 7:30 am for the introduction of our Lima Bridging the Divide 50-kilometer run.
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