Hit the Ground Running

We had a full first day in Lima. After meeting with a tailor to talk about a "hair brain" plan of mine to raise money for HBI and our street youth efforts - that is a whole separate story unto itself that I will tell later - we spoke with a group of volunteers at the OPERECE Organization in Surco.

OPRECE is a eye care non-governmental organization that provides low-cost and free (under Clinton Foundation funding) cataract surgeries for poor and under served patients. They are doing marvelous work all over Peru and we wanted to give them an opportunity to know how strongly HBI agrees with their work, mission and projects.

Tonight we had a meeting with the Executive Director of OPRECE, our HBI staff (Ben, Carmen and myself) and the lead surgeon (Dr. Francisco Cisnero) to talk about future collaborations and projects. We will be meeting with them again tomorrow to continue this conversation.

In addition, tomorrow we are meeting with a couple of street youth programs in the Rimac area of central Lima. The Rimac neighborhood is one of the poorest in the entire metropolitan area and has a tremendous problem with street youth. We are hoping to connect with NGOs in the area to talk with them about ways we may be able to support their work or advance their efforts.

We will post more updates manana. Until then - thank you for all of your support.