Team Peru 2011 - The End

Photo: A final photo shot of "El Misti" before leaving Arequipa

Photo: The Arequipa airport just before we take-off to end the trip

Photo: Arequipa is such a beautiful city, with the ChaChani moutain looming over the airport

After three weeks of planning, campaign, and debrief - the 2011 Team Peru Outreach Trip has officially come to an end.

Okay, not fully - as HBI's Director of Operations is still in Peru finishing up a couple of meetings in Lima and helping to inventory to the medications and supplies at the HBI warehouse. However, all of our team members are back home in the USA or off on exciting excursion trips in Peru.

It was a fantastic trip. We have so many exciting stories to share and new connections to promote. I will be writing a few updates in the coming weeks. Until then, thank you to everyone who has helped to make our summer 2011 outreach trip to Peru such an amazing success!

What do children do in your country?

Photo: Martin enthralling the boys

Photo: The MIMDES program is located in the back of a busy market

Photo: The entrance into the program

Photo: Singing a song in the hopes of getting an extra slice of cake

Photo: The children introducing themselves and telling us about their work

Photo: Our introductions and Q&A session

Photo: The sign that introduces the program at the front door

"Do children in your country work?"

We were invited to a street youth program this morning run by the Peruvian Ministry for Woman and Social Rights (MIMDES). The program is a prevention and education project for children who spend everyday with their parents working in the markets and on the streets of Arequipa. There are currently three geographic areas of operation - the three principle street markets in the city - with Saturday and Wednesday activities.

Staff (a psychologist by the name of Marcos and Martin and Mariam - both Social Workers) from MIMDES provide an environment and an opportunity "for children to be children." As Marcos told us, many of the children who spend their days working in the markets or on the streets side-by-side with their parents "lose their childhood." One of the programmatic goals of the program is to allow children the opportunity to play, laugh and engage in child-centric activities.

Today, during our visit, there was a cake, cookies and a small celebration; for what, we don't know, but it was fantastic to be there. We were treated as special guests and invited to play with the some 20 children gathered at the "party." To start our time together, Marcos invited the children to ask us questions or tell us a little about themselves. The children took full advantage of their opportunity and asked such marvelous questions as, "Why are you bald? Why are your eyes blue? What language do people speak where you are from?"

One-by-one they went around and told us their names and what they did for work: Kevin sells fish with his mother, Wilson sell clothing, Mary Luz sells chocolates, Jessica helps her mother to deliver water, Stephanie is a meat cutter. Children, some as young as 5-years old, work side-by-side with their parents to eke out a small wage. Many, not all, attend a small school that is open in the market area. Most, dream of something so much more.

At one point in our visit, a little girl asked Martin, "What do children do in your country?" He was uncertain how to respond. He told her that they went to school and that they played. She asked him if children in [our] country worked like she did. Martin later told me that he was uncertain how to respond to her question - for he did not want to offend her. He did not know how to tell her that children in the U.S. spend their days playing and watching television. He did know how to tell her that children are allowed to be . . . children.

As we were getting ready to leave, the children came up to say goodbye. One of the boys, having been fascinated with the pictures I had on my iPhone of Lee and Alex (my wife and daughter), said "please give my best to your family." Wow, here is a child who spends day after day working in an impoverished market for little to no pay to help support his family - and he sends his best for my family. I was floored.

We are not certain what next steps will unfold with our new partners at MIMDES - but we are certainly looking forward to helping to build bridges for their programs and the wonderful work they are doing for children living in such desperate circumstances.

Photos from the 2011 Team Peru Outreach Campaign

Photo: One of our fantastic Peruvian partners

Photo: HBI staff Alyssa and Ben

Photo: Dr. Bob and Carmen seeing patients in Girasoles

Photo: "Iron-lady" Augusta Shipsey teaching oral hygiene

Photo: A couple of our new friends

Photo: The quite before the storm on one of the first clinic days

Photo: Clinic in Ica

Photo: Some of our team during week one

Off they go

Today is the official "last day" of the 2011 Team Peru outreach trip. We have team members departing all day. Some are off to Cusco and the magnificent Machu Picchu and others are headed back to the states and reintegration into their busy lives.

The HBI team will be meeting with our Peruvian partners, debriefing the trip and repacking our warehouse in Arequipa and Lima over the next few days. One thing that everyone is fully in agreement about, this has been a fantastic trip.

A big thank you must go out to all of our team members and everyone who has helped to support this marvelous two weeks of outreach, bridge building and service.

Paz Holendasa Visit

Photo: Our team touring the new Paz Holendasa hospital

Photo: The beautiful ascetic appeal of the hospital

Photo: Arequipa has some 350 days of sunshine each year, an outdoor reception area makes sense and is really inviting to the children and their parents

Photo: As a pediatric hospital, Paz Holendasa keeps everything very whimsical

"If they don't work, they don't eat"

Father Alex asked Ben and I to film some of the activities around the Mission over the past couple of days. We were getting shots of the team integrating into the Mission's activities and taking general film of the various programs of the Church. Needed to get a few shots of the clinic, I asked Adon (Father Alex's right hand man) to drive me down for about ten minutes of filming.

After completing my assigned footage, I walked out to find Adon waiting by the van to drive me back up to the Mission's volunteer house. "Do you think it would be okay if we took this lady back to her house?" Adon said to me - pointing to a woman sitting in her wheelchair only about 3 meters away. So, Adon and I loaded her and her son into the back of the van and drove her to one of the poorest invasion communities in Alto Cayma - an area that sits in a canyon just off the runway of the airport.

The woman had been at the Mission for the monthly CFCA, Christian Foundation for Children and Aging, food distribution program and she had no money to take a taxi back home. When we got to her house, a small concrete block home with the aluminum sided roof, Adon began to tell me of their story. She is in her thirties and suffers from severe rheumatoid arthritis. Unable to walk, she lives most of her days in a wheelchair. She has three children, a boy aged 10 and two girls aged 13 and 14. Her husband left the family almost two years ago. Her only source of income is to sell food on the side of the road for a few soles a day. Her oldest child has left school to work full time for the family. Adon told me that he is concerned that the other two children will be leaving school very soon as well.

On the drive back to the Mission Adon told me that he felt the lack of educational opportunities and the need for families to have their children go to work very early in their educational careers, is one of the main reasons that people in the community of Alto Cayma get "stuck" in poverty. He told me that there is a constant drain of young people leaving school with very few formal skills and little education - and this is devastating to the community. Adon went on to say that for many of the people living in the poorer communities of Alto Cayma - "if they don't work, they don't eat."

Alto Cayma - Our final day of activities

Today is our last full day of project activities. Dr. Bob has taken the team up to the Mission to get started on their morning activities (e.g. clinic, home visits, painting, food preparation and delivery and daycare). Ben and I are running around completing a few errands in the city. This afternoon we will be meeting with one of our partner NGOs in Arequipa and touring their new pediatric hospital.

Paz Holendasa is the brainchild of a nurse from Holland who came to Peru some 15-years ago and saw a great need for maxio-facial procedures for cleft palates. Working with her partners in the European Union, she pulled together a number of wonderful projects over the years. Culminating in the successful development and completion of a multi-specialty care pediatric hospital in Arequipa. It is an amazing facility with state of the art operative theaters and patient encounter areas. Most of all it is a gift to the people of Peru. A clinic and hospital where the highest quality healthcare services can be delivered to the poorest of the poor for minimal to no money.

We are taking the team to tour the Paz Holendasa facility to show them how much one person can accomplish with a focused dream and an unending passion. I will post pictures from our adventure this afternoon.