We work in Lima’s district Ate Vitarte.

First settlers occupied this land in 1989. In the beginning of the 1990s, this young and poor, but revolutionary and soon well-organized community, got infiltrated by the Shining Path.

Today, 600 families live in La Raucana. The community consists of 15 so called “manzanas”, that have each its own delegate. Gotas de agua coodinates all actions with the board of directors of the community.

Peru’s capital Lima has increased from approximately 800’000 inhabitants in 1950 to an estimated 10 million nowadays. The city’s districts along the oceanfront steadily developed towards similar levels of prosperity as Western Europe, whereas the suburbs maintained in or turned into poverty and misery.

The work of our Peruvian branch focuses on the Valle Amauta and in particular on the community of Raucana and its neighboring communities in the district Ate Vitarte.

In particular, we identified the following issues and deficiencies:
– Lack of quality care and education for children, especially from financially weak families
– Negative impact on the children’s development due to domestic violence, frustration and / or alcohol consumption in their environment.

The high level of domestic and sexual violence resulting from the combination of poverty, frustration and alcoholism is destroying the self-esteem of many young women and men. They see little prospects for their future, but become parents at a relatively young age. Many of them have a low level of education and survive through temporary occasional jobs.

The circumstances for the newborn children are absolutely insufficient. Their young parents are unable to provide for their normal development, i. e. to feed the child properly, to care for her/his health and to give her/him the parental love that every child needs.