2011-2017
In 2011, Project Peru arranged a new outreach project in Las Laderas, this time in close collaboration with a Manchester-based company, Amoria Bond. The company has its own Charitable Trust.
Amoria Bond aimed to fund and build 100 small wooden houses; they funded 30 houses in 2011 when the first team went, then paid for 10 more houses in 2012; then a second group visited in June 2013 to build 15 more, and 25 more houses were funded between 2014 and 2015. The 101st house was built in the summer of 2017 when another group from the company completed this total.
The company made a short promotional video as part of their first fundraising efforts.
The trust gives Project Peru the funds for the building project. Funds have been raised by the company’s employees, who have now on three occasions made up a group who spent just one week each on the project. The group stays at Project Peru’s refuge and goes to Las Laderas daily.
In advance of the team’s arrival, the local building team prepares concrete bases on which the team under expert local supervision constructs wooden houses to replace the flimsy constructions in which selected families were living. Las Laderas is an extensive and expanding shanty town, one of the poorest zones in the Lima area, and many of the families assisted are new arrivals there.
Project Peru always co-ordinates this initiative, liaising between the company and our colleagues and friends in Las Laderas. Each time, the volunteers stay at our refuge and thoroughly enjoy their interaction with our children and staff; several have made more than one visit.
Some of the volunteers’ comments:
“The children in the refuge have made the biggest impact on me with how they are raised, how they are thankful for your presence and the time and attention you are giving them and how they still look happy after what they have been through. I will honestly never forget those children.”
“From start to finish, I felt so welcome by the community in Las Laderas and the staff and children at Project Peru. To support a charity is great but to actually get involved and execute the objectives of a charity is even more rewarding. Being able to see exactly how and where the donations are used makes all the fundraising worthwhile”
Summarising the experience:
“Irreplaceable”; “Unforgettable”; “Fulfilling”; “Once in a life-time”; “Warming”; “Humbling”; “Giving a sense of perspective”