Villa El Salvador

On May 5th, the group visited the shanty town of Villa El Salvador on the outskirts of the municipality of Lima, Peru. In the heart of this Peruvian slum is a small school that hosts extremely poor children and teaches mothers how to read and write. To say that what we experienced there was earth-shattering is an understatement.



The city itself, in its broad reach, rests in what looks to be the far side of the moon. The earth is brown dirt. Everywhere. Not a tree in sight and the dusts rolls up onto everything that passes through it.



The school is comprised of 9 rooms. Each with minimal supplies. Teachers not only teach reading and writing but wear many other hats. They act as nurses, therapists, chefs...teaching the children how to take care of themselves, wash properly, eat properly. Meals are served in the classrooms and prepared by the teachers themselves.



Rotary Santiago de Surco took in us in a small bus to the town and we arrived as the school was preparing to celebrate Mother´s Day. Mothers who attended classes there were given roses and a raffle was held where each one was presented with a simple gift. Like a wristwatch or a picture frame.



We walked through the streets of this barren town, past nailed-together homes some of which held more than 20 kids under one tin roof. It is a town of mothers. The fathers have left, sometimes out of desperation or sometimes in search of work. We were invited into the home of one such woman who wakes at 4AM each morning in order to make milk which she then sells at 6AM from the front door of her home.



We were all brought to tears at some point by the experience. Some by the dispair, some by the optimism. There was quite a bit of silence as we all tried to process the emotions that flooded in...