Wednesday

Yesterday, I spent the morning at Kiya Survivors´ newest project, Pasitos Drop-in Centre (translation: little steps) in Chinchero. Here, I saw a class in progress and physiotherapy as I was given a tour by Kiya Survivors social worker, Iris. This project is only ten months old, and as the only centre for special needs children in the area, it already has 32 students. All these children come from very isolated and poor rural communities and have even harsher backgrounds than children at the Rainbow Centre.

After being introduced to the centre, I joined Iris and Nigel, Kiya Survivors´ UK co-ordinator, in two house visits, which are part of the Quality of Life project. This project involves Iris visiting very poor families of students at the centre and teaching them about hygiene and staying healthy to improve their situation. Armed with a bag of food supplement provided by the government, Alex, Martin and Juan Carlos joined us, as we were going to visit their houses.

Even though i had been on house visits before, I was not prepared for the level of poverty that these kids live in. I was shocked by the primitive conditions and the lack of basic necessities. Both the families lived in one small room, which contained a bed, a small kitchen and a tiny living space. When entering the room, I was overwhelmed by the smell, the damp, the dirtiness and the fumes from the fire.

This experience left me speechless, and I found it very hard to talk to anyone in the next few hours. It made me feel helpless, because even though I have worked with children in desperate situations, I had a the feeling that the need was endless. The deeper you go into rural Peru, the worse the conditions are and the less attention is paid by anyone. Even when the community suffered from the recent flood damage, no media attention or aid was given, even though many people lost their houses and livelihoods.

Despite the fact that this difficult experience shook my foundations, it filled me with a desire to fight harder for people who are overlooked by the world.

Ben Ward