The town of Andahuaylas is nestled in the Andes Mountains and, despite the obvious beauty, there is rampant poverty and abuse. Most people have no electricity or running water, alcoholism is common, and rates of infant and maternal mortality are high. Teen pregnancy is also common because of unchecked abuse in extended families.

With a lack of access to education, much of the population is illiterate. Children who want to attend school either travel long distances and several hours each day, or spend weekdays in the city away from their families – which makes them a target for exploitation.

Our Care Centre enables some of the poorest and most vulnerable of these children to come and receive additional tutoring, food, mentoring, counselling, general life skills and lots of love. We are finding that trauma aware counselling is becoming more and more important, especially for victims of sexual abuse.

For about 15-20 of the most vulnerable children there, including some who have been completely abandoned, we provide full-time residential love and care in our Friends of Peru Home. Here children get to experience a loving, family-style home with nurturing house parents who help them work through past trauma.

Our Families Together programme is critical as we seek to restore children to biological family members when possible. We offer support and resources to families, as well as ongoing assessments of safety and progress.

We have many goals for the near future, especially finding and training quality staff members to care for our children with excellence. We look forward in faith to seeing God meet these needs in the coming year!