This time last week I was travelling through Peru. I spent sometime in the city of Ica, which is situated in the Atacama desert.  You can imagine it was hot! I was visiting a Vine Trust sponsored home now owned by Union Biblica but build by the generosity of Cupar Old Parish Church in Scotland.  

One of the difficulties we are facing is recruiting personel with the right qualifications and experience. I'm told that qualified social workers and child psychologists are more difficult to find in this particular area of Peru. Anyway I was glad to meet Sabino and his wife Esther and their two children. They have come to this home within the last few months with their two children. They seem to be settling in and enjoying the challenge. Our visit was an opportunity to meet with them and also see one of the new buildings that Cupar Old have erected. This building will be used as a music room for the children.

Let no one think this kind of work is easy. It calls for dedication and commitment, in a situation that can often be volatile and unpredictable. Many of the children in the homes we support come from completely disfunctional families. For them knowing adults who are prepared to stick with them through thick and thin is a very unusual experience. Its wonderful to see how the people of Cupar have been faithful in keeping their links with the children in this home.

On the way back to Lima, I called into Kawai to meet up with the boys in this home. Its mid- summer in Peru and all thirty nine boys including their house parents have been decanted in order to refurbish their home.  It's 30 degrees centigrade, so the boys are living under canvas for the next three weeks before they will return to their newly refurbished home. It was good to see the interaction between house parents and boys and know that we are making a difference in their lives.  

I heard some good news stories relating to some of the boys in the other homes. Two have recently joined the police, another has a permanant job in a hotel and two more have enroled for university.

While Peru has a developing middle class, there is still a great deal of poverty in the country areas. Lima has a population I think of about 9 or 10 million. Shanty towns still exist and no doubt the increased number of security guards has deterred the children who once sold their trinkets to tourists from coming into the more affluent areas. Our task now is to encourage the growing Peruvian middle classes to see their responsibilities to those in their society who are in great poverty.

We had a fantastic report from the Cayatana University on the work of the Amazon Hope programme. They surveyed over 5,000 people in Amazonia asking them questions relating to the medical programme. Details of this will be published soon. However at this stage it is good to report that we have a programme that is delivering a very high standard of medical care. How that must warm the hearts of those who put so much effort into helping to establish the programme in the first place. I think especially of my good friend Dr Pam Cairns and her pharmacist husband Alan.

Anyway its back to domestic issues. I'm off to Buchanan Street in Glasgow to be part of the launch of the IF Campaign. Yes you've guessed right. This will be the topic for my next post.