I left Cusco behind and flew back to Lima. I’m now at the volunteer house for The Light and Leadership Initiative in Huaycan (why-con). Huaycan is a thirty-year-old city on the outskirts of Lima built into the sides of the dryest mountainsides I’ve ever seen. Nothing grows here without great effort.
Huaycan is the poorest suburb of Lima and one of the poorest places in Peru. The settlement was started to give Immigrants from other parts of Peru displaced by terrorism and fighting in the mountains a place to make a new start. Peru is ranked second lowest in the world in quality of education.
The Light and Leadership Initiative was started by Lara DeVries (she moved here from Chicago and started the program when she was only 23) to bring education and empowerment to women and children in one of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in Peru. Check out LLI’s youtube channel for lots of great videos to show you more.
Huaycon itself is remote, and we ride a little bus to the edges of the settlement with books to these tiny classrooms and the kids show up to read and be read to. They’re given simple sheets at the end to answer questions and write down some thoughts about what they read. and they can take a book home with them
This is Nick reading “Clifford” to the kids
This is actually the graveyard
Cantar Perú 