Every morning when I wake up and step out to the street, Flor is already there. Flor is 11 and she works on the streets. She comes with her traditional dress and her alpaca. Her job is to get tourists to take a picture with her – she charges one sol, which is about 25p. She is there to help her family survive financially and she does not go to school.
Peru, and Cusco at its heart, is the tourist hotspot of the entire South America. Every year thousands of tourists gather in Cusco in order to access the Incan ruins of Machu Picchu. The centre of the town is a truly cosmopolitan hub with all the modern facilities and multinational restaurants. Although the Peruvian economy has grown a lot in the past years, thanks to mainly the mining industry, and Peru has risen in terms of GDP and many industrialised countries have thus stopped their development programmes here, the economic benefits have hardly reached the most vulnerable and poor sections of this Andean society.
From Flor’s perspective, the general outlook is still quite bleak. Although women used to hold an important part in the Incan and rural communities, the public space for women has been traditionally restricted and women still tend to earn about 30% less than men. If you are born a woman and especially in the rural parts of Peru, you are more likely to only finish primary school and have very few choices regarding your further life choices.
Apart from gender inequality, gender based violence is a big societal problem in Peru. According to some statistics, over half of women have suffered domestic violence at some part of their lives. Women’s rights organisations criticise the lack of coherent approach from authorities when it comes to sexual abuse. This is a problem that affects adolescents as well; almost half of reported sexual abuse cases involve minors. Unfortunately young girls are mainly molested by their family members. The unwanted pregnancies are many times a taboo, and, in the worst case scenario, the family turn their backs on the girl. Abortion is illegal.
This is where LAFF steps in. LAFF supports local organisations that work with the most vulnerable children – such as Casa Mantay, which is a home for adolescent mothers with nowhere else to turn. Just as the projects aim at empowering children to grow up to be independent, skilled and happy adults (not forgetting to enjoy their childhood first), LAFF’s mission is to help empower the partner organisations to be self-sustainable through capacity building, technical training, as well as income generation and cost-reduction activities.
My name is Jenni and I am one of the new LAFF volunteers. I will be working closely with Casa Mantay in the coming months looking at new ways of income generation and vocational training opportunities for the young mothers. Stay tuned to find out how we get on.

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How wonderful to be back in Cusco again! I’m here to bid adieu to Fran who has worked tirelessly to support our partners and deliver our projects in Peru since September 2010, as well as help settle in and ensure a smooth handover to Maria, our new International Partnerships Manager, who started with us in Peru this week. So we have spent this week and will spend the next meeting all the partners, identifying and finalising plans and projects for our volunteer team to help both partners and LAFF this summer, and discussing longer-term plans for the future. It’s so inspiring to be close to the partners that we work so hard to support and to have the opportunity to take stock of all that’s been achieved in recent years and all the exciting opportunities that lie ahead! And I personally can’t wait to update you on all the plans that are forming to help our partners, and the vulnerable young people they support, towards an independent and sustainable future.

So to give you a taste of what’s to come, current plans for the LAFF team in Peru are to spend time on a range of short and long term projects helping our partners and their beneficiaries towards sustainability, in particular through income generation activities and specific skills training. The volunteers and Maria will be updating you on their progress over the coming months so watch this space for more!

In addition to this, Maria will be investigating how our Education and Sustainability programmes can merge to provide deeper and more long-term support for our partners. We have lots of really exciting ideas on how that might look in reality – the kind of ideas that keep you brainstorming until 2 in the morning in fact – but alas it’s still a little too soon to be revealing our plans without conducting detailed research into the feasibility of each of them. But rest assured that there are some exciting times ahead for LAFF and our partners and we’ll update you on all of those plans as they start to become clearer… But for now, just to say – Goodbye and a HUGE thank you to Fran for all her hard work and dedication over the last couple of years, and a big Welcome! to Maria and our first ever LAFF volunteer team.

Filed under: Blog, Project News, Uncategorized by sarah.oakes
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When I first came to Peru 20 days ago I brought a really heavy backpack that I could hardly carry myself, full of things I was not sure I was going to use, in a place which temperature varies from 2ºC to 21ºC every day , at the same time I was also bringing a frame of mind full of enthusiasm and will to help. I came to Peru with the idea of offering LAFF my skills as a volunteer: a melting pot of experiences coming from multiple years of work in different projects and companies, my past as an Art Teacher and my desire as a Counselling trainee of working in a social related environment. Apart from that, I knew that even though we shared a common language: the Spanish , Peruvian culture was going to be a whole new thing to discover and if I am honest I had no idea of what I was going to find, or feel with the new situations that were about to happen during the following 3 months and a half.

Once in Lima , the first idea was to meet Fran, the International Project Manager, in Arequipa to assist her in some vocational training workshops for a LAFF partner called Hogar de Cristo. I should mention that, that trip alone was a great way to understand how things work in a quite different way in this side of the world and how important is to take them easy and be as flexible as you can. Strikes here can be frequent and are really able to stop whatever is in their way, this one provoked my first change of plans; after several days stucked in Lima waiting for the Panamericana Highway to reopen by the miners and Fran literally escaping from another national strike in Bolivia, I threw out the idea of getting to Arequipa on time for the workshops! So I changed my ticket for a direct 24 hours bus trip to Cusco, with the intention of meeting Fran on her return from the workshops, while in the meantime I changed plan to spend three days rambling the city looking for a long term accommodation and getting used to the altitude.

Now I’ve been in Cusco for two weeks and a half already, and Fran has been a great help during this time. She took me to visit the four projects LAFF supports in region of Cusco: Qosqo Maki, Casa Mantay, Sacred Valley Project and Azul Wasi while she explained many local particularities not included in the Lonely Planet; like how to use the transport and its invisible maps or how not to confuse a desert with a side sauce, something that really happened during our first lunch together.

When I visited these organisations I realised how the projects are born from a strong need in the community and from the commitment of people reacting to this situation. The job they do is extraordinary. But their lack of means causes their situation, and as a consequence, that of the children, to be permanently at risk. This is why LAFF has been strongly supporting them, making it possible for partners to receive the immediate help they need but also helping them think towards the future, forecasting the needs and providing them with the tools to meet those needs.

Now it is my turn to help in Azul Wasi. Azul Wasi is an independent Peruvian project that born from the necessity to relocate the street children that were supported by Local Government when this institution decided to stop funding them five years ago. Azul Wasi has managed to create a home for fourteen boys aged from 7 to 18. Most of the precarious resources nowadays go to basic costs to run the place, feed the children and make possible their attending to the public school. LAFF is contributing towards some of these costs, but one of the goals we are trying to establish through my placement is to contribute to the development and future of both the children and the project. This means on one hand setting up a minimum organisational structure in order to plan a financial survival; and on the other hand supporting the boys by offering skills like English and Computing that can be used in a possible future employment in a tourist city like Cusco.

I truly believe this is going to be a big but rewarding challenge. Wish me luck!

Silvia Granado, LAFF Volunteer – June 2012

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(42 Photos)

Filed under: Ways to Support LAFF by sarah.oakes
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LAFF welcomes its first cohort of International Volunteers set to arrive in Peru this Summer and Autumn, thanks to support from Vodafone’s World of Difference scheme who made it possible for LAFF to have the time and expertise of Chris James – our short-term International Volunteer Programme Manager.

A select group of Spanish-speaking volunteers with a wide range of skills and experience will be helping LAFF to expand our support of Cusco-based partner organisations through direct support and capacity building as well as helping LAFF with research, communications and other key areas enabling us to grow and support even more marginalised young people in Peru.

Welcome to Silvia, Sarah, Emily, Peter, Maria, and Jenni – great to have you on board!

Filed under: Fundraising News by sarah.oakes
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LAFF have been working to help teenage mums and their babies for the last 18 months, through our Cusco based partner Casa Mantay. Casa Mantay give teenage mums the support, financial, physical and emotional, to overcome their self-esteem issues, learn how to bring up their babies well, and work towards an independent and happy future for both mother and child.

LAFF has been helping Casa Mantay to make sure the mums and their children have the same access to formal education as every other child – providing uniforms, sports equipment, school materials and books so that they can continue their education. LAFF has also been working with the home on their vocational training and income generation initiatives – supporting the home to make, market and sell their handmade leather products to wider audiences across Peru and globally – through providing equipment, sharing skills, and promoting their products.

This video tells you more about why and how we are helping…

Filed under: Project News by sarah.oakes
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In 1998, when I started my temporary job as a Postman, Royal Mail didn’t give me a new phone or a mars bar! When I started my first day at a call centre, it was with 15 other spotty teenagers not 499 people brimming with smiles and energy! And, get this, when I started my first job in a fish and chip shop, unbelievably, neither Gok Wan or Simon Weston turned up to give me a motivational speech or tell me I was a “winner”!

You could say that’s because only one of those jobs is an essential service that makes a difference to people’s lives (we need chips right?). But that’s exactly why there was such fanfare and excitement about 500 talented and motivated people going to work for different charities…….because we will be changing the lives of millions of others! That’s why it’s important to reflect on what and who this opportunity is all about. It’s not about me. It’s not about Vodafone. It’s not even about Gok Wan. It’s about the people it will help.

My name is Chris James and for the next few months I’ll be working for Latin American Foundation for the Future (LAFF). They’re an incredible charity that supports street children, vulnerable young people and the organisations that support them in Peru and Bolivia. I’ll be helping to set up a volunteering programme for LAFF, so they can work through volunteers to build the capacity of the organisations to help continue changing the lives of children in Peru. We’ll be looking for motivated volunteers who can speak Spanish to go to Peru from the start of July for anything from 3 to 12 months. That could be you!

If you might be interested then visit www.laffcharity.org.uk/volunteer

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LAFF is a World of Difference winner for the fourth time this month – gaining support from Vodafone to employ a skilled volunteer for 4 months, to establish our International Volunteer Programme. Chris James will be working from February to June 2012 with the aim of  getting Spanish-speaking university students out to Peru to support LAFF’s projects and partners. Open to Year Abroad students, new graduates and undergraduates looking for worthwhile summer break volunteer opportunities, the LAFF volunteer programme aims to give Spanish-speaking students the opportunity to get valuable hands-on experience in International Development through field-based work whilst being emerged in the language. Selected volunteers will be supported by our International Projects Manager to deliver capacity-building support to partners, and undertake research and other tasks for LAFF. To register your interest in the LAFF International Volunteer Programme, please contact Chris James on info@laffcharity.org.uk.

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Chocolatadas are a very popular tradition here in Peru.  They can range in extravagance: from a simple end-of-term school prize giving ceremony where hot chocolate and panetón (Peruvian Christmas cake) is provided, to full-on parties for whole communities with presents and sometimes even clowns for those that attend.

How NGOs should deal with this is always a matter of debate: it is a local custom (and therefore expected) but couldn’t money be spent on something that is going to last for more than a couple of hours?

Fun and Games at a Chocolatada

Latin American Foundation for the Future (LAFF) partner with children’s homes and projects – we could choose to spend funds on Christmas chocolatadas at each of our partner projects, but then where would the money come from to fund school supplies, uniforms and other items to further the children’s development?  So, we have decided not to go down this path.  Excitingly, this year, LAFF aims to provide the start-of-school year costs to enable over 50 children to attend school in 2012!  Also, we have always found that there are organisations who are keen to fund Christmas parties (quite often, frustratingly for me, as their only activity in the whole year) so the kids don’t actually miss out and even without LAFF participating, can easily have more than one such party.

When I first arrived here, I was surprised by the amount of money that can be spent on these things.  Don’t get me wrong – I LOVE Christmas and am no Scrooge and am definitely in support of children enjoying Christmas.  But surely having five afternoons of hot chocolate and panetón over just one party along with something more fundamental which will give them opportunity in life (education, clean water, healthcare, nutritious food etc) is a bit skewed.  In fact, the number of organisations and companies clawing to provide chocolatadas does seem to have lead to a rather cynical attitude from some receiving parties: the other day I was visiting a children’s home here and the director commented to me that there was ‘some group coming in to do a chocolatada’ and that ‘she didn’t even know where from’, that afternoon.

This isn’t to say that all chocolatadas are wrong by any means, but I do think they should be kept to scale and should be deeper than just a one-off activity.  An example of a great use of the chocolatada tradition can be seen in this video by Ollantaytambo-based Awamaki to attract people to their mobile health clinics:

Filed under: Blog by Fran Talavera
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In this season of generosity and giving, I wanted to comment on the complexities of donating to projects overseas.   I was particularly inspired after reading a post on La Vida Idealist by Peace Corps volunteer, Amanda’s, observations in Honduras, with particular reference to this point:

‘…it is almost always better to donate money rather than objects. Shipping items is more expensive, things invariably get lost, and sometimes you end up with 25 of one thing and only 2 of another. It is generally easier, faster, and more productive for the organization to purchase and transport the supplies they need themselves.’

I fully agree with this statement and, in fact, aside from the shipping costs themselves, the products that you buy at home are almost always going to be much more expensive than buying something in-country.  Not to mention the fact that buying in-country also means that the charities that are spending benefit the local economy and buy more culturally appropriate goods.  For example: the other day I was invited to lunch at a family that I am good friends with.  I wanted to take something along, so I decided on a bottle of wine.  Now, I personally am not a huge fan of sweet Peruvian wine so thought it might be interesting to take an Argentinean Merlot for them to try.  After lunch, wine and beer were brought to the table and I went to get my bottle from downstairs – they were all so suspicious of it and despite me urging them to try it, it was decided that it ‘should really be used for cooking’.  I learnt my lesson and next time will take something that they will definitely enjoy!  This is a small example, but imagine it on a larger scale – all of the children at one children’s home being given top of the range iPods but don’t have the software, knowledge or sufficient numbers of computers to actually use them, so they just get put away or even sold by the management to raise money for basic needs or more culturally appropriate and useful presents…

Lately I have been reading a really interesting book by Giles Bolton called ‘Aid and Other Dirty Business’ about aid and trade conditions around the world and a shocking fact is the extent to which aid is still tied – particularly by the USA.

‘Most American food aid, however, comes from America.  Not only is it a lot more expensive, but it’s an awfully long way away, so far that the food can’t be produced in response to an emergency because it takes, on average, five months to deliver.’

Bolton then goes on to highlight how these agribusiness contracts to provide several million tons of food aid each year only comprise 2-3% of the huge companies’ turnover, yet they get paid 11% more than open market prices for providing this food.  Contracts for transportation are also put up for tender and at the end of the day 40% of the cash destined for food aid through the American taxpayers is estimated to have been spent on US shipping firms.  So, the money would have gone a lot further had the food been procured locally as well as it benefitting many more people in the country with the food crisis.

It is quite amazing how many extra costs can be put on donations of goods coming into the country, aside from the extortionate shipping costs that the donor pays at their end.  Somehting that LAFF has recently become aware of is that, aside from the bank charges we incur in the UK to send funds overseas, our partners in Peru also incur a charge of around $18 per incoming donation.  So, we have decided to offer to fund this for our partner children’s homes – after all, why should it be a burden for them to receive our funds?  For me, it is so sad that things like this mean that NGOs here can’t even think about promoting things like regular giving campaigns as the charges would no doubt negate, or even supersede, the donations given.

Another issue here in Peru is the high customs charges that are imposed on incoming packages.  And surprisingly, it is actually illegal to ‘import’ second-hand clothes!  One of the children’s homes that LAFF works with once had an experience related to this and it is truly saddening.  A European charity wanted to send them school supplies, but would only do so by buying the goods in Europe and shipping them to Peru.  Why?  I do not know – perhaps they had convinced a company to donate the goods, perhaps they were worried about transparency, or maybe they wanted to brand the goods or take photos of the large shipment to show their supporters?  They will have had their reasons.  Anyway, Peruvian customs are tough and so, once the boxes arrived, the children’s homes were sent a bill for the duties they needed to pay totalling something in the region of 2000 soles ($740).  Were they able to afford this (which they weren’t) then, on top of that they would have also had to pay to transport the goods all the way from Lima to Cusco – a 22 hour bus journey over the Andes.  So the school supplies stayed in Lima at the customs office, the children’s home had no school materials and the European charity had, with all the best intentions I’m sure, wasted that donation.

LAFF is constantly learning and improving how we provide support and assistance to children’s homes in Latin America.  With LAFF’s presence on the ground, we are able to channel donations and funds efficiently and effectively to our partner organisations as well as monitoring exactly how these funds are spent.  We consult with children’s organisations to identify their needs and then try to meet them within our focus areas of Education, Vocational Training, Capacity Building and Sustainability.

Filed under: Blog by Fran Talavera
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