Projects

'The Blue House' Children's Home

Azul Wasi offers children a safe haven in the countryside outside of Cusco, away from the dangers of the inner city. By offering shelter, protection and opportunities for education and vocational training, Azul Wasi gives these children something they never had before – the chance to have a more promising future and the opportunity to provide for themselves.

‘The Blue House’ caters for boys from six to twenty years old. Some have been found on the streets, others have been rescued from backgrounds of abuse and extreme poverty.

As former street children, the boys in Azul Wasi have been exposed to unthinkable situations and are not easy to care for as a result – they require dedicated carers to give parental and psychological support to help them overcome their past and help them towards a better future.

Homes for former street children are not easy to gain funds for – a reputation for involvement in petty crime means there is little sympathy for street children and the stigma attached to them limits financial support as much as it does their integration into community life.

However without adequate funding for homes like Azul Wasi, the boys have nowhere else to go – they remain on the streets. They have no future prospects and without access to education to gain employable skills, they are forced to turn to petty crime, the drugs trade, even prostitution in order to survive.

Currently homes like Azul Wasi are oversubscribed, under-resourced and under-funded. With no State funding, Azul Wasi already struggles and is entirely reliant on grants like those offered by LAFF to be able to provide a decent level of care. Yet Azul Wasi is still asked on a daily basis to take on more street children. 

LAFF has been helping to set up and improve the facilities in Azul Wasi with a view to helping the home to be more self-sustainable through its income generation schemes.

How has LAFF helped?

LAFF has provided much support in the early development of the home. Funds have gone towards the construction of a bread oven, allowing the home to both feed the children, and provide skills training to the children. In the longer term, Azul Wasi hopes to use this bread oven and training to generate income for the home in the local area.

LAFF has also provided money to build and equip bathrooms, invest in kitchen equipment, a fridge, a water tank, and blankets for the home. Azul Wasi has also been able to create a greenhouse and a small hold with chickens and other animals, which provide the home with a regular sustainable source of food, as well as giving the children the chance to learn valuable life skills by looking after the animals and cultivating vegetables in the greenhouse.

In the long term we hope Azul Wasi will become a model for self-sustaining homes for street children, through its methods of income-generation and expense-reduction.

Aldea Elim Street Children Shelter

 Aldea Elim is a refuge providing food, shelter and educational opportunities for children living and working on the streets in one of the poorest barrios of Cusco, Peru.

How has LAFF helped?

LAFF provided funds to buy blackboards and teaching supplies for the homework club for street children, supporting the children in their education if they do have to work on the streets.  LAFF also provided new equipment for Aldea Elim’s soup kitchen, enabling the refuge to open its doors to even more children. The soup kitchen means that no child has to miss out on school because they have to work for their food.

Chosica Community Nursery

Many children in poor Andean communities miss out on the most basic of educations simply because their parents cannot afford the books and stationary their children are required to take to school. Large families have to prioritize the older children and cannot supply the younger children with pens and books. Children are simply denied the means to learning at this crucial stage in their development.

How has LAFF helped?

LAFF provided the rural community of Chosica a grant to ensure that all children attending the village nursery had sufficient educational materials and teaching supplies for one year, giving many rural children a chance to access education they simply would not otherwise have had.