In 2025, Centro Esperanza continued to work with rural women in Coloche, Lambayeque province, to help them develop successful small businesses that improved food security and household incomes. Thirty-two women organized in the association Women for a Better Future recieved training in self-esteem and leadership as well as technical workshops in guinea pig breeding, nutrition, disease prevention, pest control, sanitation, hydroponic barely.

During the year, the women sold their guinea pigs at 5 regional fairs and drew interest from a large buyer of organic guinea pigs. They also contined to build their association, drawing up statutes and holding elections for a new board.

Participants were encouraged to show solidarity with their neighbours and other communities by donating a portion of their litters to others in need.

Following on the success of a similar project in neighbouring San Isidro, Centro Esperanza worked with 25 impoverished families in the rural community of Coloche, Lambayeque, to bring their dream of food security and improved, sustainable incomes to life. Centro Esperanza provided 20 women and 5 men with training and initial inputs (guinea pigs, seeds, baking tools and supplies) for breeding guinea pigs for themselves and the market and making and marketing pastries.

Early in 2023, this community had been stranded by flood waters and lost crops due to Cyclone Yaku, making Centro Esperanza’s intervention even more critical.

Community members learn to use moringa seeds to purify river waters stirred up by Cyclone Yaku.

Trainings included community organization; business planning; record keeping; pasture growing; guinea pig care, production and reproduction; feed preparation; disease prevention; organic farming and composting; environmental insecticides and pest control; pen disinfection and deworming; and pastry making. Related activities for youth and children also took place.

The project helped these families establish a legally incorporated association so they could organize and share the work of their new community businesses, respond and report to the association membership, develop their own leadership skills, access state services, and partner with other organizations and institutions.

Community knowledge and resources were maximized, and sustainable and environmentally sound farming methods promoted. Gender equality and strengthening leadership by women was a priority as was developing leadership that is democratic, transparent, supportive and ethical.

During the project, participants showed solidarity with their neighbours and other communities by donating a portion of their litters to others in need.

The families of San Isidro have come a long way since 2017, when they fled their community because of floods that damaged or destroyed their houses, lands, crops, animals, irrigation system, and water supply. With support from Heart-Links partner Centro Esperanza, they have installed a reliable, community water supply, developed environmentally sustainable practices such as making their own organic fertilizer, animal feed and biogas heaters, and established a community chicken hatchery. Families began with 5 chicks and now have 30 laying hens on average. Their community association, led by a board of 3 women and 5 men, is legally recognized, allowing them to negotiate improvements with the local municipality.

For 2022, the community had initially planned to expand their production of animal feed. However, steep inflation and food shortages nationwide led them to modify their proposal to include market crops. Drawing on expertise within the community, they will collectively invest in a hectare of land where they will grow passion fruit. They will also plant vegetable gardens and continue to care for and rely on their laying hens, chicks and newly acquired sheep for income and food. Centro Esperanza will provide workshops in relevant agricultural practices and standards, bookkeeping, and marketing.

Leadership training and promoting participation by women in leadership positions and decision making continues to be a focus of this project, as does strengthening community organization and collaborating with other communities. Involving youth is a new priority.

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“Now the families that started with five laying hens have approximately 30 laying hens per family. We have 90 chicks, eggs that we eat ourselves and also sell when there are enough. And our family’s situation has improved, and we are learning how to improve our breeding. It also helps us to have better livelihoods and to be able to feed our children better. It’s important income for all our families.”
—Savina Vargas

This project, run by Centro Esperanza, built on last year’s project to strengthen community organization and sustainable income generation among rural families whose houses, lands, crops, animals, irrigation system, and water supply were damaged or destroyed in 2017 by flooding caused by El Niño.

In 2021, the families developed an organic chicken hatchery that produced eggs and meat for themselves and the market. In solidarity with impoverished families who do not belong to their association, each family donated 5 chicks to families in need. Centro Esperanza provided workshops in community organization, gender rights, marketing, cost analysis, strategic alliances, and business planning.

Participation by women in leadership positions continued to be a focus. Women now take part in decision-making in the community and the home. Three women sit on the community association’s board of directors.

The project helped these small farmers develop personally and as a community, drawing on their own skills and resources as well as on the expertise of workshop facilitators to organize, share resources, follow environmentally sound practices, promote the participation of women in leadership roles, and negotiate with state bodies.

This 20-month project, run by Centro Esperanza, accompanied, trained and provided material support to 35 rural families whose houses, lands, crops, animals, irrigation system, and water supply were damaged or destroyed in 2017 by flooding caused by El Niño.

Historically these families have made their meagre livelihoods from small animal husbandry, from other micro-enterprises and from serving as occasional farm labourers on nearby plantations. Although they suffered great losses during the 2017 floods, most of them did not qualify for government assistance because most are renters, rather than owners, of their houses and lands.

The project helped these small farmers develop personally and as a community, drawing on their own skills and resources as well as on the expertise of workshop facilitators to organize, share resources, follow environmentally sound practices, promote the participation of women in leadership roles, and negotiate with state bodies.

Community members making compost.

The project also provided funds to rehabilitate the community well (which was buried during the flood), install an electric pump and electricity in the community, and purchase small animals and other supplies. These tools and supplies allowed community members to make environmentally sound use of agricultural waste (as compost and to produce animal feed), strengthen their animal husbandry businesses, ensure a clean water supply, generate income, and improve their living conditions.

During the first wave of COVID-19, they planted basic food crops and shared them with neighbours in need. As lockdown was extended, some project funds were diverted to feeding the families until government supports arrived. The pandemic also forced the community to modify the animal husbandry initiative, opting to breed and raise laying hens instead of guinea pigs.

Lambayeque, a province whose population has changed dramatically in recent years because of increased internal migration, brings together Afro-Peruvians, Indigenous people and Mestizos (people of European and Indigenous descent). Yet schools, in their practices and their curriculum, do not reflect this rich cultural heritage, privileging Mestizo culture and its European roots over that of other groups, who often face discrimination and exclusion.

After the schools have finished their training, they will make presentations about their experiences. A permanent committee made up of members of civil society and government will work to raise awareness among the general public and to develop policies that favour an intercultural approach to education.