In 2025, Latidos bolstered preventive health and nutrition in rural communities in the Zaña Valley by empowering community leaders to provide basic health services, combat anemia, and advocate for community members.

The project established tópicos comunales in 3 communities previously without health services. In Peru, tópicos comunales are a first line of response where no health services exist. They offer basic care, early detection of illnesses and education in nutrition, and disease prevention. 120 community leaders received training in managing a tópico comunal.

Latidos also arranged 10 mobile health clinics in communities up and down the Zaña Valey and held 4 public health fairs. Through this project, 600 people were able to access health care.

In 2025, Madre Oliva Association focused on providing weekly food aid and accompaniment to 25 impoverished families in the rural hamlet of Nuevo Mocupe. They delivered medication for family members with chronic illnesses and helped with transportation to medical appointments. Families received counselling and guidance and took part in weekly craft workshops.

In 2024, Madre Oliva Association continued to close gaps in children’s education and contribute to food security in the impoverished rural hamlet of Nuevo Mocupe.

The program provided 25 boys and girls, ages 4 to 11, with personalized academic support, a nutritional snack, and recreational activities. Educators offered structured, nurturing environments adapted to the learning needs of each child. Parents were invited to attend sessions focused on learning support, play-based education, how to detect learning disabilities and nutrition.

Many parents reported feeling more confident in their ability to help their children succeed and more connected to other families facing similar challenges.

The project also provided food aid and medicine to the most impoverished families and individuals in the community.

Our thanks to the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joesph of Canada for their support of this project.

Latidos’ project “GROW” improved the environment and resilience of women, children and seniors in the Zaña Valley by creating strong local support networks.

Latidos worked with women to strengthen their leadership skills and potential, with children and adolescents to reduce psychosocial risks exacerbated by the pandemic and with the elderly to address their needs and harness their knowledge. They also ran three community libraries, planted 1,600 trees, and ran campaigns to promote health care, including mental health, nutrition and food security.

A special program carried out in nine primary and secondary schools resulted in 200+ new “Ecoguardians” commited to caring for  their environment.

Latidos trained and accompanied community leaders, connecting them to government ministries and other institutions that can lend support. As a results of these interventions, nine grassroots community organizations gained legal standing and will be able to access government programs. Another three are preparing their documents. Eighty-five seniors were registered with the national comprehensive health care service.

Heart-Links is grateful to East London Rotary Charity Foundation for their support of this project.

Educational and nutritional gaps exacerbated by COVID-19 are the focus of this project.

In the impoverished rural hamlet of Nuevo Mocupe, Madre Oliva Association will provide these children with afterschool educational reinforcement and a nutritional snack 6 days a week. Families in greatest need will receive additional food aid to offset skyrocketing food prices. Therapists will offer workshops every two months to the children’s parents on topics such as mental health, how to detect learning disabilities, COVID-19, and parent-child relationships.

This project also includes purchase of a computer and printer to strengthen the ability of Madre Oliva Association to carry out this and other projects.

Our thanks to the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada for their support of this project.

The pandemic has left communities in Peru struggling. Schools were closed for two years, family incomes plummeted, domestic violence increased, and diseases like dengue compounded the effects of COVID19. Now these communities are facing another crisis: food and fertilizer prices have skyrocketed.

In the Zaña Valley, our partner Latidos is working hard to help families get through this prolonged crisis. Latidos’ team of volunteers are:

• arranging monthly vaccination clinics, COVID19 monitoring, and primary health care in eight villages that have no health clinic
• providing schoolchildren, including children with learning disabilities, with afterschool educational support
• empowering rural women and teaching them how to grow and prepare nutritious food for their homes and the market

Through workshops on nutrition, vaccination campaigns, food aid for individuals with disabilities, health fairs, and workshops for rural women on how to grow healthy, organic food, Latidos will contribute to better health and food security in the valley.

On the educational front, Latidos will work with children in their community library, offer added reinforcement for children with learning disabilities, hold educational day camps in more rural areas, run fun online reading and writing contests (with prizes) that involve the whole family, work with teachers to improve their literacy teaching skills and hold books fairs.

Latidos helped families in the Zaña Valley secure healthy food, masks and cleaning supplies and provided them with both educational support and mental health workshops and counselling. They boosted local vaccination efforts significantly by supplying volunteers and refreshments and carrying out information campaigns.

Latidos also continued to focus on food security and empowering women through workshops with women in personal development, organic gardening and make crafts they can sell.

With food security still a grave concern in 2021, Madre Oliva Association continued to provide adults and children with developmental disabilities with medical attention, food, educational support, and life skills training. They also helped them register with Social Security to receive comprehensive health coverage. Madre Oliva Association worked with the school, the minicipality and the local health unit to ensure people living with developmental disabilities in their communities receive appropriate attention and do not face discrimination.

For a second year, Heart-Links is funding a project, run by Madre Oliva Association, that provides much-needed support to a group of families in Nuevo Mocupe, a number of whose members (children and adults) have developmental disabilities. The project delivers medications, diagnoses by specialists, and psychological and life skills counselling.

By the end of last year, Madre Oliva Association reported substantial progress. The school-aged children were in school and family incomes had increased. Significantly, the follow-up project the Association submitted to Heart-Links for consideration did not include supplying food.

Then COVID-19 hit. Lockdown orders prevented many families in Peru from going out to make a living. The Peruvian government offered aid but it did not always reach the most in need. In response, this year’s project will continue to provide food, as well as masks and cleaning supplies, and will help families access government pandemic benefits.

Madre Oliva Association continues to work with the school and the local health unit to ensure people living with developmental disabilities in their communities receive appropriate attention and do not face discrimination.

Heart-Links is grateful to the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada for their financial support of this project.

This year, Heart-Links is funding a project, run by Madre Oliva, that seeks to provide these individuals and their families with more robust and sustained support and to work with local institutions to overcome barriers to accessing services and to enjoying full participation in the life of their communities.

Madre Oliva will provide medications, food and psychological and life skills counselling and will work with the school and the local health unit to ensure people living with developmental disabilities in their communities receive appropriate attention and do not face discrimination.

Heart-Links is grateful to the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada for their financial support of this project.