Centro Santa Angela has drawn up an action plan to get food and supplies to 200 families in the district. They are also educating their neighbours and the general public about the dangers of water-borne diseases and how to prevent contagion.

Through the Ecological Program supported by Heart-Links, they are helping people in the urban community of San Miguel to pump the water out of overrun drainage system and to access government relief.

Centro Esperanza, also based in José Leonardo Ortiz, is working with rural families affected by the flooding. They held workshops with 200 families from four communities in Illimo to show them how to use moringa seeds to purify the muddy river waters stirred up by the cyclone. These communities have been forced to resort to river water because well water in the region is contiminated with arsenic.

“The families of Coloche and San Isidro were the most affected [by the cyclone], because they were completely cut off, the waters were waist-high,” Centro Esperanza reports. “Now that the waters have receded, we can reach them. The district municipality is ready to work with us to improve the water and on this occasion provided the containers we used to show people how the water cleared up and bacteria was eliminated by the moringa.”

Centro Esperanza also helped community members fill out the very complicated forms they must submit to access emergency support from the government.

Because of strong local organizations like Centro Esperanza and Centro Santa Angela and the commitment and generosity of their leaders, these communities are not alone during this crisis.

Do you want to invest in strong community-based organization in northern Peru? Join our monthly donor family so you can help organizations like Centro Santa Angela and Centro Esperanza all year round.

“Here in the Zaña Valley, communities have been isolated, bridges washed away and a man from Zaña was even killed, he has not been found,” Flor Reaño, of Latidos, reports. “Houses have collapsed, others have been damaged by the constant rain. We hope this passes quickly because already food prices are rising and products are scarce in the places that have been cut off.” 

Latidos has purchased plastic sheeting and corrugated zinc sheeting to help the most vulnerable in these communities protect their homes.

Latidos’ rapid response to the emergency shows why strong community-based organizations are so important. It’s why at Heart-Links we believe it is just as important to support the growth and development of our local partners as it is to fund the projects they run.

When Flor Reaño founded Latidos in 2016, Heart-Links was the organization’s only funder. Latidos used that support to produce results that impressed other funders and broadened their base of support. In the last few years, we’ve seen the organization’s team of volunteers more than double. They’ve also been able to connect with government programs and services and bring these to the communities they serve.

Heart-Links’ partners are always at the ready to help the people of northern Peru. They can do this because of you, our supporters, who have invested in building strong, responsive, community-based organizations like Latidos.

Do you want to invest in strong community-based organization in northern Peru? Join our monthly donor family so you can help organizations like Latidos all year round.

On December 7, hours before what was to be his third impeachment hearing in the short 17 months he has occupied the office, President Pedro Castillo moved to dissolve Congress. He was arrested the same day, and shortly afterward Vice President Dina Bularte assumed his office. She is Peru’s sixth president in six years.

On learning of Castillo’s arrest, thousands of Peruvians took to the streets to protest his ouster. At least seven Castillo supporters have died so far in the violence.

Chronic instability has had and continues to have dire consequences for the Peruvian population. Any action by government is stalled, services are delayed. Much-needed development and reform is postponed indefinately. Civic unrest, which at least initially was concentrated mostly in the South, has disrupted supply lines and increased already high transporation fares. Food is not getting to market.

For our partners in Zaña, Chiclayo and Cajamarca, the current crisis has made already difficult conditions much more difficult. They know that vulnerable populations are always the most hurt. They also see that their programs to foster ethical and democratic leadership, to build resilient sustainable communities and to attend to basic needs, including food, among other initiatives, help people in their communities ride out crises like these and plant the seeds of a better future.

Heart-Links expresses our solidarity with the Peruvian people, who deserve so much better from their representatives in government. We are encouraged by the compassion, integrity and commitment of people like the leaders of Madre Oliva Association, Latidos, ACIES, Rural Libraries, Centro Santa Angela and Centro Esperanza—our partners. Their work offers hope for a better world for Peruvians and inspiration for people everywhere.