“We didn’t have anywhere to evacuate to or any means of removing the water.”

When Cyclone Yaku caused flooding across José Leonardo Ortiz, in northern Peru, students and alumni of Centro Santa Angela’s Leadership School took action. In the urban community of José Francisco Cabrera, Walter Cabrera helped organize his neighbours and assess the situation. With nobody else to help them out, they devised an ingenious way of draining away the water.

Walter is a Leadership School alumni and now sits on the school’s citizen watchdog committee COVAG.

Watch the video to learn more.

Erla spoke of the many crises Peruvians have edured recently: COVID19, political upheaval, racism, repression, flooding and now the worst outbreak of dengue in the country’s history. She spoke of the temptation to give in to discouragement and despair.

But Erla also spoke about hope. And about the amazing work Centro Santa Angela’s Leadership School is doing to “weave together” a better future.

Founded in 2014, the Leadership School has developed the leadership skills of scores of Peruvians, women and men, young and old. Graduates across the country exercise leadership that is horizontal, democratic, ethical and commited to human development. They are active and engaged citizens, holding their governments to account.

Heart-Links has been there from the beginning, providing financial support, accompaniment and solidarity.

But don’t take our word for it. Listen for yourself to what Erla has to say about this crucial initiative.

For the first time ever, Heart-Links’ Annual General Meeting will be hybrid.

What does that mean?

It means that we will celebrate with our community IN PERSON for the first time in three years.

When: Sunday, May 28, at 1:30 p.m. EDT
Where: Innovation Works, 201 King Street, London, Ontario

But that’s not all hybrid means.

Can’t make it to the meeting? Don’t live in the London area? You can attend remotely by Zoom! 

What can you expect at this fee-admission event?

• Messages from our Board Chair, Treasurer and Projects Committee
• Introduction to our 2023 Board of Directors
• Presentation of our 2022 Impact Report
• Special guest speaker Erla Hoyos, of Centro Santa Angela (joining us virtually from Peru)

We are very excited to share with you the impacts of the work you supported in Peru last year. And we are thrilled to have Erla Hoyos join us. Erla will fill us in on the current situation in northern Peru and tell us about how Centro Santa Angela’s Leadership School is changing lives there. (Translation will be provided.)

We’re looking forward to seeing everyone again and to seeing new faces as well!  

Register for IN-PERSON attendance here.

Register for ZOOM attendance here.

If you questions, email info@heart-links.org or phone 226-884-2845.

Erla belongs to the leadership team at Centro Santa Angela and she runs the José Leonardo Ortiz Leadership School, a project funded by Heart-Links donors.

Register here for Women in the Lead: A Tapestry of Stories from the Global South.

“The fact that we are women means that we are impacted differently in any crisis,” Erla says. In the case of the pandemic, “isolation is multiplying the workload for women.” With everybody home, and children out of school, women and girls find they are expected to keep house, take care of all family members and keep up with other responsibilities, such as school work.

Women and girls are also at greater risk of sexual violence. “The cases of violence have not stopped with the pandemic, with the lockdown,” Erla says. “On the contrary, they have become more prominent. Cases of abuse, of teenage pregnancies, are more evident.” Sexual violence, according to Erla, is itself a pandemic. “We say it is a big monster that really needs many efforts, many doors of entry to be able to contribute to diminish this problem in girls, in women.”

To take this discussion further and exchange views with women in other parts of the world, Erla will join Elida Jeanty, Officer of Development of Rayjon Share Care, and Basimenye Nhlema, Community Health Director for Partners in Health, for Women in the Lead: A Tapestry of Stories from the Global South.

You can join the conversation, too, by registering now. What better way to get ready for International Women’s Day on March 8?

This “fireside chat” organized by the Ontario Council for International Cooperation and hosted by podcaster Safa Shahkhalili, forms part of Tapestry 2030, an eight-part illustration and podcast series on the partnerships needed for gender-transformative and sustainable development. Amanda Schutz illustrated the series.

You can listen to Heart-Links’ episode Leadership Action in Peru, featuring Erla and two of the Leadership School participants, right here.

Women in the Lead: A Tapestry of Stories from the Global South takes place by Zoom on Friday, March 5 at 8 a.m. EST.

Erla Hoyos, of Centro Santa Angela, and Ruth Taylor, of Heart-Links, speak with Safa Shahkhalili about the Canadian-Peruvian partnership that is fostering a new kind of leadership in Peru. All accompanied by beautiful illustration by Amanda Schutz.

You can listen right here:

Or you can listen on Spotify (here) or Apple Podcasts (here) or wherever you like to listen to podcasts: Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Podcast Addict, Podchaser, Deezer, Listen Notes,  Pocket Casts, Castro, Castbox.

Remember to follow or subscribe to listen to all the episodes in the series. You’ll hear stories from Bhutan Canada Foundation, CAP Network, Canada-Mathare Education Trust, Inter Pares, Partners In Health Canada, Rayjon Share Care, YMCA of Greater Toronto and their respective international partners.

Here are some ways you can help keep this important conversation about how to build a more just world going:

• share this blog post on social media and with friends and family
• rate each podcast episode you listen to
• share your feedback, questions and comments (you can email them to info@heart-links.org)

Tapestry 2030 is a podcast and illustration series focused on the future of international cooperation and global solidarity, and the partnerships needed for gender transformative, sustainable development. In it OCIC members and their international partners share stories anchored in the principles for Just Recovery within the context of the global pandemic.

If you’d like to hear more from our outstanding partners about the projects Heart-Links supports in northern Peru, join us at 7 p.m. EST tomorrow at Share the Love @ Home. Register for free here.

Already a volunteer for the local parks committee, she wanted to learn what else she could do to improve life in her community. So last year, she signed up for the leadership school run by Heart-Links’ partner Centro Santa Angela.

When the pandemic hit last March, Nélida didn’t hesitate. She immediately started using her new leadership skills to help others.

She sought the support of a city psychologist and began a series of virtual workshops for women in her community to raise their self-esteem and help them make decisions. The workshops also taught the women to resolve conflicts and encouraged them to take an active role in their community.

As one workshop participant said, “During this time of pandemic, it especially helped older women like me because it distracted us, motivated us to keep going and to know how to take care of ourselves.”

Donations to Heart-Links helped Nélida become a leader and she in turn empowered a whole group of women. She helped them through the uncertainty the pandemic has created. Will you continue to make women’s leadership training a priority?

To promote more female leaders in northern Peru, donate today.

2020 has shown the world the value of good leadership. This is doubly true in Peru, where the country’s leadership was recently put to the test by a political crisis that briefly left the country without a president. In the middle of a pandemic, Peru’s leaders failed their fellow citizens exactly when people needed them most.

But the story doesn’t end there. People spoke out, they stood up and demanded that their leaders respect the democratic order. Women and young people were at the forefront of this movement. And they won.

Nélida has shown us that good leadership is critical to a healthy civil society. Leaders like Nélida make a difference. Your donation makes a difference. You can foster a new kind of leader in Peru: leaders who are democratic, transparent, inclusive and committed to human and community development.

Nélida told the group of women she was teaching, “We women are all of us brave, fighters, beautiful . . . Let’s get out there and conquer the world—this world that’s waiting for you, for me, for all of us.”

At the end of this month, Nélida will graduate from the leadership school, but her commitment to improving the lives of women in her community doesn’t end there.

“We’re taking baby steps that will lead to many other things in the future,” she says.

We’re all hoping for a better year in 2021. But we can do more than hope. We can invest today in the kind of future we’d like to see: a future where leaders put people and planet first.

Through a donation to Heart-Links, you can invest in leaders like Nélida. Let’s learn from this year of uncertainty and upheaval. Let’s recommit to building a just world together.

P.S. Donate by midnight on December 31st to receive your 2020 charitable tax receipt.

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), overreliance on a few select industries has made Peru’s economy particularly vulnerable. The organization predicts that by the end of 2020, as many as 1.5 million people will have lost their jobs. Wages have fallen too—by 10% in the capital, for instance.

Government measures to offset income loss during the pandemic, such as a monthly family bonus of S/760 (CAD340) and food baskets, reach only a fraction of families in need.

In the impoverished district of José Leonardo Ortiz, Heart-Links’ partner Centro Santa Angela is helping families get through the pandemic.

Participants of Centro Santa Angela’s Leadership School—a project financed by Heart-Links donors—have forged a new partnership with the Peruvian branch of Aldeas Infantiles SOS to bring food and supplies to families in the marginal settlements María Cruz and Fundo El Abuelo.

Community members also form part of the partnership. They shared their knowledge of the neighbourhood with Centro Santa Angela’s young leaders and told them what would make it a better place to live: electricity, running water, sewers, paved roads, green spaces, garbage pickup, schools.

Centro Santa Angela will continue to work with María Cruz and Fundo El Abuelo to achieve their goals. And Heart-Links’ will continue to support Centro Santa Angela’s efforts to generate lasting change in these hard-hit communities.