At Heart-Links we are ready to support our partner organizations in Peru as they design flexible, responsive programs to help the people most in need in their communities through this next phase of the pandemic.

Your support in 2020 made this possible.

Thanks to you, community leaders in José Leonardo Ortiz are engaging their neighbours in civic action and in improving living standards in their community.

Thanks to you, rural families in San Isidro are developing an ecologically sustainable chicken hatchery—a project that will not only provide sorely needed income but will also make this community more resilient.

Thanks to you, adults and children with developmental disabilities in Nuevo Mocupe are getting medical attention and life skills counselling that will help them take part as full members of their community.

In all, Heart-Links financed 11 longer-term and emergency projects in northern Peru in 2020. Hundreds of individuals, their families and their communities benefitted—thanks to you.

Over 145 individuals and organizations donated a total of $101,000 to Heart-Links to make these projects happen. You can see many of our donors’ names here.

We are grateful to each of you for your passion and your support of the work we do. And we want you to know that our joint commitment to build a more just world will continue well into the future.

Heart-Links’ new 2020–2025 Strategic Plan lays out our goals and the steps we will take to ensure Canada-Peru solidarity stays strong. You can read it by clicking through the slides below. With you, despite the pandemic, we will move forward.

In time they would reconnect. “Her kindness and generosity was inspiring. It influenced my whole life,” says Jennifer. While Jennifer was an undergraduate at Western University, she remembers donating what she could to Heart-Links. She later became a lawyer and was able to give more. In 2008 she became a monthly donor.

Jennifer’s understanding of the people of Peru and the importance of the work Heart-Links was doing there became even more meaningful in 2012 when she began to travel to South America with her new job. She was able to see with her own eyes what Sr. Janet had seen so many years before. Jennifer says Sr. Janet was “ahead of her time then. She believed in empowering people and supporting women and their families with very basic tools.”

Jennifer continues to give to Heart-Links so many years later because she has “a very positive feeling about Heart-Links. The volunteers are passionate. The organization focuses on the fundamentals and laying the foundation for people to build better communities. It feels like a partnership.” Jennifer also says she continues to give because of practical things. She believes the funds are used wisely and that a high proportion goes directly to the projects.

Jennifer is now mother of two, with a 16-year-old son and a 14-year-old daughter. Her outlook on parenting and the world has been forever influenced by Sr. Janet. “We don’t take for granted what we have,” she says. That’s why she tells her kids to “look after yourself and your community. But your community is big. And it includes the world.”

Jennifer’s perspective on women and their capacity for effective leadership has also been shaped from her experiences with Sr. Janet.  Now that Jennifer is in the fortunate position of being able to mentor women in a variety of economic circumstances, she does so with just as much passion and strength as she witnessed in Sr. Janet. “We can support other women who are less fortunate than us,” she says. “If you support women, you support families.”

Thank you, Jennifer, for supporting Heart-Links and for sharing your story with us.

Have you considered becoming a Monthly Donor to Heart-Links like Jennifer? You can find out more about our monthly giving program right here or email info@heart-links.org for more information. Ready to start your monthly donations right now? Go to our online giving page and choose the Donate Monthly option.

We are proud to list the names of all of our Monthly Donors on our webpage dedicated to Our Supporters—to say THANK YOU and to recognize their ongoing commitment. If you wish to remain anonymous, that’s okay too. We will honour your wish.

*This is the first of Heart-Links’ new series Spotlight on Our Supporters, which will introduce readers to some of the amazing people who donate to Heart-Links—and why.

Heart-Links would like to thank the late Raymond “Pete” Cheele, and his wife, Mabel Cheele, who predeceased him, for their generous bequest in support of Heart-Links’ work in Peru. Committed Catholics, the Cheeles were close friends of the Zadorsky family and followed the mission work of Heart-Links founder Sister Janet Zadorsky with interest and encouragement.

Because of this gift, the Esperanza Centre for Alternative Education is on a solid foundation—literally. The bequest has enabled Heart-Links’ partner ACIES to complete the foundation, retaining wall and perimeter of this afterschool centre in a marginal neighbourhood in Cajamarca, Peru.

The Centre, which currently works out of borrowed space in an abandoned market, provides education and homework support for impoverished Indigenous children from a perspective that values their Indigenous heritage. As Indigenous people and recent arrivals from the countryside, these children face increased racism and discrimination and the dismissal of their culture.

Because of the bequest made by the Cheele estate and the contributions of other Heart-Links friends and supporters, Heart-Links is within reach of its goal (just $4,250 to go!) to finance completion of the Centre in 2018 and programming for the children it will serve.