Thank you for visiting my fundraising page.

Project is a charity based in which is run solely by volunteers. The main focus of Project is the establishment of a children's refuge. Whilst in myself and two other volunteers were based at this refuge known in as a ‘Casa Hogar’ (which is directly translated as “safe house”). This facility gives much needed food, shelter and support for 32 children who have come from extremely impoverished, disadvantaged and/or abusive backgrounds. The refuge provides these children with the chance to escape from abject poverty, the opportunity to express themselves through creative arts such as dance and drama, a high standard of education, and thus access to a very different future. Whilst staying at the refuge we helped with English teaching, taught crafts, played lots of games and generally tried to put a smile on the children’s faces.

In addition, we spent three days each week helping at a local soup kitchen in an local shanty town area called Las Laderas (which many of the ­children in the refuge originally come from). The soup kitchen feeds up to 300 people daily, for less than 20p per person. With my medical background I was also able to go into local Health Clinics to observe and assist where possible. Project is currently raising funds to build another soup kitchen much higher up in the community where there is currently no facility. Most of the houses in Las Laderas consist of just one or two rooms for up to 8 family members and so inevitably there is little space for cooking facilities. Therefore, when completed the new soup kitchen will provide food for another 100 members of the community, and will be run by local women whose work there is rewarded by the provision of free meals for them and their children.

Project is embarking on the construction of another “Casa Hogar” high in the (above 3000m) within a village called Sayanca. Currently children walk for up to 3hours to attend the village school then sleep rough within the village during the week in freezing conditions to be able to attend school. The Casa Hogar will provide them with a place to sleep, eat and live during the school week. The foundations have been laid but there is still so much more work to do.

Project is funded entirely by fundraising efforts within the . Witnessing first hand just how far the money raised goes within the refuge, and the extent to which the community would benefit from the new soup kitchen was eye-opening. The facility will not only provide food for the community but it will be used in emergencies by children, families and older people. It will be a base in which refuge can be given to displaced and marginalised people and especially women, young children and the elderly, and in which facilities can be offered to improve education, health and nutrition.

My time volunteering at the refuge was incredible. At times it was particularly hard and humbling to see the extreme poverty which these people live in and the struggle they go through to provide food for their family every day. I made life-long friends out there and they welcomed me in as part of their community. The whole experience had such an impact on me that I have decided to do some fundraising for the charity since my return.

I aim to raise £1000 over the next few months and all the money raised will go directly towards Project providing shelter, schooling, food, healthcare, and clothing for the children of the refuge, and will also contribute to funding the construction in Sayanca and the new soup kitchen. I would also like to make it clear that when I was away I funded my own airfare and upkeep personally.

Please donate whatever you can, no matter how little as everything will help. And if you are a tax payer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to your gift at no cost to you!

To find out more about the Project Peru charity, visit their website at

http://www.projectperu.org.uk/

I really appreciate you taking the time to read this page. Thank you for your support.

John