Peru Today

Peru is hailed as one of Latin America’s economic success stories. Its economy’s rapid growth (the fastest in the region in 2002) reflects the profits of a small elite, but eclipses the misery of the majority. More than half of all Peruvians subsist on less than $1.25 a day.

Lima is Peru’s capital city and is home to at least 8 million people. Most of these 8 million have migrated to Lima in the last 30 years to escape the severe poverty of Peru’s highland regions. Yet in Lima’s poorer areas a stunning 90% do not have access to health services, 59% are not connected to the piped water and sewerage system and 23% do not have electric power. As many as 25% of the children are malnourished.

The Rurapuk Project

In Quechua, the language of the ancient Incas, Rurapuk means “people who help each other”. The Rurapuk project is run by the Ananda Marga Universal Relief Team (AMURT – a not for profit organization) and has three programs - The Rurapuk Hot Lunch Program, Rurapuk Mothers and the Machu Picchu Stars. The Rurapuk Hot Lunch Program (known as the Comedor) provides hot meals to nutritionally at risk children in a very poor area of Lima called Paraiso Alto; Rurapuk Mothers is a sewing collective which provides employment and helps to empower poor women; and Machu Picchu Stars is a group of hearing disabled persons who make hand made dolls and children’s clothes. The members of Rurapuk Mothers and the Machu Picchu Stars receive a fare wage and profits are reinvested back into the projects.

Lima and suburbs	Street vendor in Lima