Serving and learning from Lima’s poorest residents
March 22, 2014
Goshen College students recently visited Villa María del Triunfo, a southern district of Lima founded 52 years ago by migrants who “invaded” the area and built homes on the coastal sands. Villa María is home to more than 360,000 people, many of whom struggle with underemployment, poverty and malnutrition. It has been estimated that one-third of the residents lack electrical service and more than one-fifth lack running water.
The “Machu Picchu” community garden in Villa María del Triunfo.
To help relieve hunger, improve diets and provide additional income, the municipality, aided by an international non-governmental organization, has started biohuertos, or urban community gardens, for residents. We visited “Machu Picchu”, a garden maintained by a dozen families. The gardening program uses vacant land underneath power lines, donated by the electric company. Before the gardeners cleared the land, local residents used it as a garbage dump.
Señora Gregoria Flores explains how the community garden operates.
Señora Gregoria Flores, who helps coordinate the program, said families have learned how to cultivate gardens despite poor sandy soil and limited rainfall. Using compost, a drip irrigation system and many hours of patient work, residents have learned how to grow abundant vegetables and fruit without using any insecticides or herbicides. Besides improving their diets, the surplus organic produce is sold at local farmer’s markets, thus supplementing meager family incomes.
Malaina turns over the soil.
Students spent a morning preparing three plots for replanting by turning over the earth with pick axes and shovels, adding compost, and blending it into the sandy soil. They also pulled weeds and covered portions of a garden with plastic sheets to kill weeds and sterilize the soil. Assisting in the work was Maria Sanchez Schirch, assistant Spanish professor at Goshen College, who was in Lima for a research project.
Thomas works up a sweat.
The work was hot and difficult because the soil was compacted and very dry, but it was a labor of love because students were preparing gardens for three women who were either too disabled or too busy to do the work themselves.
Gretchen prepares to dig into lunch.
After washing up, students went to the nearby home of Alicia Taipe Tello, who prepares meals twice per week for students. They enjoyed a delicious meal of barbecued anticuchos (skewers of beef heart and chicken), potatoes, corn on the cob and chica morada, a delicious traditional juice made of boiled purple corn, pineapple juice and spices. They also engaged in some pre-Lenten carnival frivolity – tossing water and talcum powder on one another.
Students stroll through the community of Chavín de Huántar in Villa El Salvador.
Later in the day, students traveled to the adjoining district of Villa El Salvador to visit the community of Chavín de Huántar. While residents have obtained electrical service, and some have concrete floors and wood or brick homes with roofs, they still lack paved roads, and are just getting sewer and water service. Most residents have paid inflated prices for water – and sometimes wait days for a delivery.
Corpusa Villavicencio Zela tells her story to students.
Students crowded into the tiny home of Corpusa Villavicencio Zela, a 37-year-old mother of four who was part of a group of 2,000 homeless people who squatted on the privately-owned land that has become Chavín de Huántar. She recounted the economic pressure that forced her to leave her highlands community at age 13 and to seek a better life and secondary school education in Lima.
Corpusa Villavicencio Zela tells her story of “invading” a neighborhood in Villa El Salvador.
In 1999, Corpusa and her husband joined others who “invaded” a vacant piece of land in hopes they might someday win the right to stay permanently. They divided the land into lots, each about 20 feet wide and 33 feet long, and laid reed mats on the sand and stayed. They endured extreme temperatures and insect bites and held the ground, even when repeatedly evicted by police. Eventually, residents replaced plywood shacks with more permanent structures, added metal roofs and concrete floors and obtained electrical service.
Goshen College students pause for a group photo with Corpusa Villavicencio Zela and her children in the Chavín de Huántar neighborhood of Villa El Salvador.
Although 600 residents finally won the titles to the land in Chavín de Huántar two years ago, life is a continual struggle, Corpusa said. Her husband works from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., six days a week, and the family cannot afford to hook up to the new sewer system or any future water service. Still, she has hopes her children will graduate from high school and get good jobs.
Jackson signs the water pipe purchased for the Chavín de Huántar community by Goshen College students and administrators.
While visiting Corpusa, a community leader dropped by and explained efforts to install water and sewer systems. After hearing from the leader, Raul Paredes Flores, students and Peru SST Co-Directors Judy Weaver and Richard R. Aguirre decided to contribute funds to pay for one plastic water pipe for the residents. Paredes showed students a storage shed with the pipe and other construction material. The directors and students selected a pipe to donate and each used a pen to write message – a way to leave behind a small part of ourselves to people who need the encouragement and support.
Villa María del Triunfo is a southern district of Lima with about 360,000 residents and widespread underemployment and poverty.Jake and other students walk toward the biohuerto, or urban community garden, in Villa María del Triunfo.Señora Gregoria Flores welcomes students to the biohuerto.Señora Gregoria Flores explains how the community garden operates.Gina turns over bone-dry sandy soil in the garden.Thomas turns over soil in the garden.Neal carries a bag of compost in the garden.Derek carries a bag of compost.Aimee, Jake, Maria, Caleb and other students prepare to work in the community garden.Maria and other students begin pulling weeds in the garden.Jake carries a bag of compost.Jackson carries compost.Dean carries a bag of compost.Maria and Caleb work in the garden.Derek, Neal and Thomas intensify their efforts on the hot morning.Derek tries to make a dent in the hard-packed soil.Neal mixes compost into the soil.Thomas works up a sweat.The “Machu Picchu” community garden in Villa María del Triunfo.Hard work and patience have created this lush spot in the community garden.Plants in the garden.Maracuya or passion fruit.A spot of beauty in the garden.Malaina, Gina and Jonathan enjoy their work.Malaina turns over the soil.Gretchen digs in.April, Maria, Jackson, SST Co-Director Judy Weaver, Caleb, Natalie and Dean take a beather.Aimee waters the garden.Dean and Caleb work in the garden.Maria, Caleb and April.Natalie pauses to acknowledge the photographer.Maria, Natalie and April.Time for a break.Jonathan catches his breath.Gretchen waters the garden.In a few weeks, these vegetable beds will be ready for planting.Señora Gregoria Flores in the garden.Goshen College students in the garden.One of the community gardeners smiles in appreciation for the work of the Goshen College students.Alicia Taipe Tello, who prepares meals twice per week for Goshen students, cooks barbecued anticuchos – skewers of beef heart and chicken.Alica Taipe Tello prepares anticuchos – skewers of beef heart and chicken.Lunch for the students at the home of Alicia Taipe Tello.Maria, Caleb, Dean, Jackson, Derek, Malaina and Neal enjoy their lunch.Gretchen prepares to dig into lunch.Thomas smiles in anticipation of a meal he later called one of the best he has had in Peru.Derek, Jackson and Gretchen celebrate carnival with colorful streamers and talcum powder on their faces.Alicia Taipe Tello puts talcum powder – a Peruvian lenten tradition – on Jake’s face.Students pause for a photo with Alicia Tapie Tello, Peru SST Co-Directors Judy Weaver and Richard Aguirre and (on the extreme left) Maria Sanchez Schirch, assistant professor of Spanish at Goshen College.Caleb, assisted by Alicia Taipe Tello, dumps water on Gretchen. Dousing people with water is a pre-lenten tradition in Peru.A photo taken seconds after Gretchen got her revenge by dumping water on Caleb.Natalie makes some young friends.The community of Chavín de Huántar in Villa El Salvador.Students stroll through the community of Chavín de Huántar in Villa El Salvador.Corpusa Villavicencio Zela tells her story of “invading” a neighborhood in Villa El Salvador.Corpusa Villavicencio Zela tells her story to students.Students in the home of Corpusa Villavicencio Zela.Gina and a daughter of Corpusa Villavicencio Zela. Gina later said, “She was very cute, but I didn’t understand a word she said.”Corpusa Villavicencio Zela.Raul Paredes Flores, a community leader of Chavín de Huántar, shows students water pipes. Students later decided to pay for one of the pipes for the community.Jackson signs the water pipe purchased for the Chavín de Huántar community by Goshen College students and administrators.April signs the water pipe purchased for the Chavín de Huántar community by Goshen College students and administrators. Gretchen awaits her turn to sign.Peru SST Co-Director Richard R. Aguirre put this message on the plastic water pipe purchased for the Chavín de Huántar community: “Pipe by Pipe. Peace by Peace.”In a pre-lenten carnival tradition, neighborhood children squirt water at Goshen College students.And the water fight is on: Aimee responds to the squirt gun spraying by the children.The battle intensifies: neighborhood children step up the water skirmish.Neal is an easy target for the children’s squirt guns. Maria enjoys the turn of events.In a peaceful response, Goshen College students leave the field of battle to the children.Goshen College students pause for a group photo with Corpusa Villavicencio Zela and her children in the Chavín de Huántar neighborhood of Villa El Salvador.Jonathan, Jackson, Aimee, Caleb and other students leave Chavín de Huántar.Gina signals “thumbs up” for another rewarding day in Peru.