My daughter lives in a small town in the
sierra of Perú where most only know poverty and extreme poverty. Some of the most marginalized and
unforgivingly forgotten are the older members of the community. The Peruvian Family can be a stronghold of
shelter, food, and support as all members of one family can share a roof,
meals, and lives until one leaves only to start his or her own family. The structure is beautiful and the culture of
giving and helping is strong, however, when one does not have a family of which
to speak they can suffer a lonesome, harsh reality.
One woman, who must be in her later 80s, lives
alone in a dark adobe house. She sleeps
on an old, soiled mattress, seasoned with filth, in a room where garbage, old
and tattered clothes, empty bottles, dried plants, and once used buckets for
baths and laundry hang from the ceiling in bags to avoid the inevitable wetness
that will soak her home as rainy season pounds down on her tin roof. She can barley walk between the only two
places where she has spent countless, isolated years. She lives off of and relies on the prepared
lunches that some of the Sisters bring her daily. This is the only meal that she eats a day,
and has no means of buying or obtaining food in any other way. She is a frail woman, mostly confused,
incredibly thankful, and increasingly jolly.
However, she tears up as she wonders why she is alone and where has her
family gone. She wears only a worn
knitted hat and an old sweater tied around her shoulders to keep warm while she
spends the day sitting in her kitchen outside waiting for the time to pass. Because she never received a DNI (National
Identity Document) she cannot receive aid from the government, instead the
institutionalized social program, Pensión 65, goes to others, while she and
many desperate elderly, who have lived in poverty for their whole lives, stand
no chance in receiving this needed assistance.
She has neither blame nor anger; she lives as she lives, and has
unfortunately accustomed to a sub-standard way of living; she relies only on
the kindness of others to make it through each day.
Isabel, is a
primary school teacher who began the Asociación
Liga de La Juventud Por una Verdadera Democracia y Desarrollo Bolognesino (Association of Youths for True Democracy and
Development). This is an Association that organizes youths to take action, as
volunteers, to address certain issues in the community, and in this sense they
began a program to support the elderly people in the community that have little
to no resources and few people in their lives to support them. In the past, Isabel and the other volunteers
have raised money to fix roofs, provided food, organized home-visits by
doctors, and helped to clean and maintain the elderlies’ homes. Isabel is an incredible teacher, mother, and
community member; she created this group to help those in need, simply because
she has seen them suffer and knows that something should be done. It has been hard to get help from the state
in order to provide these men and women with the services and necessities that
they need in order to live. Due to the
scarcity of funds Isabel has come to my daughter in the hope that others like
her will join together to help the many men and women who live much like the aforementioned. Together they hope to buy jackets, blankets,
hats, and gloves for the 35 men and women that the Association helps annually
as winter is coming.
We
have a goal to raise $700 dollars in donations, all of which will go to the
elderly in this small community in the form of clothing and blankets. With any extra funds after each of the 34 people involved with the Association are fully clothed and equipped for winter, the
volunteer members of group will buy Work Vest for the Association. Vests are formality in Perú. When one has a
vest with their organization’s name on it, they seemingly win the respect and
allegiance of others. A formal uniform
would bring the Association more support and recognition in the community, and
consequently, more could be achieved and earned in the quest to aid the
marginalized elderly.