Peru Calling

"Please do not forget us!"




Music For Mankind® joins Friends of the World Food Program in special fundraiser for Peru

I found these people, an ancient culture of well over 10,000 years old, to be very thoughtful of others. We attended many beautiful ceremonies, and many gracious, kind and welcoming speeches were made. The one that stays with me still is the last one. The gentleman who spoke begged us, "Please do not forget us. We will need your help in the dry seasons, and our neighbors need the help you have so kindly given us, too."

And it really doesn't take much. Just give $5 or $10, if we all help together, we can make a big difference. If everyone in the village brings one brick, we can build a foundation. Here, the foundation is food. Without that, there is nothing else. With that, school becomes a real possibility, with the ability and interest to learn and grow. From that, all things are possible.

Following our successful trip to Peru, Music For Mankind® and the Friends of the World Food Program have begun a fundraising program for the areas we visited. Each of us on the team are reaching out to do all we can to help those who were so kind and gracious to us during our visit there. Please help us help them by going to www.mycampaign.kintera.org/mfm. Make sure to select "The area I'm most interested in" drop-down window and scroll down to select Peru. Friends of WFP staff are alerted to watching for your tax deductible contributions to go directly to helping these incredible people.

Thank you so much for your support!

Kelly

WFP Success in Peru

I just got back from Peru on early Wednesday morning. It was truly a life-changing experience. Before this trip, I would always say, “I can talk about global hunger and the work of WFP until I’m red in the face, but I won’t truly understand it until I see it firsthand.” Well, this turned out to be true. As we were visiting the operations in Peru, I just couldn’t get over how impressive and efficient WFP was in implementing its programs. I saw how WFP does more than just feed people; it helps people feed themselves.

I was fortunate enough to visit a tile-making factory while I was in Peru. The factory was in the village of En Puruchcku. The factory looked very different than the ones we have in the United States. It was an open area, with a couple of huts and a big oven like building. Most of the work was done outside. The factory opened in 2007 and started out as a food for work project. WFP and ABA (WFP’s non-governmental partner in Peru) taught the factory workers different methods of tile production. In 2007 and 2008, the project was able to provide roof tiles for 180 homes (with 400,000 tiles), 9,000 block tiles used for the flooring of homes and 1,000 tubes needed for a sprinkler and irrigation system used throughout the community.

The factory has had so much success that they are now receiving money, instead of food, for their work and are selling these tiles to other communities in the area, as well as several companies in the nearby city of Ayacucho. Prior to purchasing tiles from En Puruchcku, factories in Ayacucho were buying tiles from the capital city of Lima, several hundred miles away.

I found the people who worked in this factory to be truly inspirational. They were extremely hard workers and had a passion for their craft. It really shows you what someone can do with a little bit of help.

Listen to our Behind the Scenes Conference Call from Lima.


Brian J. Ward
Outreach Associate
Friends of WFP