Social Worker visit to a Lima Slum

Today our program director Edith took us with the social worker and a child from PPA (Juan) to look for his home for a surprise visit it was an unbelievable day. To get there we took a taxi from the children’s home. The air quality in Lima is very bad. They do not have emissions control. They dump there trash all over the place in the shanty towns that surround the city. We drove around for about an hour or longer. On the way to Juan’s house we saw a dead dog in heap of trash on the side of the road. Then as we walked over the hill we saw a woman dragging a dying dog to the middle of median – there really isn’t a road, it is all dirt. We drove all over the place in Villa El Salvador – the shanty town – trying to find this place. Juan, who is six was trying to guide us through the maze of shanty houses to find his. We stopped for directions many times. When we finally go to this spot we found that we had to walk over the back of this huge sand dune and down the back side which is pretty much like a cliff. His house is basically hanging on the edge of a cliff. Very dangerous for a small child. His father abandoned his mother. There are 3 children. 2 at PPA and a 15 year old who lives at home with the mother. He had some sort of accident and can’t walk so he sits in bed all day. I am not sure how he gets to the bathroom. It not really a bathroom per se. The dig a hole in the sand and bury their waste inside the home. There is a lot of cholera, dissentary and tuberculosis in the shantytowns. They have power which they have spliced from someone else. It is strung to the house with multiple extension cords. The shack does look out at the ocean so the air quality is better there than most of the rest of the ride. Peru is in the earthquake zone. If there is another bad earthquake many of the people in Villa El Salvador will be buried in the rubble of their homes. There is no building code enforcement. There is so much exhaust in the air everywhere it is just nasty. I have a hard time imagining that they live with this terrible air quality every day. It is so dangerous. But the environment is not something they think about when they have so many more pressing priorities with so many people living in abject poverty.After we made our way back up the sand dune we drove around the area looking around. There are make shift houses and markets all over the place and stray dogs that look like they are staving wandering around or languishing on the side of the road. We went to an area where they sell furniture that is made in the area. They are famous for furniture in Villa El Salvador.Then we made our way back to PPA and had lunch.