Our organization has been several years in the making. The center is located in the community of 30 de Mayo, Horacio Zevallos, which is located 35-40 minutes north of Lima. The center started by offering after-school classes for the children of the community of 30 de Mayo, as well as receiving donations to be redistributed among the people in the community. This center was formed with the dream of one day becoming a cultural center and a private and free school for children with few resources that will focus on improving its cultural, academic education and emotional growth. With the help of many individual donors, university students and other volunteers that little by little have integrated into our center the first step to become an education center took place on February, 2008, when we were finally legalized as a non-governmental organization.
In January of 2006, and then again in January of 2007 we received the help of 7 international student volunteers from Hanover College (Indiana), who developed a service trip and organized fund-raisers to raise funds and supplies for the construction of classrooms and clothing for children and adults of the community. This service trip was led by Melissa Del Castillo, Peruvian citizen, and former student of Hanover College (graduated in May of 2007), which also included 6 other students: Rachel Myhre (Education and Spanish majors), Lindsey Hummel (Psychology major), David Phelps (Psychology and Theology majors), Angel Handlon (English major), Laura Allspaw (Education major), and Margaret Mary Aiken (International Studies major).
In the same way, another Peruvian citizen, Hector Gonzalez (Computer Science Engeneering), citizen of the United States (Los Angeles, CA) joined the group’s effort and raised funds with the same purpose.
With this project we initiated our goal of contributing to intercultural exchange, by exposing different cultures and nationalities to social and economic inequality issues that exists in developing countries such as Peru. In this way, this group brought hope back and began the realization of a dream come true for the community: the school. A school that would not only improve the academic level of the children of this community, but also serve to promote respect to all human beings of all races, cultures, religions and social classes, and that would help to join together and promote solidarity among people from different social classes and cultures. As well as becoming a self-sustainable center that provides low-income people, with the necessary tools and resources to improve their quaility of life.
