Goodbye London, Hello Peru Party

On 25th November, I held a party for all my London friends to come and say goodbye to me as well as learn more about what I am going to do in Peru. It was a lovely night, lots of people and lovely food.

During the evening, I did a presentation, and I thought I would make it available for those unable to make the party to see.

Peru presentation

View more presentations from Jo Kennedy

Arequipa is known for its architecture and mountains, so I included pictures of these in the presentation for people to see.

And when the slides for Nuevas Fuerzas, the Children's Home and the Local Church came up - I spoke a little bit about each of these places and what I will be doing in them.

Nuevas Fuerzas

Nuevas Fuerzas was set up in March 2011 to work with disabled young people (aged 16-30). These young adults had previously been at Shalom, a school set up for disabled children, but age 16 is the school leaver age

This project was set up to help these young adults gain new skills to help them in their lives. The skills they are currently learning are computing, craft and cooking. It is still in development, so more skills will be added.

They currently meets two days a week for four hours each day (Tues and Thurs) but hopefully this will be extended.

As well as teaching new skills, another aim is to provide encouragement and care for the young adults and help them feel included as in Peru disabled people are excluded and do not get the same opportunities as able bodied people.

They also provide discipleship for the attendees, with one to ones etc. And when my Spanish gets up to scratch I will be involved with this as well with the girls.

As well as getting to know the young people, I will also be involved in the planning and leading of the activities working alongside Paul Turner, a long term Latin Link missionary in Peru and other volunteers as well.

Children's Home

I will be working two days a week in a local Children's home. The home currently has 27 children and is called 'Casa de Amor' meaning 'House of Love'. The couple who started the home, and who run the home are José and Gloria Ingalls who are both Christians. They have one worker in the home, Bertha.

There are only three people working in the home as they want to keep it as homely as possible and not turn it into an institution. As a result of this, the children all have their duties, and have to do cleaning, washing their own clothes etc.

I will be working with the children on Saturdays from 8am to 2pm when Bertha has her day off, helping them do their washing and their homework. I will also work another day a week to help with cleaning, cooking, seeing the children home from school, and having lunch with them before going home.

Local Church

The plan is for me to be involved in the children’s work of the local church which is a Baptist church. It is a lively and friendly church with a Brazilian pastor and set up by a Brazilian missionary.

I will be helping in the Sunday School and roganising other activities and events for children. And in July, they are planning a holiday Bible club in July, so I will be involved with that as well.

I will also go to the youth group. In Peru, the youth are from 16 to 30 year olds, so I will still be considered a young person!

The church has five cell groups so I will also be going to one of them