I was sitting in a small two-room house in Lima as this insight was revealed to me.

“The government, they just provided me with milk. But the church staff, they teach me how to raise my child.”

The speaker was a caregiver in our Child Survival Program (CSP) in Peru back in 2004. I never forgot that quote. It left a lasting impression.

Sometimes, the measure of success by large financial contributors to interventions for the poor is “the medicine is available at the clinic” or “the well has been dug.” These are all good things and the poor can take advantage of them. However, in essence, they are simply services that have been made available to the poor. They do not factor in the learning aspect. There is no guarantee that just because a service is available, the poor will take advantage of it on their own.

This is where the local church partners that implement our Child Survival Program come in. We partner with local churches in the developing world so that church staff may develop relationships with caregivers in their communities. We call these people “CSP implementers.”

Implementers register pregnant women and caregivers with young children into the Child Survival Program. They visit them at home one to two times a month. During this time, implementers and caregivers develop trust between each other.

The implementer provides the caregiver with child survival knowledge, such as coaching the mother of a newborn as she learns to breast-feed or teaching the mother of an older infant to recognize the symptoms of life-threatening diseases so that the mother can take her child to the local clinic for proper intervention. However, all of this happens as the implementer and the caregiver develop trust in each other. The key word here is trust.

Imagine that one day, you are sitting in your living room reading a book and, suddenly, you get a knock at the door. You go to the door and you are greeted by a group of foreign people. They speak your language, but not that well. You decipher from their conversation that you should eat a certain diet that you can’t afford and that you should practice an exercise regime that you have no interest in or time for.

They invite you to their gathering for next Saturday and they tell you that they have some of this food for this new diet available there. They shake your hand and then they leave.

After reflecting on your conversation for three minutes, you determine it is not worth your time. You decide not go. You return to your couch to read your book.

This same scenario can very easily occur in the developing world except that the caregiver might be milking her goat or cooking a pot of soup over firewood instead of reading a book at the time of the visit.

The suggestions that the visitors make seem foreign to her. She has never heard of this new diet and it doesn’t appeal to her. Since there is no ultimate incentive to participate, she easily ignores the suggestion.

Therefore, trust is the key component to truly making child survival interventions or, for that matter, any interventions for the poor likely to occur.

The desire to practice a new behavior or try out a new way of doing something has to be relational in nature. The fact that we partner with local churches makes this possible. These relationships that implementers develop with the caregivers in their communities are exceptional.

I have heard of implementers who accompany pregnant women during labor. They are present the entire time.

I have heard of caregivers who want to repay the church for the services they have received, but cannot do so monetarily so they come to the church on Saturday mornings to clean the classrooms and help with overall housecleaning.

There is no other motivator like trust. Where there is trust, there is also commitment.

Peer support is also an added advantage to our program. It is typical for CSP caregivers to develop relationships with each other at group trainings to the extent that they encourage each other to participate.

I read of a situation in the Philippines where caregivers visit the home of a caregiver who missed a group activity to make sure she is okay. This peer support alone causes the caregivers to own the program for themselves. They keep each other accountable to participating in the program. Neighbors’ relationships strengthen.

Behavior change is the single most difficult barrier to overcoming poverty. If someone has been doing something a certain way because she learned it that way from her mother and her grandmother and so forth, why should she have any incentive to try something different?

Why should a mother stop feeding her newborn animal milk or tea or plain water and make sure she is properly and exclusively breast-feeding instead?

Why should a caregiver trust a doctor with a needle if she has no relationship with that doctor? She could think it were poison instead of an immunization. It is the trust component.

If the caregiver hears that she should breast-feed from someone she trusts, someone who speaks her language, and someone who has had similar experiences, and if she has seen results from her peers and if she has the knowledge come to her rather than having to go search it out, then yes, she is very likely to change her behavior and practice proper child survival techniques. The commitment from and relationships with the church CSP implementers make all the difference.

In the end, I would say that the question to measure the success of interventions to the poor is:

“Did the person delivering the service and the person receiving the service build trust in each other?”

If yes, then the rest will take care of itself. The child will survive, the child and the caregiver will be healthy, the caregiver will be empowered and confident about her abilities, and the church staff will have truly been “the hands and feet of Jesus” in their communities. They will have brought new life and new hope to their neighbors.

These scenarios repeat themselves thousands of times each month in over 15 countries worldwide in our Child Survival Program. What a privilege and an honor to be part of these amazing lifesaving and life-changing experiences! To God be the glory!

Please visit RescueBabiesNow.org for more information about our Child Survival Program and how you can become involved.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Our positions are thought to be some of the most exciting in Compassion. We get to go out a lot, travel on a regular basis, go to nice dinners and get to know many interesting people. It is true, my position involves these things, but it is actually much more.

With the purpose of giving a better understanding, I will describe one day in my life, but I would like to give some more information about me first.

I am single and still live with my parents and my brother. I have been working with Compassion for 12 years now.

Because I worked as a translator for children and sponsor letters before becoming an employee, when I became an employee, I started working with correspondence. However, my previous manager, who is now the country director, encouraged me to focus on sponsor visits as I had the skills of fluent English, intercultural experience and getting along well with people.

So I have been in sponsor visits since the very first year I joined Compassion. Besides the fact that I really like children and enjoy being with them, one reason I decided to work here is because I felt at home with Compassion.

As a result of my work, I have learned that I can do more things than I ever expected.

At first I did not know I could become a Tours and Visits Team Leader. In fact, the position did not even exist at that time. But as I worked through the years, I overcame some of my limitations (like not knowing Lima well; now I have a map in my head) and built my strengths (like my love for reading and history, a great help to answer questions and provide information).

Also, I have seen the faithfulness of God in the ministry and in my life and how He has taken Compassion and me beyond what we expected.

I believe we really have the opportunity to deliver children from poverty. And I still remember many years ago, while I was translating for a video, I asked the final question to the young mother we were interviewing: “What do you want for the future of your child?”

She held the 4-year-old girl, looked around the one poor room she called home, and seemed to think how trapped she was there, with a husband without a steady job, no education and the first of many children to come already in her lap.

Then she stared at me while she answered: “I want her to have a life different than mine, that she can study and progress … I do not want her to have my same life.”

So that is why we work. That is why I am here.

If I could tell you one thing it is that you should know how important you are for the children and how sad they feel when they do not get any correspondence.

Money means a lot, but emotional support and care is even more important for reaching our goal, which is what this mother mentioned: to give our children the chance for a different life.

Now let’s see what a day can be like for me.

There is one thing I can tell about this work: You will never get bored.

6:30 a.m. Time to wake up. The sky of Lima is usually gray and tricky. It looks like dawn, but it is not true. Time to pray and talk to God.

I usually do my devotion right before I go to bed so I have a quiet spot, but I still always pray before I jump off the bed. Today I added a special prayer for a tour arriving this evening.

7 a.m. A shower and time to ready my clothes for later in the night. I look for my fleece jacket, but I cannot find it. I ask my mom to look for it.

I have a light breakfast, something I am trying to improve. I take my vitamins and get off to the office. I am the lucky one who lives closest; most of my co-workers do not.

Lima is a huge city of 8 million people, and you can travel three hours from end to end, depending on the traffic. This is a something to have in mind to tell the sponsors when they arrive tonight.

Elia, who lives close to the airport, needs at least 45 minutes to get to the office by taxi. And she has to get her two children ready for school before she leaves.

8 a.m. Arrival at the office. Even for the small distance I have to make, the traffic was heavy.

I leave my stuff in my desk and run to office devotions. Besides our time with God together, this is a great opportunity to make announcements as most of the staff is there. We remind them that the tour will come to the office the next day and that they are invited to participate in a special devotion time with the sponsors.

We already know that many of the partnership facilitators will be out visiting development centers, but we encourage the ones available to be there.

8:30 a.m. After devotions and an e-mail check, Elia and I talk and see some urgent things.

We find more sponsor visit requests. One sponsor is passing by Piura in the north of Peru and is asking if we can bring her child from Chota to see her in Piura.

I will have to explain that the center is located three hours from Chota town, and then they will have to travel by bus to Chiclayo for another eight hours. Then four more hours to Piura.

Since the child is little and the mother has never traveled before, I need to evaluate the wisdom of making her travel so long, with three stops and transfers to see the sponsor.

This time I say no. Of course, I am sorry, but it is not fair for the child, especially since she is too little to remember much of the visit.

I recommend gift delivery instead. This is a difficult part of my work, to help sponsors understand why we have certain recommendations for certain situations.

We need to educate and be patient if the sponsor does not understand right away. Sometimes it is difficult to let go of an idea. Some sponsors are very nice and really listen; others find it hard.

9 a.m. I receive a phone call from a child development center to let me know that another child I requested for a visit has suddenly traveled with his father to the jungle.

The center was unaware of this as the father did not tell them. I ask them to try to contact the child through an aunt who lives in the area and might have some info.

If the visit does not work out, it would be difficult to tell it to the sponsor as it is the first time he has come to visit.

Last year the sponsor’s oldest daughter came and met the child, but the sponsor did not. So I ask the center director to contact me with any news.

I tell Elia about this and she tells me about some other difficulties in her visits.

9:30 a.m. Time to send some visit reports. One involves a reimbursement, since the child traveled from another province to Lima.

The sponsor, who is a Peruvian living abroad, has been especially suspicious about the costs. She was wondering why we did not have the child come in the cheapest bus available.

The translator’s report states that the sponsor was very nice with the child, but still had a lot of questions about how the family traveled.

The mother and child were thankful as the bus was nice and comfortable and the hostess helped them when the boy felt sick from the altitude. I think it was good for the sponsor to know that since the child was coming from the mountains, he and his mother needed comfort because it was their first trip and they are not used to so many hours in a bus.

9:45 a.m. I get an e-mail from one of our global partner countries about my report of an unexpected visit.

In spite of all procedures and information to the centers, we still have some unexpected visits.

Sometimes, a sponsor decides to jump over the established processes and call us directly, saying: “Hi, I am in Peru on a mission trip and since this was decided last minute, I could not contact Compassion office in my country, but since I am here, I would like to see my child”.”

We always do our best effort to make a visit happen and we are often successful, to the point that one co-worker in Colorado Springs said that we have a “magic wand”.

Sometimes I wish we really had one. Like the day on which I received a call from a center in a rural area, and a scared secretary told me that a foreign man had appeared at the center saying that he was the sponsor of one child and he wanted to see him; in fact, he said that he would not leave until he saw the child.

The secretary had been in our training and knew that all visits are arranged through our office; that is why she immediately called.

Well, after many phone calls, lots of talk with the sponsor, who did not want to listen much at the beginning, the support of the pastor and the center director, who left a meeting in another town and returned to the church immediately, and the help of the translator the sponsor brought, who was not a Christian but happened to know the pastor and was willing to cooperate, we made this work.

I could have used that magic wand to get to the center right away to talk to the sponsor directly – usually it takes six hours by bus.

9:50 a.m. I look for one photo I want to add to the presentation I will make for the centers. Then I get to see some children at previous visits and smile. They are the reason I am here and why I work so hard to have great tours.

Watching the photos helps me to keep focused on why I do what I do. And somehow it makes the days easier.

I remember that my favorite part is when the child and the sponsor finally meet. So let’s make it possible, let’s make it happen.

One picture reminds me of the time in which one child did not show up on the fun day and I had to make all sort of things happen to have him and his father come in on an afternoon flight.

God has always been faithful to us and I know He will continue to be. And He loves the children in a special way so He is on our side.

10 a.m. Training with church partners that will get a visit from another tour arriving in a few weeks. We asked six directors to come, but most of them are late.

When I start 30 minutes later, I can’t go fast due to the fact that this will be a visit to their centers and they have a lot of questions.

I give them examples of what to do and what not to do and encourage them to ask questions.

They are very excited for the visit and have a lot of enthusiasm and suggestions. Great!

But still we have to provide several guidelines. For example about the food … which I will have to tell you about tomorrow; this blog post has become too long for one day.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

The center is in a quiet place far from the noisy avenues, although the homes of squatters surround the church mission. The houses are built with precarious materials that show the poverty this community has to face. The mission is on a large property with buildings built long ago.

As I walk through the church’s wide, dusty dirt-floor patio, the center director greets me. With a wide smile and wearing blue jeans and a black hat, she looks ready to film the perfect Western TV series. Her name is Miss Pino and she is a graduate psychologist who has also studied at a Bible institute and has specialized in child advocacy and child evangelism. She has been appointed by her mission authorities as center director for Semillero de Campeones Student Center, which started in June 2008.

In this position, Miss Pino has to deal with many things she never thought she would, such as trying to keep the center open. The rising costs of household items – cooking oil, chicken, milk, etc. – has led to a 20 percent increase in food costs for all student centers in Peru.

For Semillero de Campeones, this has made it difficult to manage a program with 166 young children to feed, from which 40 percent do not have a sponsor yet.

Because of the rise in prices, many student centers have had to stop some activities such as camps, retreats and extracurricular activities. The budgets for each center are simply not enough.

Development centers with less than 160 registered children, such as Semillero de Campeones, have been more affected as they have fewer resources to face the crisis. Therefore, in order to continue serving the vital meals to the children, Semillero de Campeones received a special assistance through our Complementary Interventions Program (CIV).

According to statistics, nearly 750,000 children in Peru have chronic malnutrition, a serious problem that is hidden from the eyes of society which links the short size and the glum temper of the poor indigenous and Creole people to their idiosyncrasies and not to malnutrition.

One out of four children younger than 5 years old is malnourished and does not reach the minimum required size and weight. This causes irreversible damage to their physical, intellectual and emotional development, and this situation continues because of the poverty and illiteracy of mothers in Peru, who don’t know how to combat malnutrition.

Investigations show that the lower the educational level of a woman, the earlier she becomes pregnant, and the more likely she is to raise larger families, heightening the probability of chronic malnutrition of her children.

Miss Pino tells me,

“A good number of families prepare their meals using only chicken innards to add some flavor to their meals. Even the fruit has increased its price, and now some very poor families prepare as a supper for their children a cornstarch pudding and a cup of tea, either yams and tea, or simple bread with tea to have something in their stomach to be able to sleep at night.

“Therefore, if not for Compassion, many of the registered children would not have a chance to eat any decent meal at all.”

Because of this serious situation, Compassion is responding in two ways:

1. Educating the mothers who are registered in our Child Survival Program (CSP) to reach the children when they are most vulnerable, as infants.
2. Covering the immediate nutritional needs of the children with CIV funds.

Many of the CSP mothers are illiterate and have only basic education. Education will teach them a trade to help them improve their income, teach them about proper child care, and also how to prepare nutritious meals, with help from a nutritionist. This response began in February 2009 and will last one year.

The dining room at Semillero de Campeones bursts with children at lunchtime eager to receive what they would not receive at home. These meals will ensure the children can receive the nutrition so important to their growth, including proteins (chicken and beans), carbs (rice), vitamins (vegetables and fruits).

Miss Pino and I visit the family of a sponsored child for whom child sponsorship has made a difference. A young man who also works at the center comes with us, as the place is not safe at all.

Although there are no gangs in this community, there are many thieves who commit robbery inside the many poor homes. There is also a problem of alcoholism and many broken homes and single mothers.

It is also quite common for men to abandon their family, and so there are many young mothers who have to work to support their home, and many children who have to stay at home all day alone, a danger for their well-being.

As we enter a small squatter house located on a hill, I see a middle-aged woman in bed. She is Nydia, 42, the mother of Sayuri.

I notice that they live in only one room with a roof of matting and plastic. The house walls are bare bricks, and the only furniture is two beds, a chest drawer with a TV set on it, and the TV cardboard box used as a night table by the mother’s bed.

There are many flies around Nydia and on her bed. She moves her head toward me, indicating to come, and at the same moment, she tries to kill a fly with a swatter.

As I enter the room, I sense immediately a strange odor that takes me back 18 months to the day when we, a group of Compassion workers, entered into one of the towns south of Lima City where a strong earthquake killed many people. Most of the bodies were still trapped in the debris and the strong odor of death made it difficult to breathe.

In fact, Nydia, a single mother of five, is dying day by day with uterine cancer. She was diagnosed in May 2008, and the doctors could do nothing but put her on radiotherapy. Now she is taking morphine to alleviate the pain in her swollen legs that have made it impossible to walk.

Nydia has five children: Jhon, 20, Martin, 17, Luis, 15, Rosa, 12, and Sayuri, 4. The two older ones live on their own and seldom see their mother. Luis works whenever he has a chance and brings home the money to cover the most urgent needs, and Rosa, although she is only 12, had to quit school because they couldn’t afford the school expenses. Instead, Rosa looks after her mother and younger sister.

We begin talking to Luis, and after some minutes Nydia tries to join our conversation. I look at the dirty mattress and blanket where a good number of flies keep landing, but choose to ignore it and sit down on the bed by Nydia’s side with a microphone in my hand and a camera in the other.

“My daughter Sayuri is very picky to eat so I am surprised she likes the meals that are served at the center. I thank Compassion for it because our budget at home is quite low to cope with our needs.”

Before she was ill, Nydia supported her family cooking at a restaurant in downtown Lima, and used to come home late completely exhausted. At the time she learned she had terminal cancer, she also learned about the Compassion program that was beginning at an evangelical mission located about 10 blocks from her home. So she registered her daughter, Sayuri.

Now Sayuri is attending the Compassion program and also attends school through a scholarship at the small grade school the mission runs to benefit the community children.

“If not for Compassion, Sayuri would have been at home just as her older sister. But now besides having a meal, she has a place to enjoy gathering with other children and learning many new things, instead of watching the TV all day as before.

“You see, I am dying with cancer and what worries me most is that I don’t know where my two daughters are going to end up. The boys are already grown up, and they can look after themselves.”

As our visit comes to an end, it is time for Nydia to take the prescribed morphine. After saying a prayer, we leave this home and walk toward the mission, having been a witness that without the loving care of Compassion that Sayuri is receiving now, this family would have no hope.

Nydia lost track of her relatives when she was quite young, and now her only family are the mission church members who volunteer at the center. Miss Pino, who is quite aware of the situation, tells me that the center helps this family by giving them spiritual counseling and some food supplies.

By giving them some food supplies, the family is able to eat at least something simple as a supper and to have a breakfast to help them get started for the day in better shape.

The center also pays for the medical fees and the prescribed medication sold at a special cheap price to Nydia at the hospital, after the hospital’s social workers declared her as a destitute person.

Nydia’s neighbors have also found a way to ensure the family receives a free lunch at a soup kitchen run by the government, where meals of rice and beans with tea are sold to the community for U.S.60 cents a dish.

Miss Pino has hope for this family, as she does for the center in general.

“Pastor Fonseca, who already has 15 years of experience working with Compassion at another center in the city, has been appointed to this church since January.

“He is quite acquainted with many foreign missions and foreign businessmen and professionals who are willing to help him in the development of the mission and will begin soon helping our mission work.

“In fact, in April we began a breakfast program on Sunday mornings for all the children who want to come to listen to the Bible stories after a good breakfast. And there is the possibility to extend this benefit for at least three more days during the week, so that all the community children may be able to attend school after having a nutritious breakfast.

“The beneficiaries will be the Compassion-sponsored children, the mission school children as well as all other children who live nearby.

“Besides, there are two foreign agronomy engineers who are Christian who teach at the Agronomy University in Lima City, they have the desire to help the mission install a small farm with a special method of watering. Since the mission has a big space of land, they want to use it to grow some vegetables to be used for preparing the program’s meals.”

Pastor Fonseca also has a long-term project in mind – to build an orphanage and day-care center to help many children that stay home alone all day and are in imminent risk, just like Sayuri and her sister Rosa.

Though this family still daily faces such serious burdens, the Compassion program has been able to help with their basic needs and provide vital emotional and spiritual support.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

He can talk now, too. Hat, book, what and it’s impossible to forget his absolute favorites, hi, dog and ruff-ruff (of course spoken with a slight growl). I wish you could hear his little kid voice yelling all these words with abandon to anyone who will listen.

He uses his favorite words at very specific times. Whenever out and about, most anyone anywhere will hear his request for attention from strangers because of his very loud and clear hi!

But his real favorite is dog. It’s usually the first thing he says when he wakes up in the morning, and just to make sure I understand what he said, he will add a ruff-ruff for good measure.

It’s amazing to think that just a few months ago he literally couldn’t do anything.

Over the last several months, since I entered back into life after Edison’s birth, I’ve been volunteering in my church’s nursery. I typically take care of the newest babies, which is a great reminder of how far Edison has come, but even more it’s a great reminder of just how vulnerable babies are – which brings me to Carmen.

I met Carmen after a hike up a steep hill on a dirt path in the outskirts of Lima, Peru. All the while I was going up I kept wondering how far I would have to traverse to actually make it down the hill without falling.

Carmen knows this path well. She climbs it often. She climbed it when she was pregnant and she climbs it now with a 5-month-old in her arms. She climbs it because it is the only way to get to her house.

Carmen is a bright and engaging woman. She warmly invites me into her house and almost bursts with enthusiasm to tell her story.

When Carmen found out she was pregnant with her third child, she was depressed and heartsick. She didn’t know how she was going to take care of another child. She tells me she was so desperate that she took a drug to abort her baby.

It didn’t work.

She soon came to learn about the Child Survival Program hosted by Nueva Jerusalem Church, and was registered.

As her pregnancy continued, her fear grew that the drug she took had affected her baby. Carmen depended on the support of the church and particularly the Survival Specialists for hope. She also took every opportunity to learn the very best ways to take care of her new baby.

Her son Elias is now 5 months old. When I met him a few weeks ago he looked to be healthy, alert and developing just as he should. Carmen’s love for her son is contagious. It seems impossible that there was a time that she was so desperate that she wanted to take his life.

Now as I pray for her I wonder  . . .  Who will Elias grow up to be? What will he do? Maybe he will grow up to be a pastor and tell many people in Peru about Jesus.

Or maybe he’ll be a leader that helps strengthen Peru’s economy. One thing I know is that God has a purpose for this little boy, and Elias now has the opportunity to discover that purpose and live it out.

Support the Child Survival Program at Nueva Jerusalem.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

In Peru, that religion, Roman Catholicism, is still important:

• for many traditional families who live in Lima City
• in faraway towns in the country
• among the migrants who have come into Lima City from the Andes Highlands, the Amazon Rainforest or the many small valleys scattered along the coast

But among this last group, the migrants, are our young friends, our sponsored children.

In Peru, Easter is a solemn celebration. Holy Week begins the Sunday before Easter; therefore, schools are closed for the entire week so that the children and teenagers may participate in the special celebrations together with their parents – either in Lima or visiting relatives away from the capital city.

The evangelical churches initiate a special week of celebrations with evangelistic campaigns and camping programs for the youth and also for the entire family to have a special retreat.

The churches give their children the opportunity to participate actively in the celebration at church or at the camping site, according to their age. The younger children learn that Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins, but that also He is risen, while the older children participate at special programs at church to present to the community during the evangelistic campaign on Holy Thursday and Good Friday.

The young university students who belong to evangelical churches prepare programs intended to present the plan of salvation to the youth who have never been to church. The students prepare something special, such as Christian concerts and dramas, which will draw the attention of that specific group. The programs are presented in an open place, such as a big park.

Some of these university students organize special trips to visit faraway churches in order to present dramas or to sing during the special church services previously organized by local churches.

Other students have the gift to visit people in jail to preach and give counseling. For example, some may visit those who have been caught taking drugs from the country; many of these are foreigners and do not have relatives or friends in Peru.

These students go together with their pastors taking gifts and doing Christian concerts. They give testimony of their past life and bring those prisoners hope and a new joy. These young university students take seriously Matthew 25:36 (NIV).

“I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”

Talking about Easter gifts, if the family belongs to a high social class, their children receive chocolate eggs on Easter Sunday. They even participate in contests about painting an egg organized at their school or by a local supermarket.

But a child who belongs to a traditional family, who is part of a low social class, or who lives in extreme poverty, as our sponsored children do, isn’t aware of Easter gifts.

When the children at one of our child development centers were asked about “Easter eggs,” the majority were surprised with the question. Some have seen ads on TV about chocolate eggs, but since they aren’t sold in their community, they just do not care much about it.

The children just enjoy their time being out of school and eating some traditional dishes. They gather at somebody’s home who has a TV set, together with their siblings and friends, to watch the special TV programs that are shown on Easter, old films such as Ben Hur, The Ten Commandments, Jesus, and many other religious movies.

All the people who live in small cities and towns close to colonial Lima City become part of a big celebration. A grand procession takes place. Statues of Jesus carrying His cross and the Virgin dressed all in black are carried on large platforms through the streets.

In some parts of Lima City, local transportation is diverted by the policemen who try their best to alleviate the chaos. They whistle to give directions to the drivers who go through the old and narrow colonial streets bursting with the activity of hundreds of devoted people following the procession.

The people walk slowly and pray while passing through the narrow streets. People who live there gather on their homes’ balconies to salute the statues. They throw rose petals on both statues as a special offering.

Meanwhile the street vendors take advantage of the occasion to offer their goods, such as traditional foods, sodas, candies, etc. Therefore, there is not only devotion, but also noisy crowds and different kinds of smells coming from the great variety of dishes being prepared to be offered to the devoted people.

In this procession, not so many children are seen because of the big crowds and the long distances to walk that become endless because of the procession’s slow pace. Usually children get tired and bored because they are not much aware of the situation.

The statues carried in the procession are of high value since they were brought from Spain four to five centuries ago. Besides being a work of art, the statue of the Virgin is unusual because the statue’s hair is real, donated by some young lady who has given it as a special gift. The statue wears an expensive silk dress and lots of jewelry that has been donated by rich people throughout the centuries.

The platforms the statues are carried on are quite heavy, and each one requires at least a dozen men to carry it. The group is replaced by different groups of men after carrying it for some distance. The procession is accompanied by a band of musicians and many ladies who walk singing and carrying incense in special gold containers.

During Holy Week there is always something going on, such as the “Feet Washing Ceremony” that takes place at the cathedral in Lima City as well as in all Roman Catholic churches in the country. There the priest washes the feet of 12 men who are just common citizens.

On Good Friday, many people prepare “The Seven Dishes,” but it is traditional to cook different recipes using only fish.

In the afternoon, the Roman Catholic Cardinal preaches at the main cathedral of Lima. He speaks about “The Last Seven Words of Jesus.” This is transmitted across the country through the media.

There are many more traditions to be told, although many more have been already forgotten with the passing of the years and can be found only in history books.

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As the kitchen door opens, a young man neatly dressed in a chef outfit emerges carrying a bowl of warm spaghetti and wearing a wide smile of self-confidence. Although he began cooking only six months before, he carries himself like an experienced cook.

“After finishing high school, I was not sure what career to choose, so I decided to write down all the things I like best and found out that the best option for me is tourism and hotel administration,” says Waldo, a 21-year old Leadership Development Program (LDP) student who is breaking the cycle of poverty by studying at a university in Lima City.

Waldo comes from a poor family of seven children whose father abandoned them. Waldo is the youngest and lives with his mother and one older brother who is still single. The other siblings are already married and live nearby.

Waldo remembers that in grade school he was a shy boy, and his grades were not the best. But his high school years were different. The turnaround  began with a teacher who gave him some responsibilities, which led to Waldo becoming the brigadier of his school — a special honor because of the responsibility to watch for good behavior and order among the students and to represent his school in special occasions.

During his early school years, Waldo was able to listen to the gospel and receive help with his studies at the summer camps organized by the Compassion program he attended. There also was a library at the child development center where he could do his homework.

And at the beginning of each school year, he and all the sponsored children always received a jogging suit, a school uniform, school supplies, etc. that his schoolmates and neighborhood peers did not have.

Some of the subjects Waldo now studies at university are French and English language, which are quite important for his career; cooking techniques, logistics, marketing, costs and budgets, as well as how to provide quality service to customers.

Six months ago, Waldo began practicing what he learns at school at Pizza Hut, where he applied for a job through the Internet and got hired after 10 months of waiting.

When Waldo was hired, he was eager to begin cooking. He could already imagine preparing pizzas, and even could smell the fresh-baked dish.

“To begin with, the first day I was given a pile of advertising papers to give away on the streets. After two months of doing this simple task, I became totally discouraged and began questioning God why I was out in the streets instead of cooking.

Then one day I changed my attitude and began doing the task while singing and smiling.

Shortly afterward, the administrator decided that I should begin working at the restaurant. But first I had to read the restaurant’s manuals, which took some days.”

Waldo passed the restaurant manual test of proficiency in order to qualify to cook. He continued waiting with eagerness. But instead, he was assigned  to washing pots and pans!

So he began to be more courteous and kind to all his co-workers, and to perform his job with an even better attitude. A month later he was named as “Best Employee of the Month,” and his photo was placed where everybody could see it.

“In LDP I have attended workshops to learn how to handle different situations in life, and I am making use of it at my job by being courteous and showing a wise behavior.

On one occasion one of the managers said to me, ‘I have noticed that you don’t speak bad words’, which was rewarding.”

After being named Best Employee of the Month, Waldo was assigned to the kitchen, and two months later he was recognized for the second time as the Best Employee of the Month.

Now that he is celebrating his sixth month at the restaurant, Waldo has been prized as the Best Employee of the Month for the third time, something very few people achieve in such a short time.

When asked about this success, he says, “I have not done anything special, just performed my job in the way it should be done.”

Waldo is aware that the Leadership Development Program, besides providing economic support to attend university, also helps shape students into leaders and teaches them values to live a quality life.

“Many of my fellow students and co-workers ask me why I do not drink liquor or go to parties where drugs are consumed. That is the right time for me to talk them about Jesus and the gospel.”

Waldo would like to finish his studies with good grades and continue gaining more experience at Pizza Hut. Then he would like to become the manager’s assistant, and finally manager of the restaurant he has been assigned to.

“My dream is to apply at a four- or five-star hotel in order to continue gaining more experience, but my real dream is to work on a cruise ship. Then I will be able to visit many countries, to meet many new people, and to learn more about this career with which I am becoming more engaged in.”

Send a message of encouragement to Waldo.

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