New Blog Site

Dear Readers

Please note we have recently updated our website, and are now hosting our Blogs here: http://www.livingheartperu.org/blog-articles.

There are new posts available for you to read, so why don't you jump onboard and follow us? You can also subscribe to receive regular updates, newsletters, and alerts.

Best Regards,
The Living Heart Team

Chocolatadas 2010

Been a while since we got a new post up here! The end of the school year was closed out in December with chocolatadas in various communities in the highlands. The children enjoyed hot chocolate, a type of panettone (holiday bread) as well as some gifts due to generous donations. In particular, they had a ball with the rubber balls that each child received. We were also fortunate to have help with providing clowns for entertainment, which were quite an unusual treat for these remote areas!

Liz completes Marathon for Living Heart

Living Heart wishes to send a huge thank you to "Liz" who recently completed the New York Marathon. 

It was a wonderful mission with huge challenges in terms of training and we are very grateful to all her supporters who have donated to Living Heart as a result of Liz's dedication to completing 26 gruelling miles.

We send our best wishes and many thanks to Liz for making Living Heart her chosen charity and the consequential awareness and fundraising that has occurred as a result.

Hilda's House

The first 3 months of 2010 brought heavy rains to the Sacred Valley with devastating results for many people.  One such family lost their house and most of their possessions.  Hilda is an abandoned mother with 3 children ages 3, 12 and 18 years old.  Her house was one of many washed away by the Vilcanota River that had burst it's banks and raged through the whole valley.  Since then Hilda has lived in a tent which she abandoned due to rat invasion and then moved into a neighbour's home for shelter.

Living Heart made an appeal for support to build a new home for Hilda and we are delighted to inform our followers, supporters and new readers that work has commenced on a new brick house which has been carefully planned to consider the possibility of further flooding and damage from rain and to protect Hilda and her 3 children in the long term.

We are very grateful to those who have supported us financially with donations to build Hilda a new home and send our many thanks to you with love and gratitude.

Some conditions were made with Hilda in agreement to accept the support from Living Heart which included her promising to give her daughter the same education opportunities as her 2 sons.  For more information, please go to our website at www.livingheartperu.org

APPEAL - Video Camera

Do you have an old, used, or even new video camera that you no longer need? Would you be willing to donate it to Living Heart to enable us to support a wonderful initiative that one of our communities have come up with by themselves?

Children performing their traditional dances in front of their school friends

The community would like to produce a DVD of video clips showing their traditional customs and cultural ways specific to their village.  They also have a plan to sell weavings and other items as well as start a museum to preserve their cultural heritage and allow tourists to visit and learn all about it.  Tourists will also have the opportunity to buy the weavings and DVD with benefits being giving directly to the school.

Living Heart are delighted to support this initiative by appealing to anyone who has a disused video camera that they no longer need.  It will be loaned to the community for them to begin filming their traditions and customs in order to produce the DVD.  If you are able to help, please email us at info@livingheartperu.org

More stories on this initiative will be posted as it progresses!

First Hot Breakfast and Lunch

The newly built kitchen in one of our communities was finally completed last week, with running water, fully functional chimney and working surfaces, all installed and working properly.

So we have gone from this 1.5m x1.5m tin "shack" of an old kitchen to a beautiful 6m x 4m stone building, kitted with fire and chimney, wash basin with running water, work surfaces and window hatch through which to pass the meals when ready.

The ladies preparing the first meal photographed next to the new chimney and fire.  Chimney's are not commonplace in this community and many people suffer from inhaling the smoke from fires inside their homes.  Part of our evaluation and requisite for supporting a community is to ensure that the kitchen is smoke-free in order to conserve the health of the cook and helpers.

Yesterday, Tuesday 28th September, 60 children received their first hot breakfast and hot lunch.  Representatives of Living Heart were present to see the results and give some guidance where necessary.

Here we see the children lining up to receive their food.  

Tucking in to a hot lunch of vegetables, potato and salad.

It was a truly magical day; the children ate absolutely everything and not a single crumb was left on any of the 60 plates!






To feed a hot lunch and breakfast to the 60 children in this community costs $492 per month.  This includes locally sourced natural foods to complete 20 nutritionally balanced recipes.  If you would like to donate to this food programme, please visit our website for further information on how to do so. www.livingheartperu.org

New Kitchen

Tiny tin shed used for cooking previously.

It has taken us a couple of months to almost finish the new kitchen in one of our communities.

The foundations are ready for the new building.

Delays and efforts have been hampered by poor weather, lack of transport and community members being away from home helping on the various tourist trails around the Sacred Valley.

Our local nurse, Rita, and Maureen outside the new building!

We are now really close to finishing this project and starting the food programme. The children are all excited to know that a hot breakfast and lunch will soon be given to them everyday.