Munay (Love & Beauty): Stories of Life in Peru: "The Forgotten Neighborhood"

I recently started working in a neighborhood that´s about a 20 minute walk outside of the downtown area of Huallanca. It is the most poverty stricken neighborhood in Huallanca yet for some reason I just figured that out. Since I´ve started working there I have talked to many families and teachers and they all say that their neighborhood is “el barrio olvidado” (the forgotten neighborhood) which may be why I just discovered this neighborhood. It seems like even though this is the poorest neighborhood, they get the least attention from the government and local social programs as though people want to ignore the problems and act like the poverty there doesn´t exsist.

Separating the town of Huallanca from this neighborhood is where one of the mines stores all its electrical power and there is a quarter of a mile squared fenced off area that is full of electrical wires and machines that produce electricity that gets sent to the mine (I am sure there is a name for this in English but I can´t remember). It almost seems that this big electrical area was placed there to separate the poorest neighborhood from the rest of the town…Huallanca is an interesting little pueblo: Because of all the mines there is a huge wealth disparity gap. The families that work for the mines all have a ton of money and the families that don´t work for the mines have very little.

I wanted to started working in the school (they only have an elementary school) in this “forgotten neighborhood” because I eventually want to start an after school program for the students there where they can receive help with their homework, get the attention that they need, spend some time improving their reading, and eat a healthy snack. I see a need for this type of program there because in this area most of the parents are illiterate and therefore cannot help their children with their homework.

What does a child do when they need help on their homework but their parents are illiterate and are not able to help them? The children suffer and have low literacy levels themselves. Many of these children are not getting the attention they need at home because their parents have to spend long days working in their potato farms or caring for the farm animals. When the time comes to pick the potatoes the kids also often have to miss school to help their parents work long days in the fields. A lot of the students at this school have to walk at least an hour to get to class because they live way out of town on farms. Some of them don´t even end up going to high school due to many barriers such as living so far away, having lower literacy levels, and having to work to help support their families.

I love working with these adorable at the school in the “forgotten neighborhood” :) Since they live more in the country side, most of them are pretty shy but so precious and adorable. Right now I am teaching some classes there to gain confidence of the children, teachers, and families so that eventually I can hopefully start a big project such as an after school program there.