What’s next — and how you can help!

Curious about what’s happening with our kids and staff now? We have exciting plans, and we’d love for you to be involved!

How are the Niños doing?

(Obviously they’re not niños anymore, but they’ll always be “The Niños” to us!)

They’re doing so well! They’ve all settled into their new homes. Most of them are sharing apartments with their siblings. Most are in Cusco, working or attending college, although a few have stayed in the Valley.

Two of the girls invited me for lunch at their apartment. As I was leaving, I didn’t have enough small change for a taxi. One of them pressed a few coins into my hand. I said, “I’ll pay you back when I see you” and she replied, “Oh, and should I pay you back for everything you’ve done for me over the years?”

In that moment, I could see her relating to me as a fully realized adult woman. It was powerful!

Viviana and Avishai will continue to stay in touch with all the Niños because this has become a family rather than a workplace to them. The youth know that they continue to be loved & supported.

If you haven’t watched their speeches from our Closing Ceremonies, I highly recommend them! Even if you don’t have time to watch them all, you can catch a glimpse of how mature and poised they’ve all become. I have them all in this playlist on YouTube.

And the four still in college?

Marlitt and Sol are sharing an apartment, and Luis and Rusbel are living with their two older siblings. We have a small network of 8 sponsors who will be supporting them.

Thanks to your generosity, we also have a cushion equal to one year’s living expenses to manage any emergencies or shortages that arise. Everything is feeling very solid for them.

Our future mission!

While we were all together at the closing ceremonies, Viviana shared her new vision.

You may recall that Jose’s brother Ivan chose to move in with us in his late teens because he needed support to attend college. Well, Viviana continues to be approached by youth who want this support, and she’s had trouble finding adequate help for them.

She wants to create a new project, Puente del Sol (Bridge of the Sun), to help another group of young people cross over from youth to adulthood.

She wants to rent an apartment in Cusco that can house up to 8 indigenous youth, similar to what we did for the older Niños. She believes that kids need more than tuition to succeed in college. They need emotional support, life skills training, healing, and mentorship.

Viviana believes these youth need to overcome internalized racism** and learn to have pride in their culture to succeed. Many of the Niños have spoken about this topic, and how life-changing it was for them to embrace who they are. In order to affect this deep change in their lives, she wants to gather them into an apartment where she can work with them closely.

**If you’ve only visited Peru as a tourist, you may not be aware that indigenous people in Peru have to battle racism. It sounds weird that native Peruvians are discriminated against in Peru, but it’s a common issue in previously colonized countries.

In order to make this happen, we’re going to need donors giving a total of about $5,000 monthly. That’s a VERY low price tag for running an entire charity organization that can completely change the course of a person’s life, and impact everyone around them.

I’m excited to be part of Puente del Sol, and I continue to be honored to support the incredible work Viviana does.

We’d love to have your support! If you can pledge even a small monthly amount, it will help tremendously!

Dissolving the US organization

When Viviana told me her plan, I told her I’d be happy to continue fundraising & communicating for her work. But we no longer need a full-blown organization in the US for this smaller project.

Josh Brazier, who has served on our board for over 10 years, volunteered to let us fundraise through his organization, The Kaiizen Foundation. Kaiizen’s mission is “Empowering Lives Through Education and Connection,” so it’s a perfect fit!

That’s why you’ll see the Kaiizen name on some of our fundraising materials. But all the funds we raise are kept separate and earmarked specifically for this project. We’ll pay a small fee to Kaiizen each month to cover the expenses of credit card processing, bookkeeping, and administration for us.

This helps us keep our costs low and put more of our donors’ dollars to work changing lives in Peru.

Will you help?