Today was an early start. We were on the road at 8.00pm. The purpose of the early start was that we were going to drop into the night shelter at Remac before the boys who use it had left. This is a very dangerous part of Lima and the shelter is situated in this area in order to make contact with some of the most estranged within Peruvian society. The centre acts as a halfway house – a kind of bridge from the street to the beginning of rehabilitation. The shelter is run by three ex-street boys who are now employed on the staff of SU. Here’s a picture of the shelter.

After the shelter visit I took the group to a shanty town on the outskirts of the city. This was an opportunity to explain where many of the street boys originally come from. It is from the many shanty towns that surround the city that children come to the city in search of a better life only to face the hard reality of grinding poverty.

Peru is a country of many contrasts. I guess I wanted to let the small group of people with me to experience these contrasts. Have a look at some of these pictures. The differences are startling

Yesterday was the first full day of travel. We took some time and visited Chosica. This is a retreat centre that SU use to do local training for those who live in the Lima Area. I was especially pleased to attend what was the first of what we hope will be many training opportunities for the directors of the various Children’s homes. As you can see from the pictures the centre is placed in wonderful surroundings.

From here we ventured on to the SU Deaf Centre where we met some amazing children. They were explaining to us that they are in conflict with the authorities over the methods used to train the children. It appears that in Peru the perceived wisdom is that sign language should not be taught to the deaf. All deaf children have been integrated into the normal schooling system no real provision has been made in the schools for the deaf children. They are expected to read the lips of the teacher. Of course this is very difficult as you can imagine many of these deaf children are simply lost in such a school.

The centre we visited uses sign language to help the children comminicate and are determined to change the way people think about this in government. I hope when I get back I can do something for this programme if nothing more than try to link them up with Donaldson’s School in Linlithgow.

Here are some pictures of my visit: