A New Horizon in Cusco

Cusco: the most renowned city in all of Perú due to its position as the gateway to Machu Picchu, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The majestic Inca ruins which dot the countryside are a distant memory of what has been, yet they continue to tell the story of a great civilization that has come and gone. What they don’t tell is the story of the descendants who continue to occupy the land of their forefathers in dire need of a helping hand and a guiding voice.

In Cusco exists a massive tourism industry that seems to overlook the plight of the many and instead focuses on the enjoyment of the few. Due to our proximity to the airport, all day long we hear planes landing and taking off again carrying passengers whose lives are miles away from the challenges faced by everyday Cusqueñans and their neighbors in the countryside. Families struggle to put food on their plates; they live with easily curable maladies because they can’t afford to go to the doctor; they lack basic things that we take for granted and their education often leaves much to be desired.

As interns for the Ascend Alliance we must put the needs of the many over our desires to partake in the bustling nightlife of Cusco or visits to the beautiful backdrop that surrounds us. The activities that go on here are will be a welcome distraction from long days of hard work. However, there will be a time for fun once the toils and troubles of the day are put to rest.

With the closing of the office in Lima, we are an office in transition. Being so presents unique challenges for us and gives us additional motivation to give all our effort in order to fine tune our operations. It means taking the initiative due to the fact that our supervisors are miles away physically and culturally, and they can’t watch our every move or predict every twist and turn. It means assessing how we can fit with the Ascend model of regional sustainability and mutually beneficial networking that allows for much of our funds to come from in-country operations and contributors. It means thinking of new ways to avoid old problems and putting the pieces back together with a better fit than before.

With that being said, Ascend Perú is making a positive difference in the lives of many people. We are helping to build a school in San Sebastian; a school about a half mile from our office. We are teaching basic business skills to adults and children in Huaro, about one hour outside of Cusco. We are undertaking mental health campaigns that help parents understand the implications and complexities of parenthood. And English classes start next week…!

A new chapter is about to unfold…

ASCENDER Peru on TV

A few weeks have flown by and series of important events have occurred here in the headquarters of ASCENDER Peru in Lima.

This year, the staff of ASCENDER Peru took a different approach to launch its gala. The locale chosen for the event is known for its festive and exciting social events. For this reason, we wanted to invite Peruvian civilians from different social and professional backgrounds to come contribute to the improvement of their communities, while enjoying themselves with the entertaining show we programmed.

In the previous months, we focused on building a relationship with professional members of the corporate work force here in Lima in order to attract prospective long term sponsors for ASCENDER Peru to our gala. In the past weeks, however, we focused on getting the word out to the general public. With the press conference that we held at De Rompe y Raja (the location for our gala) we were able to announce our event and its purpose to the Peruvian public. Next to the nationally acclaimed singer Bartola, our events coordinator, Erasmo Cardenas did a fantastic job at presenting our organization to Peruvian spectators. A few days later, our press conference was aired on four different local television channels, which not only helped us communicate our message to Peruvian civilians, but made Erasmo famous for a day.

Although our press conference did not create publicity of the magnitude we had hoped for, it definitely helped to boost more members of the Peruvian public to attend our gala.

El Dia Se Acerca

Wow how the time flies!!! The Gala is approaching rapidly. Only 10 days remain before the big day and there’s still a lot to be done. We had our first opportunity for all of us to go and see de Rompe y Raja, the place where our Gala will be held. The image I had of a Gala was completely transformed as I entered this classy Peruvian night club. The atmosphere wasn’t one you would typically associate with an elegant US Gala. It wasn’t a grand ballroom but a swanky music hall with bars, dim lights, and a stage where local artists have been performing for years. Yes, it may be different from how things are done back home in the states, but we’re not in the states; we’re in PERU!!!
The visit to Rompe y Raja got me excited for the visits to the different businesses to invite them to the Gala. We’re still working hard to get people to come and participate in the Gala. We’ve been running all over Lima to get the word out.
We met today with some of the young volunteers that will be helping at the Gala. They are students at a school for flight attendants who have volunteered to be servers and hostesses for the event. The meeting was held in order to inform them about Ascend and why we needed their help. They all seemed very excited to help and will be a great addition to our team.

Anchoring the Work In Peru

Networking among businesses and local non profit organizations is an essential part of the success of our work and we had a great opportunity to do just that with members of the Padrinos del Hogar San Antonio group this past week. They are another non profit group that provides spiritual as well as temporal help to orphanages throughout Lima. We were invited to a small dinner they had and were able to swap ideas and experiences with members and donors of the group. We made a lot of great connections and sparked some interest in the work we were involved in and generated interest in the Gala. It was humbling to hear that there were over 700 hundred orphans in many of the orphanages, all seeking someone to love and care for them. This just stressed the fact that there is so much work to be done here in Peru and that many people are waiting for our help. This fact helps keep us motivated as we continue to make countless calls to local business, hoping for a chance to meet with and invite them to our Gala. This process has actually picked up quite a bit in the last few weeks as we have learned more effective ways to approach and explain our cause to the people we meet with. We are hopeful that we will fill the events center we have rented and will generate more than enough funds to continue buidling the programs we have running and expand to others in order to help more people.

Strike - Huelga - Paro

Buenos dias! Annie here.

Today there is a transportation strike- NO busses.
Aaaand it's too dangerous for Diana and I to go to Huaycan to teach our English classes. We stayed up late getting all the lessons ready; we even woke up earlier than usual to make a poster of the alphabet... So we're going to have to go an extra day next week. But that is better than getting Erasmo's car stoned. Our awesome neighbor friend called to tell us that there was a whole highway shut down from people rioting and breaking cars with hard things.
This is the second strike that has prevented us from teaching in Huaycan; the first was a construction worker's strike- there is still debris in the roads from that one, rocks and gravel.
I hope they get paid better.
I hope they stop striking every two weeks, throwing stuff at cars.

So today instead of teaching, Diana and I will stay in the office, find numbers, make phone calls, you know, write blogs.

Making Progress in Lima

Work here in ASCEND Peru's Lima office is as busy as the action packed streets of the city. With our upcoming gala, the commencement of ABT classes in Via Maria, the ongoing English lessons in Huaycan, and other miscellaneous projects such as medical campaigns, we have become a multifaceted task force, utilizing a variety of different skills to perform this wide range of tasks. In the short period of one month, we have transformed from collegiate interns to practitioners of multiple professions such as; graphic designers (for the advertisment of the gala), sales representatives promoting ticket sales for the gala, Spanish- English translators, business teachers, English teachers, manual laborers and even home cooks to alleviate the burden of eating out on our still college status budget. You could say that we are a combination of different businesses in one.

Not only have we already seen the immediate fruits of our multifaceted work, but we can also foresee the long term impact that our efforts will have, something which most importantly we are striving to achieve. In the sales aspect of our work, for example, even if we fail to sell tickets for our gala at the meetings we have with different businesses, the face to face contact that we are making with them is planting the seed for a future network of viable contributors.

Another incident which demonstrates the postitive effects of our labor is the progress made on the building of the recreation area in the terrain adjacent to Huaycan's Hospital (mentioned in an earlier blogg.) The iniciative that we took to fix the terrain for the use of hospital patients, sparked the collaboration of community members and local institutions to continue the execution of the project.

We are very enthused about the work and progress we are making here in Lima. Not only are we acheiving our goals, but we are encouraging other people to join us along the way and in future paths to come.

The Diversity of Lima

Recently we've been running around Lima meeting with businesses and individuals to invite them to work with us and participate in the upcoming Gala. As a result of these visits I've been able to travel through many different parts of Lima. From the coastal swamps of Chorrillos to the dusty hills of Huaycan; from the historic El Augustino to the trendy streets of Miraflores, it's amazing how much diversity exists within one city.

Reflecting on the differences that there are between different parts of the city I began to think of the communities where we are working. While there may not be much that separates these people geographically, there exists an enormous gap economically. The work we are doing is helping to minimize that gap and give needy people a chance of a better life. My recent experiences have given me much to think about. There's a lot of work to do and a lot of people to help, but we can make a difference.