Peru: 'The situation is dire'

Corazon de Jesus project

Source: Columbans

A Columban priest based in Lima, Peru, reports:

The total number of cases of coronavirus on 4 April 2021 was 1,582,367 (51.6% in Lima Department and Province of Callao) and 52,877 deaths (49.3% in Lima Department and Province of Callao). The number of new cases is unpredictable, but around 8,000 a day, 405 of which are the Brazilian variant. The deaths are now around 200 a day. But some papers report that these Ministry of Health figures are not the full story.

The Registery of Deaths said two months ago there was in excess of 102,000 deaths nationally, now probably nearer 120,000, due to Covid-19, as opposed to the official number of around 53,000. This sounds much nearer the truth when listening to the people about the spread of the virus and the number of deaths that have gone uncounted. The daily death toll given could probably be doubled, if the truth were known.

The vaccine that arrived from China has been given to front-line workers. Now the elderly are being served. The general population will have to wait until the last three months of this year and/or the first three months of next year. There is little transparency about the exact number of vaccines that have arrived in Peru and how they are being used. There is no number given as to how many have been vaccinated.

I accompany Manuel Duato Special Needs School, a Columban project. The teachers have been in 'virtual' contact since March last year, and through the Peruvian summer of 2021 (January to mid-March), with the parents and through them with nearly 400 children. The attendance in virtual sessions during 2020 by the parents was outstanding, with better percentages than most primary schools.

The new school year, 2021, is underway with teachers back to work, albeit virtually. At least 10 teachers are down with the virus at present. Classes officially began on 15 March, again virtually. At present 69% of the parents are out of work or have occasional temporary work - no safety net here!

We have helped 55 families on five occasions during 2020, with amounts of around £25 each time and at Christmas we gave £50. This year we have given out larger amounts to eight families who either have a special needs child with Covid-19 or are families with one member or more with Covid-19 or other serious illness, all in dire financial difficulties. All together this time we have distributed support to the 40 hardest hit families.

The Warmi Huasi project, accompanying children at risk in both San Benito, in the Lima districts of Carabayllo and San Martin de Porres, and in the Province of Paucar de Sara Sara, high up in the Andes mountains in the department of Ayacucho, is producing amazing results. Our Warmi Huasi teams continue to be in touch constantly with the parents and teachers about the welfare of the children. We have already given out all the books from the reading clubs so that the children can read at home. We also have radio programs with the children in Ayacucho, with bio-security advice and story-telling and getting them to send in their stories.

From February through March this year we arranged for teachers to visit homes, in a very limited way and respecting protocols of bio-security and safeguarding, of the children of the primary school in Lampa, Ayacucho. These chilldren had dropped behind, but we are hoping to save their school year 2020. Likewise in San Benito, help is being given to those children who have dropped behind.

In San Benito, the mothers have continued the five communal kitchens into 2021. The figures on 1 April 2021 are: 185 families helped, with an average of 5 persons per family, meaning a total of 925 people receiving a meal each day, plus 74 social cases, a grand total of 999 meals a day. We have been helping each communal kitchen with the purchase of foodstocks, especially vegetables, chicken or fish, and bio-security equipment.

At present we are setting up a communal kitchen in Misiones parish, where I used to work. It will serve local families in need, including migrant families, mostly from Venezuela. In the Columban parish of Holy Archangels, parishioners hope to run a lunch program for Venezuelan migrant families two or three times a week. The situation is dire.

Thanks to those who support our "family solidarity program" in Ireland, England, United States, Australia and New Zealand.

May the Risen Lord be near to us all, love and blessings.

See a short video summarising the work in San Benito during the pandemic: https://youtu.be/mnqhxtVfu0g

To donate money to support Columban mission throughout the world visit: https://columbans.co.uk/how-you-can-help/donate/

Father Ed O'Connell is a Columban Father, born in Somerset and educated by the Salesians in Battersea. He has been working as a missionary priest in Lima, Peru, for 38 years.