Today I am moving on to the second part of my trip in Peru. The program in Lima was absolutely amazing. I can really see myself doing something similar to that in the future. I am very sad to be leaving, but excited to start the second part of my trip in Piura!
Because it was Soluciones Comunitarias first year in Peru, the interns were in charge of doing a lot of visibility studies of the poor areas of Lima. The organization I was working with came in with glasses, solar lamps, two types of water filters, more efficient light bulbs, and a safer wood burning stove. After surveying three of the poorest neighborhoods in Lima, we found that some of the products were really needed in Lima, and others were not wanted at all. For example, everyone loves the glasses. There is not a lot of access to cheap glasses in the poor neighborhoods, and many people cannot see at all. The stove we were offering was not wanted at all. It’s more of a stove for rural areas, so we decided to eliminate that from the Lima plan. There is still a lot of work to be done in setting up the microconsignment model in Lima, but we already are working with three organizations and just today, three more women emailed us wanting to join the program. It is crazy how fast news spreads!