Acción Andes Children

Though Huaraz is a small city and an important tourist and mountaineering destination, there are many children who live and work in its streets. Worried about these children, Benjamin Morales, the owner of a tourist bar in the city, decided to create an organization to help them.

Andes Children began informally. Several concerned people went out after the bar closed to talk with street kids and to give them food. They saw that about 25 children slept on the street every night (in a Peruvian city of 100,000, this number is quite high), and that many more worked as street vendors or shoe shine boys during the day.

Without training in the field, Morales and his friends helped in the ways they thought best -- with the result of increased self esteem among the street kids and their integration into the life of the city. Much of this work has happened through small businesses. For example, there is a game of table football in the Bar Extreme. Street kids come to the bar, get a free glass of milk, and play table soccer with bar clients or staff (often foreigners). A guiding company, Andean Kingdom, allows street kids to use the climbing wall in its offices, teaching them holds and moves. In both cases, one can see the happiness on the children’s faces, but everyone knows that such efforts are not a real solution.

Wanting to create something more permanent, Morales founded Andes Children. He imagines a project that will leverage the already present resources (table football, the climbing wall, tourist dollars) into a real program. For instance, children who want to use the climbing wall can get a card that says that they belong to “Club Acción.” (This is based on Ediac’s work in Mexico) In order to keep their card valid, the children would have to attend school.

In the long term, Andes Children wants to create a day program, where children can come, play, and study if they return to live with their families. For now, the program is researching how to make family reunification work. Morales would also like to use mountaineering and tennis as educational tools.

Acción Andes Children
Bar Extreme
Avenida Luzariaga
Huaraz, Perú

97 0074

Contacto: Benjamín Morales, benca_boy@yahoo.com