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CEDRO
The large size of CEDRO allows the program to provide an integrated arrays of services to poor and street children. The program works on the street, in Lima’s shantytowns, and in squatter communities downtown.
In 1990, CEDRO saw the utter failure of the state system of closed shelters for street children and orphans. Unfortunately, its work with the government did little to change the system, so CEDRO resolved to create its own shelters as an option and a model. By 2002 it had constructed six shelters (three in Lima) with high rates of success: 40% of children returned to their families and another 40% moved on to a successful independent life. They have a great deal of pride in their personalized attention and in the success of their clients -- one even went on to win an Olympic Tae-kwon-do medal.
The most dramatic or CEDRO’s efforts occurs in the Quintas, squatter communities in downtown Lima. The old colonial mansions have turned into elegant ruins, with nothing left but adobe and stucco walls. In the ancient ball rooms and halls, poor families and war refugees have created their own homes.
The Quintas are centers of gang activity, drug trafficking, and organized violence. There is no running water or sewer. Families are generally weak, and many children leave for the street.
CEDRO works to leverage community resources into local solutions and promotes the work of community leaders. In several quintas, they have had amazing success, including the following projects:
- Many men and women who live in the Quintas have worked in construction; they know how to lay pipe and build bathrooms. CEDRO helped these workers to organize themselves and got equipment donated so that the community could build its own plumbing and water system.
- Some women, especially those from the countryside, know arts and crafts. CEDRO organizes workshops where these women teach their skills to other women -- not only does this create a marketable product, it also gives pride to the teachers. Other women teach cooking and sell local foods.
- CEDRO found that several mothers love to read (Lima has always had a very literate culture). CEDRO arranged for donations of books and trained these women to give literacy classes. With the help of volunteers from a local university, this group of mothers has taught community children how to read, and provided tutoring. The mothers’ group also runs a small community lending library.
- Children don’t know what to do with their spare time -- because they are bored, many will join gangs. CEDRO teaches teenagers to be “Free time teachers” in dance, football, and art. Teens have also created their own book club. Today, in the quintas where CEDRO works, there is very little gang activity.
All of this work occurs in the open -- the old dining rooms and ballrooms of the mansions, now roofless and more reminiscent of courtyards. In this way, parents can watch their children and make sure that everything is OK, and those who are not formally participating can still learn something.
CEDRO also works directly with children who live on the street. Outreach workers build relationships on the street, then invite children to come to one of the three shelters. The houses are in lower middle class neighborhoods, and they serve some 75 boys and girls from 7-18 years old. Children can only enter if they really want to (no court-ordered children), and they can leave whenever they want. Each house has three educators and a social worker, and the three houses share a nurse, a psychologist, and vocational teachers. Children take workshops in weaving and carpentry. International and university volunteers also help with the program.
Finally, CEDRO works in Lima’s huge shantytowns to prevent youth homelessness. They sponsor community libraries, teach young leaders to tutor younger children, and promote youth groups. These activities have made a real impact, and fewer young people from these shantytowns now end up on the street.
In the shantytowns of Chrorrillos, CEDRO helped to create 10 youth groups and the COJ, which coordinates them. These groups are built around sports, technology, reading, gender, or politics, and they form an important part of civil society in Chorrillos. The groups also do community work (soup kitchens, collecting clothes for poor children), which attracted the attention of the district mayor -- they have used his interest to lobby him on children’s rights.
CEDRO also runs theater, internet, dance, and culture workshops in Chorrillos. Some children who had been on the verge of homeless are now attending the university, and they always return to help out.
CEDRO has been very careful to integrate its services, so children can pass from one program to another as their needs change.
CEDRO
Avenida Roca y Bologna #271
San Antonio -- Miraflores
Lima 18, Perú
51 1 446 6682 o 446 7046
fax 51 1 446 0751
Contactos: Mónica Ochoa
Coordinadora Programa Casas Hogares de CEDRO
email: mochoa@cedro.org.pe
Diana Ruiz
Asistente Administrativa
email: druiz@cedro.org.pe
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