Carabayllo community centre project
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In June 2010 volunteers from two local community associations will clear the land of rocks, level it and have it ready for the arrival of the group of youths from the North East of England. Twenty five school students and six teachers from St. John's Catholic High School, Bishop Auckland, will assist local young people with the erection of the building, and will plant trees and flowers.
The construction of a community building communicates the commitment and presence of the Church as a partner in the people's struggles to find their identity, to become pueblo de Dios, in their fight to get water, electricity, sewage pipes, pathways and steps to climb the hillside. The building of a chapel/community centre is a sign of life, faith and hope, in what is an otherwise harsh existence lived against a bleak landscape.
The youths from St John's will visit this July, and will return to the Aichi Nagoya High School in the formerly-terrorist controlled barrio of Raucana, in the Ate Vitarte valley of Lima, to continue their commitment to improve the environment in the grounds of the school with a children's play-park and the decoration of several walls with murals depicting messages and images communicating human and gospel values such as "Loving the Environment", "Respect for Onself and Others", "No to Domestic Violence & Gang Violence", "Care for Your Body: Say No to Alcohol & Drug Abuse", "Work for Peace: Show Solidarity & Fraternity with your Neighbour", as well as murals with positive social messages around racism, gender equality and promoting participation in the work of constructing a fairer and more democratic society. June 2010
José Plumb Nathaniel is the Projects Coordinator, based at "The Peru Mission" in Iquitos, Peru.