Christmas in Peru with The Colour of Hope

Over Christmas, The Colour of Hope held several small get togethers for the young people we are supporting, as well as for several possible candidates who are hoping to start their training with us in the New Year.

We celebrated in the traditional Peruvian way, with "paneton" (Easter Bread) and a special type of hot chocolate made from real melted chocolate. A good time was had by all, especially the children - some of the young people have babies and little ones.

Many thanks for everyone's support this year. Keep up the good work in 2008! Happy New Year to you all.

The Colour of Hope Team

Easysearch Total Update

Our Easysearch total has now reached £31.02! That covers almost a month's food for one young person. Easysearch is a highly effective way to support The Colour of Hope at absolutely no cost to you! See Sept 27th entry for more details.

Dartmoor Contemporary Art Exhibition Success!

Many thanks to all those who organised, ran or attended last week's Dartmoor Contemporary Art Exhibition at Haytor, Devon. You raised a grand total of £235 for The Colour of Hope! That's enough to sponsor a young person for more than 3 months.

Special thanks goes to local Devon artists, Adam Bunce, Ben Yates and Luci Coles, who donated 5% of all artwork sales to The Colour of Hope.

Easysearch Total Update

Our Easysearch total has now reached £28.65! That covers more than 3 months transport costs for one young person. Easysearch is a highly effective way to support The Colour of Hope at absolutely no cost to you! See Sept 27th entry for more details.

Wall, Luxury Fibre Clothing Company, supports young people in Peru

Hernán and Judith Balcázar founded Wall, a luxury fibre clothing company, in 1997. Both their online catalogue and boutique in London’s Notting Hill attract a wide-ranging, worldwide client base.

Truly natural fibres are becoming an increasingly rare commodity. Wall works with several different fibres, including long staple Peruvian pima cotton, pure Irish linen, silky alpaca and super fine vicuña, which feel exquisite next to the skin and retain their quality for a very long time.

The company is underpinned by Hernán and Judith’s personal experiences of living and working in Peru. An important decision in starting the business was to do something that could create more employment in Peru.

“From what we saw charity could not create the same benefits as work. Job opportunities and education are very important,”
- Hernán

The company works as much as possible with small, family-owned businesses. It aims to give people a sense of pride in their work and enable them to educate their children.

It also endeavours to improve conditions in the supply chain, requiring all its suppliers to abide by a “code of conduct”. In order to do business with Wall, suppliers must ensure safe working conditions, fair wages and a harassment-free work environment for their staff.

Wall’s current community project is to offer 2-year vocational training placements to disadvantaged young people in Lima. The young people will receive a fair wage throughout the two years and by the end of their placements, will have ample experience in the textile industry.

In early December, Judith Balcázar and other Wall representatives interviewed a group of candidates for the first placement. The Colour of Hope is delighted to confirm that, Natali, the candidate we put forward, won the selection process and will shortly become Wall’s first sponsored trainee! (See photos)

Natali grew up in Canto Grande, a shanty town on the outskirts of Lima. She spent most of her childhood on the streets, and at 17, became pregnant with her son, Luis. Since Luis was born, she has struggled against all odds to care for him, selling sweets on the roadside, busking and begging on buses. She works long hours, day in day out and earns less than $2 a day.

But now, thanks to Wall and The Colour of Hope, Natali will have the chance to escape the poverty trap and to improve living conditions for her family. She is set to start her placement with Wall in January 2008 and will participate in The Colour of Hope’s employment preparation and life-skills courses and until then. Congratulations Natali!

Easysearch Total Update

Our Easysearch total has now reached £27.21! That covers 1 month's accommodation and almost 6 months toiletries for one young person. Easysearch is a highly effective way to support The Colour of Hope at absolutely no cost to you! See Sept 27th entry for more details.

WebSpanish November Donation

WebSpanish, one of The Colour of Hope's corporate sponsors, has made another donation from its Spanish student tuition fees throughout November. Thank you WebSpanish!

Easysearch Total Update

Our Easysearch total has now reached £25.76! That covers more than 2 months of transport and toiletries for one young person. Easysearch is a highly effective way to support The Colour of Hope at absolutely no cost to you! See Sept 27th entry for more details.

Business Executives Annual Conference 2007

Each year, a Business Executives Annual Conference (Conferencia Anual de Ejecutivos – CADE) is held in Peru.

The 45^th CADE took place this year from 29^th November to 1^st December in the city of Trujillo in northern Peru. The objective of this year’s debate was to determine “Everything we need to be a just and prosperous country”, or in the words of the CADE committee, to determine what Peru needs to do in order to become a first world country within the next 30 years.

However, the conclusion this year seems sadly little more than a reinforcement of what was established in previous years, namely, the need to gain a better understanding of how to breach the ever widening ‘rich poor divide’.

Things have advanced very little since 2006. As one of the members of the audience commented, “Peru is a long way off being a just and prosperous country, because it’s much easier to be prosperous than just.” Only very few of the many speakers who attended the event commented on what actually needs be done to combat poverty and to encourage social integration.

The two foreign speakers, Juan Enríquez Cabot and Xavire Sala-i-Martín claimed that the only way to attain justice, equality and prosperity is by investing in the future, and specifically by investing in education. 84% of those who attended CADE 2007 agreed that the Peruvian government’s main goal should be to improve the quality of the country’s education.

Yet the need to invest in education comes as old news – the last Global Competitiveness Report from the World Economic Forum ranked Peruvian primary education 95^th out of 131 countries - the worst in the whole of South America.

The president of CADE 2007, Diego de la Torre (pictured above), called attention to the need for greater social responsibility and anthropological sensitivity as new concepts that should be form the basis of any enterprise in Peru. And the president of the Peruvian Institute of Business Administration (Instituto Peruano de Administracion de Empresas - IPAE), Claudio Herzka (pictured above), stated that in order to become more competitive, Peru needs to focus on the long-term.

Yet both of these proposals require long term investment, commitment and stability; goals that despite nearly 6 years of steady economic growth, Peru still hasn’t attained. Fernando Zavala, ex Economics Minister stated that Peru’s economy is above the average for Latin America and 95% of those who attended CADE 2007 agreed that Peru is advancing. Yet there is still a lot of work to be done with regards to poverty reduction – 43% of Peru is still living below the poverty line.

Javier Abugattás, a member of the panel, confirmed that one of the main obstacles to reducing poverty is the radical centralism that characterizes Peru. And Jaime Saavedra, another panel member, added that there is a great deal of inequality regarding the distribution of the country’s basic services – it is almost impossible for prospective businessmen from jungle regions to generate a sizeable income when the communication and transport systems are so deficient.

The discussion could have gone on for much longer, but when Fernando Zavala requested a second 6-minute extension, many members of the audience complained that they’d “be late for lunch”. It seems they had discussed poverty reduction for far long enough. Unfortunately, for the majority of Peruvians the debate is only just getting started.

Photo courtesy of El Comercio, Sunday 2nd December edition

Moisés' Dinner Party

Moisés, one of the young people The Colour of Hope is helping, began a catering course in February this year, funded by Rachel Hutchinson. (For more details see Moisés’ Story – From Street Child to Chef.) Last Friday, 30th November, he took part in a special dinner party, held at prestigious Lima restaurant, El Hawaiano, in Barranco.

I (President of The Colour of Hope) attended the meal and was thoroughly impressed, as were my four guests. Moisés was waiter for our table and did an excellent job throughout the evening. We look forward to his next event!