Virtual Tours Peru

Is a picture worth a thousand words? Decide for yourself. Visit our photo gallery--and meet the amazing women of Peru. A picture may be the only way to convey the sense of fun and friendship the women experience during their weekly Credit with Education meetings.

Peru Photo Gallery

Click on any of the images below for a larger view and description. While they’re enlarged, you can browse by clicking the "Next" or "Back" arrows or returning to this page to select another image. All the photos you see here were taken by Karl Grobl in 2006 and are copyrighted to Freedom from Hunger.

 

The Peruvian highlands are famously beautiful, but for those who live here, life can be hard in these rural and remote areas.Like women everywhere, mothers in Peru keep their young children with them when they work, gather in self-help group meetings or just walk from one distant village to another.Enterprising women are ready to make the most of their loans and education to become self-sufficient. Here this mother and daughter have opened a store to sell basic supplies and food items to their village.Women never stop working. Spinning and weaving are old crafts but handwoven clothes still keep children clothed and, when sold for a profit, can keep them fed, too.Women are willing to walk substantial distances to participate in Credit with Education programs that give them their first real chance to get a business loan, save money in a safe place and learn about lifesaving topics such as child illness, child nutrition and family planning.In the village of San Martin de Poras women receive cards like this one that they can take home and use as a guide to help them decide when a child must be taken to a doctor for care.Lourdes Alanguia persuaded Freedom from Hunger's local partner, Finca Peru, to bring microfinance to her village, Chucampa. She says she especially likes the education sessions on health.Women in the village of Atahuarco, welcome the chance to meet each week in their self-help groups where they can encourage each other and share their successes.Freedom from Hunger and its local partners have chosen to work in remote areas like this one in the Peruvian Highlands precisely because so few organizations bring services to families in these villages. In rural and very poor areas such as this village, light-colored hair can be a sign of malnutrition. Sebastiana, pictured with her 4-year-old son in their house, has said lessons on nutrition and the chance to better feed her family are most important to her.Raising farm animals is a common home-based business in rural Peru.Bundled tightly in a traditional Aguayo, this child goes with his mother as she approaches her loan committee to pay an installment on her loan and deposit savings. The president and treasurer of this self-help group keep the register accounting for every loan installment and every savings deposit members make at their meetings. All accounting is done in the open and a full report on accounts is given at every meeting.Self-help groups are trained to run and manage their meetings and the accounts for sustainability and efficiency. The women develop a tremendous sense of pride and accomplishment as they grow both their individual accounts and the group fund which can be used for a variety of purposes selected by the group.Freedom from Hunger always works with local people, like this field agent from our partner, Finca Peru, to transfer knowledge, skills and resources that can grow and be managed sustainably. Staff interviews a woman who participates in our Credit with Education program delivered in partnership with Finca Peru. These interviews yield important information about what women find most valuable about the program and what new education sessions they would like.Child nutrition is one of Freedom from Hunger's most in-demand education modules. In Peru, an estimated 40% of rural children are stunted as a result of malnutrition according to a Peru DHS study in 2000. Education for women who neither read nor write requires different methods. Here a group of women examine pictures of sick children and, in a discussion led by a local field agent, talk about which of these signs signal the need for a doctor's care.Freedom from Hunger staff listen to the story of a woman whose entrepreneurial spirit--along with a loan and basic training in business management--has brought her to this market where she opened a small restaurant.Perpetua Aguilar used her loan to grow her business of selling cactus fruit. She's very proud of her accomplishments and says she is often asked but others about how best to manage their businesses.In the village of La Merced, women share simple meals together as they work to earn money for their families.Little Francesca is the daughter of Sophia who recently received her first loan from Freedom from Hunger's partner, Prizma. She's using the loan to grow her business of selling school supplies. Sophia says little Francesca will definitely go to school when she is ready unlike many children of poor mothers in Peru.In education sessions on the basics of business management, women learn skills such as good customer service so they can grow their businesses and make more money.Local field agents receive training in each of Freedom from Hunger's education modules. Here they learn how engage women in conversations about childhood illness.