Our volunteers: college and high school students.

Police Office Miguel Coaguila Cruz, coordinator of the “Programa Colibrí.”

As the day of the event got closer, we tried to resolve remaining issues regarding the logistics for the Christmas Day Dinner. In order to inform the local population of what Kusi Uya was about and what we planned to do, we went to two local television stations, ATV and Canal 11. We were greeted warmly and complements abounded after talking to the people in-charged of programming and letting them know what Kusi Uya represented. In the television stations, we were interviewed by the hosts of two of the television programs we were invited to attend. Our gratitude goes to Mr. Jean Farfán Mendoza and Mr. Ulises Gamboa for having us in their programs.

With our public relations issues resolved, we tackled our next objective, to find a place where it could accommodate at least 250 children. Meeting with various local restaurant owners, we decided to host our Christmas Day Dinner in a place, Salón Mauri, where all the children we invited could fit and enjoy this day. The restaurant provided a spacious atmosphere, decorated it with Power Ranger and Little Princes themes, provided enough tables to sit 250 of our kids, a sound system, and a complete meal with dessert included. Additionally, with some of the money left from our funding, we hired a clown and a man dressed as Santa Claus. We wanted this day to be a special day for children who have only imagined of such an event in their wildest dreams. With your help, we made this dream, a reality.

A few days before the event, Kusi Uya held a formal conversation with medical doctors from the local hospital in order to delineate how they could be of any assistance during this special day. At the end of our talks, three physicians, Dr. Elio Vidal Robles, Dr. José Romero Altamirano, and Dr. Héctor Asqui Amaqui, pledged to help our project by providing their services. We felt that this gesture was quite generous, noble, and humane and represented our own beliefs and convictions. During the event, these three remarkable physicians, helped in providing a general check-up of the children we hosted.

Finally, December 25th approached and we were ready to embark in an extraordinary journey, not only for its magnitude, but also for why we were doing it in the first place. At the site where we held the Christmas Day Dinner, 37 volunteers, among family members, friends, and volunteers in general, congregated to assess how this day would unfold. We set up a rudimentary doctor’s office in an adjacent room to the main hall where the dinner was held. The children began arriving at 10 A.M. and formed rows of lines while they waited for their turn to be seen by one of the attending physicians. After the check-up, each child proceeded to an assigned table in the main hall. Our volunteers escorted each child to their respective table and made sure that any inconvenience would be taken care of at once. The many volunteers present served not only as guides, but also talked to the children, got to know the children, helped with the serving of the food, and maintained some order amidst joyful chaos. It took two hours to medically examine the children that attended our event and our sincere gratitude goes to the physicians that helped with our cause. Before the dinner was served, the children were entertained by a show performed by the hired clown. Many laughs and laughs of genuine joy were heard throughout the main hall. During the course of the meal, it was obvious that the children never imagined that they would have enjoyed this day as much as we thought they would. Finalizing our event, each child was given a small present from all of us, not only from Kusi Uya and the volunteers that facilitated this day to be successful, but also YOU, who contributed economically for this day to even take place. Thank you, from all us and, especially, from the children YOU helped this day, to be, their day!

The children we hosted before they began eating their Christmas meal.

Saying grace.

YOU made her and the other 245 children we hosted, their day.

Kusi Uya

“A Food Assistance Program for Poor Children”

The Events

Upon arriving to the city of Abancay, Kusi Uya began to coordinate different aspects and efforts for the day of the event, December 25th. However, beginning in Boston, Kusi Uya got in touch with different individuals, mostly university students, to personally ask them to become involved in the project. Many responded with a clear acclamation and praise for such a noble and humanitarian effort to help underserved and underprivileged children. University students from the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH), Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola (USIL), Universidad Tecnológica de los Andes (UTEA), and Universidad Nacional Micaela Bastidas de Apurímac (UNAMBA), became the first volunteers to jump-start our project in the city of Abancay where Kusi Uya will begin to operate.

By talking to different individuals in Abancay, we heard of a national program sponsored by the Policía Nacional del Perú (PNP) or the police force of Perú, the “Programa Colibrí.” We got in contact with the coordinator of this program, police officer Miguel Coaguila Cruz, so as to become informed about what this program entailed. The Programa Colibrí is a program designed for working street children that perform jobs ranging from shining shoes, selling newspapers, and helping their parents sell comestible products in the local market. Undoubtedly, these children come from a humble background and are part of the 51.6 % of the population in Perú that live below the poverty line. Because of the limited funding they receive from the local and national governments, Kusi Uya pledged to host 150 children from this program. Initially, we projected to host 100 kids, but we received enough economic collaboration from a number of individuals, Kusi Uya decided to host 250 children instead. The remaining 100 children that we hosted came from different local support groups, small assistance programs, and poor neighborhoods such as the Hospital Guillermo Díaz de la Vega’s Seguro Integral de Salud (SIS), the FONAVI and Pueblo Joven neighborhoods, and the children under the care of Mother Maruja from the surgery unit of the local hospital.

1^st Event: Christmas Day Dinner – December 25^th, 2005