PROJECT-SUPPORT PERU

Country / Location

Peru, Lima

Peru is a country in western South America, bordering Ecuador and Colombia to the north, Brazil to the east, Bolivia to the southeast, Chile to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. After Brazil and Argentina, Peru is the third-largest country in South America by area.

Peru has three distinct geographical regions, each with its own climatic characteristics: the Costa (coastal region), the Sierra (Andes, highlands), and the Selva (rain and cloud forests). The capital city, Lima, lies in the southern part of the Costa region.

Lima is the largest city in this Andean South American country. About 9 million people live within the city’s administrative area, and the neighbouring port city of Callao has an additional population of over 10 million. Lima is a major transport hub and Peru’s most important economic and cultural centre, home to numerous universities, colleges, museums, and historic buildings.

General Information

Estación Esperanza is a private, social-Christian aid project located in the slum areas north of Lima. Swiss national Miriam Bernales-Kühni and her Peruvian husband Carlos Bernales have been active there since 2014 and run the project.

The association currently works in five low-income neighbourhoods to support the educational and vocational development of children and young people. Their approach is systemic, meaning it includes the family environment. The goal is to enable individuals to shape their lives responsibly and independently, within a non-violent context and free from crime and gang involvement. Constructing their own kindergarten and school forms the strategic core of the project.

Beneficiaries

Lima, the fifth-largest city in South America, is surrounded by numerous informal settlements. Over the past decades, the country’s poorest have built their makeshift corrugated-metal huts here, hoping for a better life. These areas are home to an estimated 10 million people.

Although Peru has seen economic progress in recent years, conditions in these slums remain precarious. Problems include drug trafficking, gang violence, alcoholism, domestic violence, and a paralysing passivity that prevents people from shaping a constructive future.

The Estación Esperanza project offers families — especially women, adolescents, and children — a place to gather and provides alternatives to life on the street. Through leisure activities and various training and education programmes, participants receive support for their personal development.

In 2024, the project regularly supported around 80 children, 40 adolescents, 30 women and several men. Activities were run by the Estación Esperanza team with the support of local volunteers.

Project-Support

Project: Construction of Kindergarten and School

School attendance is technically compulsory in Peru, and most parents strongly wish for their children to receive a good education. Education is the only legal path out of the cycle of poverty. However, state schools often lack sufficient places for all children — especially those from the slums — and private schools are unaffordable. As a result, many children receive only poor schooling or none at all.

For a long time, the project tried to collaborate with nearby private schools, but none of these partnerships proved sustainable. Therefore, the Estación Esperanza Association decided that building its own kindergarten and school was the only viable solution. The kindergarten began operating in March 2025.

The next construction stage includes four primary school classrooms, a toilet facility for the primary level, and a multi-purpose hall. Planned outdoor developments include protective and retaining walls, a playground area, landscaping, seating tiers, and lighting.