COUNTRY / PROBLEM
Peru is a country in Latin America. Located in the jungle in the north of the country, Iquitos, with a population of more than 400 thousand inhabitants, is the world’s largest city inaccessible by land. The only way to get there is by plane or boat.
The poorest part of Iquitos, the Belén district, is flooded for almost half a year by water from the Amazon basin, which causes many problems for the local community, such as drownings and diseases connected with water pollution, which are a huge challenge for the residents. In Belén, people live in very poor sanitary conditions – due to the lack of sewerage, they discharge waste directly into the river, where they then wash themselves, their clothes, and even the dishes in which they prepare meals.
ORGANISATION
INFANT (Instituto de Formación de Adolescentes y Niños Trabajadores) is a Peruvian non-governmental organisation founded in 1999 with the aim of helping children. The organisation’s activities focus on providing children with broadly-defined education, as well as developing and promoting all their rights. In line with INFANT’s tenets, children play an active role in shaping and developing the society, which is why the organisation involves its beneficiaries in the processes of management and decision-making. At the same time, it inspires them to learn how to solve their problems independently, and to help each other while doing that.
In Iquitos, INFANT’s employees support children in the implementation of projects aimed at changing their reality. These include the rescue project under the name of “Children to the rescue”, which, among other things, involves the organisation’s beneficiaries to patrol the places inhabited by children who cannot swim. Swimming lessons for the youngest children are conducted too. Thanks to these initiatives, no child has drowned in Belén since 2017 and, according to the organisation’s estimates, there previously had been 12 child drownings in Iquitos every year.
INFANT’s beneficiaries in Iquitos also get involved in campaigns for combating domestic violence and cleaning the river.
PROJECTS
Kulczyk Foundation supports the “Children to the rescue” project, helping INFANT to continue its efforts that save the lives of the youngest inhabitants of Belén.
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