Westfalia Orphanage is home to around 100 children in 7 houses. Each house has 3 bedrooms and each room houses 4 or 5 children. Due to the rigours of time (and kids being kids!), we needed to replace 72 window panes of the childrens’ accomodation and other rooms.
The area has a huge mosquito problem, it gets very cold at night in Cieneguilla (below 10ºC or 50ºF), not to mention the dangers of sharp glass around the kids, so it was an urgent project.
It was financed with money left over from our Christmas Party (Dec 17) and Christmas turkey lunch (Dec 24) so I want to send out a big thank you again to those that donated.
Sonrisas has a lot planned for this year. We’ve already started swimming lessons, we’re taking the entire orphanage to the beach next weekend (the first time that most of the kids will see the ocean!), and we’re hoping to start the repair/painting of the childrens’ rooms next month. But all the things cost money so we desperately need help. If you are able please send a donation or email us here to donate clothes, books, etc. Please tell your friends and family about www.sonrisasenperu.org. Thanks for your support!
To continue the Christmas/holiday season we put on a traditional turkey lunch for the kids on Christmas Eve to help celebrate Christmas. Christmas Eve is normally a very quiet, lonely time for the kids but we fired it up with nibblies, soft drink, amazing food, games, and sweets.
We played some games including musical chairs (one of the kids’ favourites) and water balloon catching (a pair of kids start close and throw the water bomb to each other and then take a step back and repeat the process until the water bomb explodes on someone!).
Then at the end we armed each child with a water bomb and it turned into a free-for-all.
We had a lot of chips, drinks and lollies before the traditional turkey lunch and even a spot of dancing!
We handed out Christmas presents to those who missed out on the Christmas Party on December 17th as well as a Christmas pack for all the ‘tias’ and ‘tios’ (aunties and uncles) – the staff who work so hard every day to create a family environment for these kids.
After this we had some general fun including improvising games and activities for the kids to keep them amused.
The Christmas traditional turkey lunch was a great success and a lot of fun and, like everything sonrisasenperu.org does, impossible without your help and support. If we hadn’t put on this day the kids’ would have literally sat around doing absolutely nothing. Can you imagine 100 orphans sitting around on the most festive day of the year? As if they haven’t gone through enough without having to feel even more lonely on such a day. So I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who helped out. The friends of New York who raised money at their Christmas party, Patricia from France who raised money at her birthday party, Kelly and the gang at British Ex-Pats and everyone else who donated money, food, clothes and time. A huge thanks to Sean and his son Andrew for coming out and being so generous, as well as George, Alex, Stef, Minnie, Sharita and Ricardo.
Money raised is also going to our other projects. We’re about to replace 72 broken window panes of the childrens’ accomodation as well the other buildings. The area has a terrible mosquito problem, Cieneguilla is extremely cold at night and the sharp edges of the broken glass is extremely dangerous for the children so this is an urgent one. We’re also going to paint the childrens’ rooms. There are 4 or 5 children per room and the walls are old brickwork that is in desperate need of some love. We’ve already started weekly swimming lessons at a local pool and purchased the kickboards and floats. BUT, we need your help to continue. If you are able to help us carry out these projects please send us a donation, and remember every dollar counts! Find us on facebook as well, and feel free to tell your friends and family about us!
On Saturday 17th Sonrisasenperu hosted the annual Westfalia Orphanage Christmas Party and, with the help of so many people, it was even bigger and better than last year. There were lots of games and prizes, face painting, a delicious lunch of a Peruvian national dish (arroz con pollo), jelly, chocolate milk, soft drink and sweets. It was such a special day for the 94 orphans that come from all over Peru and live at the remote orphanage in Cieneguilla on the outskirts of Lima.
A huge thank you to the energetic George S and his tireless work helping me organize everything. Also a big thanks to Pamela who helps me so much every week. Miguel, Lilly, Silvia and the gang at New Horizons, Kelly and the gang at British Ex-Pats, the staff and students at Business Links and all the amazing donors who helped make this day possible.
Each child received two gifts each and it was amazing to see the looks on their faces as they came up and collected them. These aren’t kids who have playstations, MP3’s, and toys we took for granted growing up so their faces were beaming as they came up.
There were also some people who attended the party and gave out the actual gifts they bought for the kids.
And seeing the kids opening their presents was an amazing sight.
The kids really enjoyed the games and face painting.
So again, a big thank you to those who have helped us make this event so special. And thank you to all those who have donated funds, food, clothes, and their time to these kids. Over the past 2 years I have personally seen amazing changes in the demeanour of these children. All come from dire situations whether it be physical or sexual abuse, abandonment, from the streets, or simply that their families cannot afford to care for them. They come from all parts of Peru and join this big family. And they continually grow in character from shy and reserved children into loving, confident, caring, empathetic teenagers. And this doesn’t simply occur through giving food, clothes or classes but from constant contact and letting them know that people do care about them; that they are worthwhile. And the children are well aware of the global help they receive and constantly ask me about the people and countries that contribute. So thank you.
Our next event for the kids is a traditional turkey Christmas lunch on December 24. Sonrisasenperu is also planning new projects for 2012 including classes for Westfalia Orphanage (such as swimming, art and English) as well as the painting and repair of the kids’ accommodation, more museum and cultural trips for the kids (including a trip to the beach as only a couple of the 100 kids at Westfalia have seen the ocean), as well as visits to terminally-ill children in hospital. If you would like to help out please click here or help spread the word. Thanks!
On December 17 we’re hosting our annual Sonrisasenperu Christmas party for the 100 kids of Westfalia Orphanage. These kids all come from broken and abusive homes, abandonment or their families had to give them up as they simply don’t have the money to care for them. These kids don’t have toys, video games, televisions or any of the things we took for granted as kids so we want to brighten up their Christmas which is traditionally a sad time for them as they don’t have the family time we all have.
We started to get the children to write letters asking for what they wanted for Christmas and noticed that instead of asking for Barbie dolls or toy trucks, the kids were generally asking for food and fruit! Some were also asking for their school text books for the following year (since they generally had to copy the teachers’ books the whole year as they couldn’t afford their own). But we’re going to organise each child a present anyway as well as throw a party for the kids with food, drinks and lots of games. We’re even going to try and hire a jumping castle depending on the costs … BUT we need your help! If you can help out please send us a donation, and remember every dollar counts! And if you would also like a Christmas card that the kids personally made send us an email. If you’re here in Lima Peru and want to donate a gift, please send us an email.
You can also see photos of the children at http://thechildrenofwestfaliaorphanage.wordpress.com/up-close-and-personal-individual-photos/ or check out more info on Westfalia Orphanage
One of the aims of sonrisasenperu is to be a link here in Peru between those who wish to help but aren`t sure how to and those so in need in rural Peru. We receive donations from everyday people in the form of educational materials, books, clothes, shoes, blankets, toys, electrical appliances, and food as well as money. Some people even travel vast distances to bring these donations to Peru and we`ve received donations from Australia, the United States and Europe. In this post we wish to say a big thank you to all of you who have donated to the various projects and share some of the photos.
From Rebecca and the Canterbury College kids from Brisbane Australia dragging 6 huge bags of clothes and books through 3 airports, Wally from Illinois in the U.S. and his contributors. Natalie, Sandra, Sharon and their wonderful families bringing 85 pairs of shoes from Virginia, U.S.A., Bronwyn from Brisbane and her fundraising efforts, to my old school friend Wanda organising a fund raiser at the Marsden High, Brisbane Australia reunion. And in Lima Peru to the many people who have donated everything from food, clothes, toys, books and stationery and even a blender! Thanks also to those who have come out to visit Westfalia Orphanage and those that have helped out with events and projects.
Remember that almost all of the rural kids we support own nothing except the clothes on their backs and shortages of books and even food is an everday event. We always need help so if you are able please send a donation or email us here to donate clothes, books, etc. Please tell your friends and family about www.sonrisasenperu.org. Thanks!
School has just started in Peru and Westfalia Orphanage needs your help to supply the 90 children with the prescribed textbooks, books and stationery. While they use donated books (including tearing out the used pages) there are some prescribed text books that they need to have. The cost is around US $60 per student which covers all the materials for the whole year. The orphanage is extremely poor and the only government assistance they receive is a monthly quota of rice so if you are able to help please click here and make a difference. As little as $5 will help to educate these children. If you are in Lima and would like to donate any books or materials please send us an email. As always, please share this link with your friends and family.
These kids have no family and need all the help they can get. Help us make a difference.
The following article is a submission to the September 2011 J-Festa hosted by Japingu with the theme “Events in Japan”.
On December 17, 1996 the official residence of the Japanese ambassador, Morihisha Aoki, in Lima, Peru was raided by fourteen members of the Marxist revolutionary group Tùpac Amaru revolutionary Movement (MRTA). In what began as a festive occasion celebrating the 63rd birthday of Emperor Akihito soon turned into terror as hundreds of high-level diplomats, government and military officials and business executives were taken hostage (including 24 Japanese citizens). During the months that followed, the rebels released all female hostages and all but 72 of the men.
The crisis ended after 126 days in dramatic fashion as Peruvian Armed Forces commandos stormed the complex through underground tunnels, exploded holes in walls and direct assault through the main door, during which one hostage, two commandos, and all the MRTA militants died.
Ironically it may have been due to the diligence of the Japanese that saw a protracted hostage crisis. The Japanese ambassador’s residence had previously been converted into a fortress by the Japanese government. It was surrounded by a 12-foot wall, and had grates on all windows, bullet-proof glass in many windows, and doors built to withstand the impact of a grenade. This made it an easy site to defend from the inside.
Peruvian Commandos assault captured Japanese residence
Due to the high number of officials attending the cocktail party the complex had been guarded by over 300 heavily armed police officers and bodyguards. Nevertheless the 14 terrorists blasted a hole in the garden wall and stormed in. The rebels said they targeted the home of Aoki because of the “constant meddling of the Japanese government” in the South American nation. They singled out Japan’s foreign assistance program in Peru for criticism, arguing that this aid benefited only a narrow segment of society. Alberto Fujimori, Peru’s president at the time, is of Japanese descent and had close ties with Japan.
The MRTA insurgents made several demands, most importantly the release of about 400 of their comrades from prisons around Peru, including the leader, Nèstor Cerpa`s own wife. Publicly the Peruvian president, Fujimori, wanted a peaceful solution to the crisis. He created a negotiation team to find a peaceful solution, a team that included the country’s archbishop Juan Luis Cipriani, the Peruvian Red Cross, and the Canadian Ambassador Anthony Vincent, who had briefly been a hostage. He met the prime minister of Japan, Ryutaro Hashimoto in Canada and even talked with the Cuban leader Fidel castro, raising speculation that the MRTA guerrillas may be allowed to go to Cuba as political exiles. He also travelled to London to “find a country that would give asylum to the MRTA group”. Privately, however, Fujimori had no intention of allowing the rebels to succeed, or, arguably, even to live as upcoming events showed.
Terrorist message
Fujimori´s private plan could be likened to something out of a Cold War spy movie. Over the course of weeks, cameras and microphones were being placed in key locations throughout the building by those hostages with military training, such as Navy Admiral Luis Giampietri. Brought in from the outside, these were hidden in water bottles, books and board games let in by the terrorists. The hostages themselves were allowed to have clean clothes, and the clothes sent in by the Peruvian Government were all light-coloured, which would later allow commandos to easily tell them apart from darkly clothed terrorists.
Extensive tunnels were being dug from adjacent buildings, leading to several key points under the Japanese residence. To conceal the noise patriotic music was played from the outside of the building while tanks repeated rolled back and forward. Terrorist leader Néstor Cerpa did, however, hear the sound of digging, and suspicious of a forced entry attempt moved all the hostages to the second floor, inadvertently helping keep them out of harm`s way.
And the rescue began on 22 April 1997, more than four months after the beginning of the siege. A team of 140 Peruvian commandos mounted a dramatic raid on the residence. Three explosive charges exploded almost simultaneously in three different rooms on the first floor. The first explosion occurred in the middle of the room where the soccer game was taking place, killing three of the terrorists immediately – two of the men involved in the game, and one of the women watching from the sidelines. Through the hole created by that blast and the other two explosions, 30 commandos stormed into the building, chasing the surviving MRTA members in order to stop them before they could reach the second floor.
MRTA Terrorist
Two other moves were made simultaneously with the explosions. In the first, 20 commandos launched a direct assault at the front door in order to join their comrades inside the waiting room, where the main staircase to the second floor was located. On their way in, they found the two other female MRTA militants guarding the front door. Behind the first wave of commandos storming the door came another group of soldiers carrying ladders, which they placed against the rear walls of the building.
In the final prong of the coordinated attack, another group of commandos emerged from two tunnels that had reached the backyard of the residence. These soldiers quickly scaled the ladders that had been placed for them. Their task was to blow out a grenade-proof door on the second floor, through which the hostages would be evacuated, and to make two openings in the roof so that they could kill the MRTA members upstairs before they had time to execute the hostages.
In the end, all 14 MRTA guerrillas, one hostage (Dr. Carlos Giusti Acuña, member of the Supreme Court who had pre-existing heart health problems) and two soldiers died in the assault.
According to the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), MRTA member Roli Rojas was discovered attempting to walk out of the residency mixed with the hostages. A commando spotted him, took him to the back of the house, and executed him with a burst that blew off Rojas’ head. The DIA cable says that the commando’s intent had been to shoot just a single round into Rojas’ head, and due to the mistake the commando had to partially hide Roja’s body under that of Nestor Cerpa. The cable also says that another female MRTA member was executed after the raid.
The rescue created much controversy which continues to this day. According to a Defense Intelligence Agency report, Fujimori personally ordered the commandos participating in the raid to “take no MRTA alive”. Peruvian TV also showed Fujimori striding among the dead guerrillas immediately after the raid; some of the bodies were mutilated. Fujimori was famously photographed standing over the bodies of Nestor Cerpa and Roli Rojas on the main staircase of the residence, and Rojas’ destroyed head is noticeable in the photograph. Shortly thereafter President Fujimori was seen riding through Lima in a bus carrying the freed hostages. The military victory was publicized as a political triumph and used to bolster his hard-line stance against armed insurgent groups. His popularity ratings quickly doubled to nearly 70 percent, and he was acclaimed a national hero. For everyday Peruvians the effectiveness of the rescue bolstered national sentiment. Antonio Cisneros, a leading poet, said it had given Peruvians “a little bit of dignity. Nobody expected this efficiency, this speed. In military terms it was a First World job, not Third World”.
Peruvian Commandos assault captured Japanese residence
Doubts about the official version of events arose soon after the rescue. Some aspects of what happened during the rescue operation remained secret until the fall of the Fujimori government. Evidence appeared to show that surrendered MRTA members had been executed extrajudicially:
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One Japanese hostage, Hidetaka Ogura, former first secretary of the Japanese Embassy, who published a book in 2000 on the ordeal, stated that he saw one rebel, Eduardo Cruz (“Tito”), tied up in the garden shortly after the commandos stormed the building. Cruz was handed over alive to Colonel Jesùs Zamudio Aliaga, but along with the others he was later reported as having died during the assault.
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Former agriculture minister Rodolfo Muñante, declared in an interview eight hours after being freed that he heard one rebel shout “I surrender” prior to taking off his grenade-laden vest and turning himself over. Later, however, Muñante denied having said this.
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Another hostage, Máximo Rivera, then head of Peru’s anti-terrorism police, said recently he had heard similar accounts from other hostages after the raid.
Media reports also discussed a possible breach of international practices on taking of prisoners, committed on what was, under rules of diplomatic extraterritoriality, sovereign Japanese soil, and speculated that if charged, Fujimori could face prosecution in Japan.
What complicated matters further was that the bodies of the guerrillas were removed by military prosecutors; representatives from the Attorney General’s Office were not permitted entry. The corpses were not taken to the Institute of Forensic Medicine for autopsy as required by law. Rather, the bodies were taken to the morgue at the Police Hospital. It was there that the autopsies were performed. The autopsy reports were kept secret until 2001.
On 2 January 2001, the Peruvian human-rights organization APRODEH filed a criminal complaint on behalf of MRTA family members against Alberto Fujimori and some members of the Special Police and military. The bodies of the deceased MRTAs were exhumed and examined by forensic physicians and forensic anthropologists, experts from the Institute of Forensic Medicine, the Criminology Division of the National Police, and the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team, some of whom have served as experts for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Statements were taken from various officers who took part in the rescue operation and from some of the rescued hostages.
The examination done by the forensic anthropologists and forensic physicians revealed that Cruz Sánchez had been shot once in the back of the neck while in a defenseless posture vis-à-vis his assailant. Other forensic examinations established that it appears that eight of the guerrillas were shot in the back of the neck after capture or while defenseless because of injuries.
Domestic and international efforts to have the matter brought before the courts were eventually thwarted. Despite ongoing questions about the rescue, the commandos were honored and decorated, including those whom the judicial branch had under investigation for alleged involvement in the extrajudicial executions. On 29 July 2001, the commando squad was selected to lead the Independence Day military parade. This appeared to have been done to exert more pressure on the Supreme Court justices who had to decide the jurisdiction question raised by the military court, in order to make certain that it would be the military court that investigated the extrajudicial executions. The Supreme Court subsequently ruled that the military court system had jurisdiction over the 19 officers, thus declining jurisdiction in favour of the military tribunal. It held that the events had occurred in a district that at the time was under a state of emergency, and was part of a military operation conducted on orders from above. It further held that any crimes that the 19 officers may have committed were the jurisdiction of the military courts. It also ruled that the civilian criminal courts should retain jurisdiction over anyone other than the commandos who may have violated civilian laws.
Roughly ten months after the crisis began, Japan demolished its bombed-out and gutted diplomatic residence located in Lima’s residential area of San Isidro. “We are erasing the last remains of this nightmare,” a special policeman on guard outside the residence said at the time. “It’s a little bit more relaxed after all that tension”. The colonnaded home, built as a mockup of the antebellum home in “Gone with the Wind”, had been a shell since. The mansion’s walls were pockmarked with bullets and damaged by the bombs that exploded from tunnels underneath, while its crater-laden interior was blackened by fire.
In March 2006, a Peruvian court sentenced the leader of the MRTA to 32 years in prison. Victor Polay Campos was found guilty of nearly 30 crimes committed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Other four high-ranking rebels also received long prison sentences. Polay and his fellow commanders, who were charged with crimes ranging from kidnappings to an attack on the US embassy compound, had been imprisoned at a naval base in Callao near Lima since 1992. They were sentenced to life in prison by a military court in the 1990s. But in 2003, Peru’s constitutional tribunal ruled that their conviction was unconstitutional and ordered a retrial at a civilian court.
This article was also featured in the February 2011 Japan Blog Matsuri hosted by reesan with the theme “Famous Japanese Events”.
Sonrisasenperu hosted a Christmas party for the children at Westfalia Orphanage. It was an amazing day and we made sandwiches, jelly, bought chips, drinks, cakes and lollies. We played games such as musical chairs, pass-the-parcel (which they`d never heard of before and took some explaining!) and we even made up a game with water balloons. It was a fun day for these kids who call this orphanage their home and the other children their family.
A quick thank you to Geraint and Sue and the team at International Business Wales for making the effort to send toys, hats, shirts, pens and other stationery all the way to Peru from New York. They were a great hit with the kids, especially the toy dragons! Thanks to Pamela and Stef for making the effort to come all the way to Cieneguilla again to help out as well as supplying soft-drinks! The caffeine kept me going!
And a big thank you to all those who have sent donations, whether it be money, clothes, toys, food, or their time. These children who have come from abusive homes, who have come from the streets, who have no family really feel the love from the help they receive. Over the last year I have seen incredible changes in the confidence and self-worth of these kids. I have seen children who couldn`t look you in the eyes or sometimes not even talk to you now chatting away and making jokes. I have seen children who felt that they were unwanted now feel a part of a big family at Westfalia. So a big thank you to all those that have helped and also those that maybe couldn`t afford to help but have followed the work and told their friends and family about www.sonrisasenperu.org
Sonrisasenperu is planning new projects for 2011 including new classes for Westfalia Orphanage, more museum and cultural trips for the kids as well as weekly visits to terminally-ill children in hospital. If you would like to help out please click here or help spread the word. Thanks!
This week I was able to visit Heroes de la Breña, a primary school located on the outskirts of Lima. The school is located in a very poor area and was a perfect place to hand out the clothes and books donated by the students of Canterbury College in Brisbane, Australia.
A big thanks to Ms Rebecca Shadbolt and the students at Canterbury College who went to Cusco, Peru this year to build chimneys and install water tanks in the town of Huatatato. They travelled all the way from Brisbane, Australia through 4 airports and gave me 8 big bags of clothes, books, pens, shoes and other school materials. Not to mention frisbees and AFL footballs! Amazing effort!
The children in rural Peru are almost always in a state of need whether it be food, clothes, books or other school materials. As always, if you can help in any way please click How Can I Help?
Westfalia is an orphanage situated about 90 minutes outside of Lima, Peru and provides housing and care for around 100 children with ages varying from 4 to 17. While Westfalia Orphanage has several self-sustaining strategies in place such as growing their own fruit and vegetables and baking their own bread, the constant needs of 100 children and carers are very demanding. There are only so many potatoes they can grow, and they can’t supply all the children’s needs.
Rural schools and institutions do not receive the necessary government support and Westfalia constantly struggles to maintain food levels. The actual government supply the orphanage receives is only a monthly quota of rice. They are forced to rely on charity to meet its needs. The situation is always so extreme that meat is not included in their diet. The kids will only have meat on special occasions, when available, sometimes once per month.
So sonrisasenperu is organising a food drive in the lead up to Christmas. Simply donating as little as $5 will make a difference in the food levels at Westfalia Orphanage. So if you can help out please click here and help make a difference in the lives of these kids. If you are in Lima and wish to donate food items (or clothes, books, etc.) simply send us an email. You can also help out by sending this link to your work colleagues and friends. These kids really need help and its not hard for us to make a difference. Thanks!
