La Casa de Veronica

Thursday morning Ruben and I went to find the 21 girls that said they were interested in checking out La Casa de Veronica (the home that Lucy is building to house girls that do not want to work as prostitutes any more) so we could all take a bus together. The first “house” that we went to had quite a few girls there. The girls live in a very old house in not the best part of Lima. The place is dirty, falling apart, and smells terrible. There were about seven girls there that we were trying to convince to come with us. Only one of them seemed very excited to go. After a lot of talking, we told them we would come back after we looked for the other girls.

We went to three other places to look for girls. Two houses didn’t answer at all, and at one of them a man answered and wouldn’t let us in. He told us that the girls changed their mind and they didn’t want to come. There’s really no way to know for sure, but there wasn’t anything we could do about it. So we went back to the first house. After more convincing, and a visit from Lucy, we had 8 girls come with us.
When we arrived at La Casa de Veronica, the church group from Georgia was there and they set up a mini spa area for the girls with manicures, facials, makeup, and foot massages. The girls had a lot of fun, and it was very relaxing. After first class spa treatment, we ate lunch or dinner, I never know what meal I’m eating in Peru. Then later in the night we had a conversation about sexual transmitted diseases and the importance of protecting yourself. A lot of the time these girls don’t use protection because it is very expensive and because clients at times refuse to let the girls use condoms. We talked about how it is important to realize how our actions today will affect us in the future. It is clear that all of the girls realized that it is important to protect oneself, however it’s easier said than done.

At La Casa de Veronica, I spent a lot of time talking to a social worker. Her job is to talk to the girls and record their histories. Basically she’s an expert at a skill I am trying to get into for this project. She helped me with my questions and showed me the ones that she uses for interviews. She also told me that I could have access to results of interviews with trafficking victims that she’s already done, (yes, perfect!) The next day, I sat in during an interview with the social worker and one of the girls. I learned a lot about how to interview and how to conduct mine differently the next time that I go to the streets.

Overall, the two day workshop at La Casa de Veronica was a success. Even though there weren’t as many girls as hoped, there will be more in the future. For sure there are two girls, probably three that want to stay at the house. They’ve said that they don’t want to work on the streets anymore and they are ready to put that life behind. There are other girls that are back and forth on whether they want to go or not. I think it’s because they feel like by living at the house they are giving up their freedom and they would be away from the city life. I think what they don’t realize is that they wouldn’t be giving up freedom at all, they would be gaining it. By living at the house, they will be able to get an education and will be able to eventually support themselves. It’s going to take awhile for this concept to sink in for the girls, it’s a life they haven’t considered before. First, La Casa de Veronica needs to prove that it can be successful by helping the few girls that are there. Once the others see what their lives can be, I think they will want to live there too.