The Seed

This past Tuesday I met with the director of La Semilla (The Seed), Alicia Parades http://www.lasemilla.org.pe/. I love this organization, it is the first that I have seen in Lima that really focuses on prevention. Alicia explained to me that there are still many families that are feeling the effects of the political violence from “The Shining Path.” There are families from rural areas that have migrated to Lima looking for work. These children are at an extremely high risk for trafficking crimes because their families are very poor and struggling to survive. La Semilla focuses on these children, and instead of waiting for them to fall into the path of drug trafficking, prostitution, or begging, La Semilla assists these kids by educating them about the consequences of these choices. La Semilla has 3 areas in rural cities in Peru that they work in. These kids are brought to these rural areas where they are educated about life skills and provided basic education in language, math, cooking skills, music, drama and sports. The life skills taught focus on building confidence, educating the children are how to handle dangerous scenarios, and teaching them about their basic rights. These rights include the right not to be beaten, the right to an education, the right to safety, and the freedom of choice.

Alicia went on to say that violence and poverty and interrelated issues. By empowering the children she is helping them support themselves and reducing rates of poverty, which decreases the likelihood of violence. I very much agree with Alicia. La Semilla’s model needs to be replicated in more cities and in more countries. Once child at a time, La Semilla is making a difference. I asked Alicia if I would be allowed to visit one of the schools to see what the classroom was like. She told me that at this time school is closed because of “el gripe” (the swine flu) but classes will start again around the 5th of August and I would be allowed to go than. I am really excited to see the work that La Semilla is doing in action.

The only negative aspect of this meeting was that the purpose of my research is to find the numbers and the stories of the victims that are being trafficked in Peru, and La Semilla doesn’t have those cases. However, it is very good to learn about because I want to share the strategy of La Semilla with other organizations. I’ve noticed that here in Peru, many organizations don’t know the others exist, even if they are all working toward the same thing. After this meeting I decided that I want to connect these organizations with my report and make them aware of each other and what they are doing so that they can work together for the same purpose instead of working separately.