Pour Qu’ils Vivent

At the heart of our mission: to feed underprivileged children in Peru and Columbia, at the age when they are most at risk and to prepare them to enter junior high school, intellectually and materially.

Micaela Bastidas Center, Lima, Peru
Lunchtime

How?

The children are accommodated in five centers staffed by local personnel (teachers or profesoras, cooks).
All the French supervisors are unpaid volunteers. In 2019, our internal expenses came to 7% of our budget. As every year, this includes several trips, one of which is a month-long inspection tour, the distribution of two printed newsletters, and membership in a fund which assures the stability of sister organizations.
The close contact we keep with our centers allows us to adapt constantly to the evolving expectations and needs of the children.

El Rocio, Cazuca (Bogotá), Columbia
Dorelly checking the children’s notebooks

On site, the staff of our Peruvian and Columbian centers are entirely local, and are paid by Pour Qu’ils Vivent (with their social services covered); other expenses are for the children’s food and education, for the rental and improvement of the buildings which accommodate them, as well as for utilities (gas, water, electricity). Both in Peru and in Columbia, the directors of the centers have been working with us since the 1980s and we have established a close working relationship with them.

Micaela Bastidas Center, Lima, Peru
The entire team of cooks and “profesoras” with our president (October 2019)

In 2019, 128 subscribers (mainly in France, but also in Peru, Germany, and England) helped finance this project, recognized in 1984 by the La Croix International Human Rights Prize and backed by APAEC (Association of Adoptive Parents of Colombian Children www.apaec.org) and AYDENCO (United Action for Columbia aydenco.fr). In addition to our regular subscribers, who give a monthly contribution of their choice, we also receive one-time contributions from individuals.

Our President, Sylvie Benda :  

Our Treasurer, Luc Delétoille,
member of the 2019 trip :  
luc.deletoille@free.fr
LA BANQUE POSTALE
35506 40G La Source

Our Secretary, Daniel Chapron :  
pourquilsvivent75@gmail.com

All meetings of the executive committee, as well as the general assembly of course, are open to all those interested.

Mailing address (main office) : Pour qu’ils vivent / chez Paulhan – 32-36 rue d’Annam 75020 Paris

Email : pourquilsvivent75@gmail.com

We hope to hear from you!
You will get no

• fancy brochure,
• postcard, stationery, or personalized return mail labels,
• gadget with our logo,
• phone call or follow-up letter!

And we will not accost you in the street.
You may consult past issues of our bulletin on this page.

Juan Rey (Bogotá, Columbia)
Illegal neighborhood, where several of the children in our centers live

Did you know?

27 euros represents the monthly cost for education and balanced nutrition for children, at an age when their cognitive skills can be affected by malnutrition for the rest of their lives, in our Peruvian and Columbian centers.

80 euros (for a uniform, tracksuit, black shoes and tennis shoes, all in the school’s colors) represent the cost of an entrance outfit for a child to a public junior high (primary and secondary) in Columbia.

270 is the number of children we support directly (for reasons of efficiency, we work with other associations which care for 420 children in all, in 6 centers in Bogota and 2 in Lima). In 2019 we sent 85,034 euros to our centers.

Updated January 2, 2020
 

Niños del mañana, Lima, Peru
Children in morning classes around Judith

Juan Rey Center (Bogotá, Columbia)
The children in Fanny’s class; Fanny lives in the neighborhood as do the other educators

2020: The consequences of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the centers' activity very strongly, in both Colombia and Peru.

In Colombia, the Government decreed a lockdown and ordered the closure of all schools as of March 23. Our centers in Juan Rey, Cazuca and Santa-Librada therefore had to close. Under lockdown, many Colombians in poor neighborhoods, such as those where our centers are located, suffered above all from a lack of food due to the absence of work, without any assistance to compensate. This did not fail to grab our attention since improving nutrition and education are the primary motives for our activities. A system was gradually organized for the distribution of food packages to the families of the children in our centers and the exchange of notebooks between the children and teachers to ensure educational continuity, all in compliance with public health regulations.

In Peru, the start of the school year is generally scheduled for the beginning of March, but it has been postponed indefinitely. The children follow their lessons on the Internet or on television, which broadcasts the school curriculum developed by the government. Our teachers, confined to their homes, phone the families to make sure that the children are following the program, and report once a month to representatives of the Ministry of Education. Regarding food, parcels made by our centers' manager are sent every two weeks to our two centers where parents come to pick them up, always in compliance with public health regulations.

Overall, it appears that the centers will not reopen until 2021, given the continued heavy impact of the pandemic in these two countries.

Text written in October 2020

Distribution of food packages
Niños del mañana (Peru)

Distribution of food packages
Cazuca (Colombia)

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