Holy Cross Students Launch Development Center In Peru
Thursday, August 08, 2013
Photo: John Buckingham
The goal of the project is to work with local residents to create opportunities to strengthen their community. The start of construction will put that process in motion, providing employment and opportunities involving as many citizens as possible. Additionally, the center provides a much-needed place of gathering for local citizens. It will serve as a foundation out of which smaller community initiatives will be run, which the students refer to as a “social justice collective.”
The students hope the community involvement will expedite construction and foster a sense of community achievement and responsibility. The center is expected to open by mid-August.
Pueblos jovenes
Chiclayo is a city in Northern Peru surrounded by “pueblos jovenes” (young towns), a nickname given to the many shantytowns that surround cities in Peru. They are inhabited by mostly indigenous Peruvians and dotted with poorly-constructed shacks that lack running water and other basic services. Nearly 80 percent of indigenous Peruvians live in poverty, according to UNICEF Peru.
“Hopelessness is compounded by harsh realities such as lack of education and food,” McNamara and Ryan wrote in their proposal. “This creates a sense of turmoil and despair, giving rise to antisocial attitudes that lead some to abandon their families. Others, equally desperate, turn to crime to feed their family. In both instances, abuse of spouse and children is common, as is the abuse of alcohol and drugs.”
The planned three-room, one-bathroom community center will stimulate new community initiatives and will also centralize those already begun. In an effort to break the cycle of violence, poverty, and drug activity, the students will work with the people to promote virtues such as self-reliance, personal responsibility, and the concern for others inherent in teamwork.
Opposites attract
Ryan and McNamara say their differing aspirations yet similar values and work ethic led them to collaborate. Roommates since their freshman year, they have spent nearly two years planning and executing their current initiative. Despite their different interests and academic studies, Ryan says they “take cue from Kant that the two things that fill us the most with awe and admiration are ‘the starry skies above and the moral law within.’ ”
Ryan has traversed Peru multiple times and is a Peruvian citizen who has lived in Chiclayo. He speaks Spanish and French, and has construction experience from working in Tijuana, Mexico. He was on campus earlier this summer as a research assistant for Joshua Congdon-Hohman, Assistant Professor of Economics, exploring the local economic impact of primary elections. He also worked with Charles Anderton, Professor of Economics, examining risk factors for violence against civilians in armed conflict.
McNamara speaks Spanish and gained construction experience after volunteering with church groups in Biloxi, Miss., following Hurricane Katrina. A lab researcher at Holy Cross’ microbiology lab, he hopes to utilize his medical interests to form connections with Chiclayo’s local hospital, therefore improving the standards of health and sanitation in the process. He spent a month this summer shadowing a surgeon at Tufts Medical Center in Boston.
A plan for peace
For nearly a month last summer, Ryan traveled around northern Peru, visiting the pueblos jovenes of the region and independently taking records of his experiences with future projects in mind. The small population sizes of pueblo jovenes (often a few hundred) allows them to collect data and refine economic and civic models that, if successful, can be replicated in areas that reflect similar conditions.
“Such information may one day help toward the eradication of domestic violence and reduce crime in impoverished areas through targeted, efficient, and inclusive community-based initiatives teaching personal responsibility,” they wrote in their proposal. “Pueblos jovenes suffer from neither civil war nor the myriad conflicts plaguing humanity elsewhere, yet are undoubtedly trapped by cyclical violence and inherent dysfunction,” they say. “Where other areas are sadly decades from progressing into modernity, these towns are but a few, albeit massive, hurdles from establishing lasting peace.”
McNamara and Ryan acknowledge the profound difficulty in the task of “establishing peace” but are determined, nonetheless, to pursue its solutions. They have finalized 501(c)(3) status for a nonprofit organization, Many Hands, Inc., to carry out their ambitions.
Check out past Holy Cross Davis Projects for Peace recipients here: Jeffrey Reppucci ’14, John Rubayiza ’13, and Scarlett Piantini ’11.
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