“You may only be one person in the world, but you may be all the world to one child.” -Fr. Wasson

NPH Country Reports 2006

Peru

“There is nothing so tragic as a lonely child.”-Fr. Wasson

Dear Friends, As we are entering our third year here in Peru, we think we have accomplished so much in our two previous years. The relationship with the local authorities especially the family fiscals and judges has improved a little bit since the first year of operations. However, we have also realized that they are more exigent with us with regard to the care we offer the children in our facilities. We have also participated in the events and seminars they have organized in our city. We also have to compliment the children and the caretakers for they have done an outstanding job for the past two years participating in all the activities that we have done and as a matter of fact, we hope they continue with that willingness once we move to our new city where our property is located. Another of the big achievements that we celebrated this past year was the final purchase of the long awaited property in the city of Cañete. Funds from our friends were secured to pay the rest of the missing money in early April. One of our main wishes for this New Year is that we find the money to start construction of the Ciudadela “Santa Rosa de Lima” on the beautiful property. This year, we also saw the involvement of the local people with the children. Some students brought clothes for our children. We also saw the donation of some sacks of rice and sugar from a generous person, and during Christmas some local friends brought some treats for the children. During the last part of the year, we have been planning very carefully the movement to our new place for the first months of 2007. We hope that a large percentage of the children will come and continue with us in our new place but that is up to them, the local authorities and of course their relatives. I hope you enjoy this update and I want to thank you all for your constant support and also my sincere gratitude to all our employees who everyday strive to be the best parents for these children that are under our care. Thank you all, Alfredo Hernandez National Director – NPH Peru

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EMPLOYEES 2006

LAWYER, 5%

KITCHEN STAFF, 11%

PSYCHOLOGIST, 5%

ADMINISTRATIVE, 11%

CAREGIVER´S, 68%

OPERATIONAL EXPENSES 2006

CLOTHING2%

EDUCATION3%

M EDICAL3%

M AINTENENCE2%

HOUSING15%

SHERING FOUND0%

PUBLIC SERVICES6%

CHAR. DON & PUBLIC ASSIST.

0%

GNRAL ADM IT. E EXPENSES

9%

FOOD12%

SALARIES, BENEFITS & TAXES

20%

FEES & INSURANCE25%

TRANSPORTATION3%

ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT After going through another full year of operations at NPH Peru, we were able to implement so many of the NPHI Policies that were requested from us during the course of the year. In fact, the main objective of the accounting department is to control all the expenses and income we get from our donors. My job is to ensure that the money we get is well spent on the necessities that we require in our daily activities for all the benefit of the children and employees.

In early June, I received a training session at the main offices of Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos in Mexico with the software that we are using for the accountability here in Peru. This trip has also helped me to have an ample vision of the work NPH does in the Latin American region. It means a lot to me to work for an institution that pursues noble aims in helping orphaned and abandoned children and it has allowed me to renew my commitment

with the home to the future site which is Cañete. During this year, we have also implemented rigorous internal controls at both homes (boys and girls) in order to optimize the use of the resources we have at the suggestions of both our external auditor and NPHI. The external audit report was made and performed during the month of May. We have also implemented new polices of internal control such as emissions of checks which gives us a greater detail of the conducted operation.

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This year our biggest expenditure of our budget went to fees and insurance which includes our lawyer’s fees as a consultant, lost in exchange and payment of the audit external report. Gilmer Alva Sarmiento Accountant - NPH PERU

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BABIES’ HOME

During this year, we observed lots of changes and advances in the babies’ growth and development. One of those cases where we have seen a significant change is in Maria Elena, a little girl who suffers from a thyroid condition and who takes a pill everyday to regulate this problem. At this moment, she is starting to walk without any help and she is starting to say lots of words with the assistance of the caretakers. When Maria Elena joined our family in February 2005, at the age of two months, she did not move and did not even make any sounds. Now after almost two years, she has made lots of progress and this is possible because of all you benefactors who make miracles in the lives of children like Maria Elena. Nowadays, she has a medical check up every month, to determine the amount of the pill she needs to take, and with the help of the caretakers she is getting early childhood stimulation as well as the other babies. The early child

stimulation was begun at the suggestion of our director of family services during his visit to NPH Peru this year. A room that we used to have for all our visitors has now been implemented with games, balls and other accessories for the small program which takes place every morning for one hour for all the babies.

We see everyday happy faces in our babies and the enormous dedication that our caretakers dedicate very devotedly to each one of them and the dedication that there is from their part toward the little ones.

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BOYS’ HOME The year 2006 was very full of activities in our home, “San Martin de Porres” in honor of a great Peruvian saint known throughout of Latin America. First of all, all our children continue to excel both at home and school, which satisfies all of us since we have been teaching them good moral values that each one will need in their future life. This year also saw the incorporation of three more tíos, or caretakers to work with the children and each one of them had a lot of challenges in the beginnings but little by little, each one of the caretakers started to have a sense of connection with the children which, as we know, is essential in order for us to gain their trust and affection as mentors or surrogate fathers.

One of the most rewarding things for all of us here at the home was the successful school year all our children had. We were so proud that once again some of them got diplomas for their outstanding achievements during the entire year. Renso, Oswaldo, Franklin and Jhon Carlos were some of the students to earn this distinction. Their achievement motivated all of us more than ever for we see the results of our own work and the enormous patience we have with all these children who we treat as our own even

though we have children and families of our own.

Keeping ourselves committed to work with these children has taught all the caretakers a great deal in our young lives for I never thought we would bond so nicely with our children. In fact, we have come to love all these children as if they were our own for that is the philosophy of NPH. During this year, we also implemented some new programs at our home. Some of them turned out to be

very successful. As a result, we noticed that some of these programs gave most of our children a greater sense of autonomy and independence which resulted in better

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academic performance and a greater sense of responsibility at home and school. This also gave them the real sense of belonging to a large family. In addition, the children were always more receptive to the people who visited us during the year and were willing to participate more actively and openly in the events that were organized for them such as the chocolatadas, a typical Peruvian celebration which takes place usually during the months of November and December, and the donations of clothes by some local people and all the field trips that were done during the year. Furthermore, some of our children continue with their psychological therapies with our own psychologist and we have seen a positive change of attitude with our older children in self esteem and personal motivation. All the caretakers from the Peruvian family want to thank you once again for all your generous support during this past year and we hope to continue striving for the best for all the children under our care. With Gratitude, Lenin Revilla Chuquimango Boys’ Home Coordinator – NPH Peru

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GIRLS’ HOME

Childcare has always been a challenge for all of us here at our home in Peru for we emphasize lots of love, good moral values and above all respect, discipline, responsibility and unconditional love from our caregivers. Indeed, we are very happy with the results that we have seen during this past year with our girls. In fact, all these children have needed since their arrival to NPH is love, for most of them have suffered some

type of abuse at their hands of their relatives and parents. In general, my team and I are very happy with the changes and progress that all our girls in our home have made during this past year. Four new caretakers joined our team during the course of the year to work more closely with the babies who now require more attention from our part since most of them are already walking and touching everything in the home. This is the area where we have seen the most work during the whole year. There were also new arrivals who managed to settle quickly and nicely into our home as was the case for Milagros, Mayra, and Vilma. For the younger ones, it took a while since for them everything was new and the environment seemed too good to be true. This was the case for Erlinda, Janet Del Pilar, Hermelinda, Anel and Franklin Isaac. But as usual, with all the love of our caretakers, the children are doing fine now. Since, we are moving sometime next year to the city where NPH has its new property, our dream is that all the girls under our care come with us but we know that is impossible. Hopefully, we can have a miracle because it will be very hard for all of us to see our work for the past two years being gone in a matter of seconds. From all the caretakers and the girls from Peru, we send our deepest gratitude to all the benefactors who make this job possible and to help better the lives of these girls who need so much love from our parts. Sonia Teran Correa Girls’ Home Coodinator – NPH Peru

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EDUCATION Education is an important part in the lives of our children here in Peru since Fr. Wasson always mentioned that “Education is what is going to take my children out of the cycle of poverty”. All the children attended once again public schools in different areas of Cajamarca. However, this year was full of achievements for all of us for we saw the graduation of five children from Primary school (Franklin, Rafael, Jhon Carlos, Milagros and Vilma) and

Anel from Kindergarten. We were also blessed to have some of our children obtain personal achievements at their schools as was the case for Renzo, Oswaldo, Milagros, Rosa and Franklin. These children earned high marks all year long. These results have forced us to look into our goals for this coming 2007 to better the academics of some of the other children. Nevertheless, we should not forget that all the children were able to pass their final exams and consequently their respective grades. We congratulated very sincerely our children for their academic achievements and we wish them the best this coming year. We are also very proud that we will have five more children going to secondary school this coming year and they will not be alone for we already have six children attending this past year secondary school. Furthermore, all of us a NPH Peru are so enthusiastic that the children have persevered in their goals of taking advantage of the education they are getting for they know that their future is in their hands with the guidance and mentoring of all the caregivers.

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RELIGION DEPARTMENT The spiritual life is an essential part of our children’s upbringing. We attend mass at a Catholic church located in our community every Sunday where we all get together. This year, we had the opportunity to celebrate the baptisms of 38 of our children including the babies. The caretakers stood up as the Godparents for these important events in the lives of our children. At the same time, after eight months of preparation at the community local church and with the help of the catechists, our younger boys and girls had the opportunity

to celebrate their First Communion at the same church were we celebrated the baptisms the previous month. Fr. Pedro Caceres, the local priest, was the one who celebrated both events. We are very thankful for all his generosity and assistance during the celebrations of these two events. Furthermore, this was part

of Fr. Wasson’s philosophy in order for all of us to become better human beings. And for our part, we feel glad that our children were welcomed into the world of Jesus.

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HEALTH DEPARMENT During this year we could see lots of positive developments in the babies and the growth of all the children in general. This year, all the children presented very few illnesses such as headaches and colds which are very common here in Cajamarca. Our children had regular blood tests, parasites checks once again, dental exams and repairs where necessary. Vaccinations were also given to our children by local authorities in nationwide campaigns by the Peruvian Ministry of Health. These vaccinations included yellow fever, rubella and the influenza vaccine in the little clinic where we take our children and which is run by some religious nuns.

We also had the visit of Dr. Joaquin Costa, a doctor from Spain who stayed here with us for a month and during his time as a volunteer, he measured and weighed all the children to see if their development was improving from the day they arrived at NPH. He stayed at the girls’ home in the guest room and every day visited the boys’ home, walking about a mile. We are also very thankful to Dr. Joaquin for helping us organize the medical files of all the children and for the health seminars he very

gladly held for employees and children alike in the importance of personal hygiene. We also thanked him very much for all the goodies he brought from Barcelona for the children. We also have a Psychologist who is coming to see all the children three days a week and is working very closely with those children that have had a very traumatic past in their young lives. She has done some seminars with all the caretakers in order to teach them how to detect conduct problems with our children.

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SOCIAL WORK DEPARTMENT We pursued various activities with the competent authorities and other actors involved with children. Primarily, we continued to identify young orphans in a state of abandonment and began the process to determine whether we could welcome to our home. At the beginning of year, the relationship between NPH PERU and the Public Ministry, as well as the courts appeared to have improved; nevertheless, as the months passed everything returned to normal. Our time was divided between home visits; new children arrivals; and paperwork for the judicial files, such as supplying information on the behavior and evolution of the children, participation of the relatives in the visits and the acceleration of processes of the minor under our care, always try to obtain the results as quickly as possible. However, the Peruvian judicial system maintains an extensive workload which prevents them from accelerating the abandonment processes of the children that are with us. This process is often further delayed when the relatives or witnesses whom the court has notified in advance do not appear to render their declarations. During this past year, we have managed to obtain only one resolution of abandonment and that corresponds to brothers Alcides and Benito, in spite of having relatives who visit them during the indicated dates. A surprising case involves Maria Elena, who entered NPH almost two years ago when she was two months old. She has never received any visitors whatsoever and nevertheless, she has not been declared abandoned. This is an example of the incoherence that we have found in our judicial system. It is clear that each court or judge has different criteria for declaring a final resolution or sentence. We also had the arrival of twenty eight children during this past year; however, some children did not adapt to NPH and as a result, were transferred to other government run homes in our city. In spite of these obstacles, we also had the cooperation of some people interested in supporting our children. The children participated in sports events with similar institutions as well as in the diverse activities of their schools. However, what offered me greater satisfaction was to see our children demonstrating good behavior, acting responsibly, and showing affection and solidarity with their siblings and tutors, both at home and at school. Janet Gamarra Social Worker – NPH Peru

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Year 2006

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SPONSORSHIP DEPARTMENT

The year 2006 was our first complete year in the Sponsorship Department; it was a year full of blessings for all the children in Peru, because most of them had the opportunity to share letters and photos with their Godparents. Some children even received some gifts and were very happy to feel loved by their Godparents. Sometimes our children had difficulties writing letters by themselves, but with the generous help of the Tíos and Tías (caretakers) we are

able to inform the Godparents about the progress of their godchildren. The children celebrated Godparent Day for the first time; each child sent a card to his/her sponsor. Also, the children did an outstanding job on the Christmas cards for their Godparents, and for the first time we are also able to send the reports cards to each one of the sponsors. Thanks to all the people that work at the different offices in Europe and the US, all the children received gifts for their birthdays and Christmas and all of them were very happy. We celebrated the birthdays of each one of our children at the end of each month with the older boys and girls going out for dinner. In addition, we shared a cake and all the children also received a small gift. We celebrated the birthdays of the youngest children at home. Most of the children have contact with their sponsors by mail. When we receive mail, it is delivered immediately to the children so they can answer the letters. Some need to be translated and others go directly as the children write them. Sadly, some of our children may not continue living with us in 2007 as we move our home to Cañete to build Ciudadela Santa Rosa de Lima. We hope our sponsors will be understanding and continue to support our children in the future home. Our most sincere thanks to all the Godparents for their generosity and help. Beatriz Lopez Sponsorship Department

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