(MissionNewswire) The Don Bosco Foundation in Lima, Peru, supports community kitchens to help address issues of hunger in the region. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), there are 3.1 million people in Peru who suffer from hunger. The fear is that this number will rise considerably with the pandemic.

In almost all of Lima’s poor neighborhoods and in its city center, families organize to cook what is given to them, often using wood to light the fire and recycled materials. They share meals among families to help ensure people have enough to eat.

Father Raúl Acuña, director of the Don Bosco Foundation, said, “We all remember the sad era of the 1980s when the poorest of Peru used this method to survive. There were days when we had nothing to eat and we suffered more than anything else for our children.”

Thousands of Peruvians and Venezuelan migrants in Peru are facing the same hardships today. According to the National Statistics Institute of Peru, there are roughly 1.2 million people in Lima who are currently unemployed. Some indications from the ESAN University speculate that this rate could rise to 4.2 million by the end of the year, primarily due to the pandemic.

Don Bosco Foundation supports local initiatives to feed families and ensure they have their basic needs met. In the face of the pandemic, the Salesian response continues to be vigorous and tireless. Salesians have launched an awareness campaign to help educate people about coronavirus and prevention efforts. They have made and distributed masks, sanitary kits, and food to people in need while supporting local efforts like community kitchens. Salesians continue to assess the situation in their centers and communities and provide relief to those most in need.

Peru faces high levels of income inequality and has more than a quarter of its population living in poverty, according to the World Bank. Poverty levels are significantly higher in rural areas but urban areas struggle most with inequality, most notably metropolitan Lima. Poverty in the country is made worse by a shortage of productive farmland and a lack of job skills among women entering the workforce, as well as a lack of adequate housing, nutrition and education.

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Sources:

ANS Photos (usage permissions and guidelines must be requested from ANS) 

ANS – Peru – Community kitchen: “We want to demonstrate that there is no authentic Christian life without social commitment”

Salesian Missions – Peru

World Bank – Peru