Rurapuk Information

The Rurapuk Hot Lunch Program provides a hot lunch for 30 nutritionally at risk children five times a week. Some of the children in the neighborhood have stunted growth due to malnutrion and for many this is their only hot meal of the day. The children are selected for the program with the help of a local, professional social worker. The Rurapuk Hot Lunch Program was started in 2001 by three Peruvian volunteers, with the assistance of Kristine, who runs the Rurapuk project. The first donation for the project came from a Peruvian woman, Martha, who lives in England. She wanted to do something for poor children in her own country, so she sent money for the project to her mother, Asha, who was 78 years old and lives here in Lima with her other daughter, Maetreyii. Asha, Maetreyii and Kristine, with the assistance of a professional social worker, organized the hot lunch program for children in Paraiso Alto. After three months, however, all of the money that Martha had sent was used up. Just at that moment, Mitsue Kanaoka and her husband appeared as if by a miracle. The Kanaokas, visitors from Kyoto, Japan, who donated 1,000 US dollars, saved the project. These wonderful Japanese tourists who were just happening by and who the team had never met before gave 1,000 US dollars to continue the project. If you would like to contribute to keeping this program and others running, please go to our Donate page for more details.