Centro Yanachaga: A History of Hope
The story of Centro Yanachaga, a project to house children from very poor families, which celebrated its 33rd anniversary in 2023, began with the purchase of an old hacienda near Oxapampa in the Sierra of Peru by two teachers from the German school in Lima. This hacienda of the German immigrant family Böttger is located at the edge of the nature reserve National Park Yanachaga-Chemillén, in the Selva Alta, a beautiful mountain jungle landscape. The area purchased by the Humboldt teachers covers 800 hectares, of which about 100 hectares are used by the project, the remaining area remains untouched virgin forest.
Providing Education and Opportunity for Underprivileged Girls
After the transformation of the hacienda into the current Centro Yanachaga, which today houses 40 boys, the German sponsoring association, which was founded later, acquired another large plot of land nearby, in Quillazú, where three houses for 20 girls could be built. These young people are of secondary school age, i.e. between 12 and 17 years old, and come from families that belong to the extremely poor population. Moreover, they often live so far away from schools that a school degree would be unattainable for them without the opportunities that the center can offer them.
Empowering Students for the Future
For this purpose, there are a variety of possibilities at the Hacienda in the so-called EAPNES, which are workshop lessons in which the students can learn and gain practical experience in areas such as organic vegetable production, environmentally and animal friendly dairy farming, trout farming, chicken farming, bakery, carpentry, beekeeping, tourism and gastronomy. These workshop lessons are accompanied and guided by pedagogical staff and workers of the center. As a rule, the young people, not only finish their school education successfully, but also have developed basics and a perspective for their future life.
Supporting Centro Yanachaga Through Donations and Partnership
The maintenance and support of the centers is largely financed by donations from Germany, with the exception of the income from their own production. We from 5Loops are helping 60 teenagers by donating our glasses to encourage them in their school career and support them in their everyday lives. In this way, we are actively helping to lay the foundation for a secure future for these young people. More about the project and information on how you can support it can be found here: Centro Yanachaga – Peru-Aktion e.V. – PROSOYA
