Seemingly a home like many others – with a TV set, a washing machine, duties and pleasures. But for the boys who were made to live on the street it is often the only chance for a better life in the present and the future.

The Ayllu Situwa home came into existence out of commitment and heart of Lima volunteers and street workers. One of them was Jacek Klisowski. He came from Poland to Peru as a Comboni cleric. He did not become a missionary but he fell in love with the street children he worked with and who were part of the reason he decided to stay in Peru.

We quickly understood that temporary assistance would never be sufficient. I was sitting on a bench in the waiting room at the prosecutor’s office. I was waiting for another boy. Suddenly I realized he would leave with me but there was no shelter I could give him. We would say ‘bye’ and then I would go my way and he would return to the street. I was sitting on the bench thinking how good it would be to have a house I could take him to, recollects Klisowski.

Three years later the Ayllu Situwa home was established. Initially it was a shelter for the youth who wanted to leave the gang structure and start living a normal life. The first kids found their way there through the back door.
Four and a half year ago Antenor and Julio’s mother came up to me and said: I have these two twins. Take them, please, I am asking you. I have eight children, all of whom are on the streets. It took me two weeks to think it over. Finally I agreed. The boys had little in common with average children, having spent the whole lives on the street. They resembled of small, wild animals that had to be tamed – remembers Klisowski.

Over time volunteers and Klisowski himself noticed huge potential dormant in such small children. Doing the same amount of work within the same period of time you can achieve incomparably bigger results. Older children are more deeply integrated into street life and, what is worse, into drugs. Our home was not suitable for teenagers addicted to drugs. We would have had to create a therapeutic community with an atmosphere of strict discipline and with the door closed, and I had always wanted to have a home with an open door. A home with a family-like atmosphere– explains Klisowski.

Today there are 10 boys aged 6 – 16 living in the Ayllu Situwa home. Jacek Klisowski lives and works with them. He prepares breakfast, sends them to school, takes them to the doctor, buys shoes, trousers, and eyeglasses if the need arises. On a day-to-day basis he is helped by Polish and Peruvian volunteers as he himself has to work to financially support the house.

Though Ayllu Situwa is the home those boys had never had, Klisowski knows that it is not enough. Nobody wants to be raised in an institution, no matter how wonderful it may be – he admits. Working with their families is as important as raising the children. We can create hundreds of homes, fill them with thousands of children, but what will happen when they want to become independent? They will go to the streets and crash into the first obstacle in the way, all because they do not know how to survive in the real world. That is why we want to provide them with a family-type home, up to 10 people, not somewhere outside Lima but in a normal district, so that they can have friends and create relations with their neighbours. Consequently, the boys make bonds not only with me or with the institution but also with the local community.

Jacek has been running the Ayllu Situwa home for over 5 years now. They are supported by his work and the help of friends. But the boys are growing and so are their needs. We can help them.