The Mosoq Runa Association was created in April 2001 by two volunteers in Peru who wanted to make their work official. Since October 2000, they had been working with a group of children from Ccotohuincho, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Urubamba. A small city nestled in the Sacred Valley of the Incas, Urubamba lies approximately 60 km from Cusco, the ancient capital of the Incan Empire. Ccotohu
incho is an extremely poor area that still lacks basic facilities like running water, a sewage system, paved streets, health services and schools. Most families live in unsanitary conditions, which harm the children’s health, causing intestinal and respiratory infections. In most cases, the parents don’t have enough money to satisfy the basic needs of their many children, who lack everything from food and medical care to education. On top of all this, many people, both young and old, suffer from alcoholism, which causes much reckless behavior, including domestic violence, mostly directed towards women and children. Clearly, most of these children can’t help but turn out like their parents. The only way to break the cycle is to place them in a different environment, one in which they are safe from abuse, accepted, respected and heard. In such an environment, they can be motivated to realize their potential and inspired to have faith in themselves. Our educational and cultural project, Mosoq Runa, was born within and because of this world. Our purpose is twofold: first, to create a hogar (home) for “at risk” children and teenagers, second, to run workshops with vocational training for teenagers and young adults in the area.
