The orphanage has quite a bit of land, here, in Peru. There are several buildings and a small house on our property. A few weeks, ago, the 'Rancho' building and the small house were robbed. These two buildings have families living in them and the families were present during the robberies. It was traumatic for the families, as you can imagine. The 'ladrones' took all of their money, cameras, cellular phones, televisions, a stove and the baby's milk. Thankfully, the robbers did not hurt anyone.
Looking back, there are so many reasons we could give about why the robbery occurred, but, instead, I'll share that we were able to work on some positive changes for security at the albergue. Joel and I witnessed everyone pulling together to make the changes and even the local churches, community and some police came to help.
We have created an emergency plan for the workers, madre tutoras, volunteers and children and we added 2 more vigilantes (or night watchman) for each night. The orphanage has also formed friendships with two surrounding companies and their vigilantes. Overall, our facility is much safer and we, again, have seen the blessing of community.
We painted some of the walls white, which surround the property. This provides more illumination/reflection when the vigilante is on duty. He is able to see if people are passing by and has a clearer vision of the property.
We also put in a ton of lights around the buildings that were robbed and also more lights at the orphanage. Thanks to Erin (one of the volunteers), her church and family, and to First Lutheran Church in Gypsum we were able to buy enough lights for all 3 building and the driveway.
A local company brought their tractor and helped us install lights along the main driveway. A few weeks of work and we have a safe and secure facility.
