Peru: Pro Humanus is an association founded in 2004, which supports the population in underdeveloped areas in the Andes. Their involvement covers the field of education, teacher training, health and culture and thus contributes to a more humane future. “We are committed to an education that supports the human development, strengthens personality and promotes individual skills. The idea is to educate children and adolescents in such a way that they will be able to positively shape their lives in a time of growing challenges.”

In the early years the Pro Humanus team has been involved in a socio-cultural project in the outskirts of Lima. The severe earthquake of 2007 and the artistic and educational rehabilitation work, provided by Pro Humanus in this context, can be seen as the beginning for the ongoing commitment to support the disadvantaged population in Peru. The people benefiting from that first project asked the Pro Humanus team to continue with their work in village schools and kindergartens and also support teachers through training seminars. As a result, in 2008, the involvement of Pro Humanus was extended to the high Andean regions in collaboration with a local organization (ADECAP). The project “school on the move” was developed.

In the fertile valleys of the Andes, far from the modern city of Lima, the association works in traditional villages where dwellings are made of mud bricks and where people still speak the Quechua language and maintain their cultural heritage. Due to the increasing global influences from outside, people think of Waldorf education as a forward-looking approach that meets the needs of their cultural traditions.

Following up on requests of local kindergartens and primary schools, Pro Humanus conducts educational training modules over a period of several weeks in the area around Huancavelica and Cusco. The attendants soon learn that school can be more than just frontal classroom teaching or simple memorizing of facts, but that learning can be fun and relates to their lives. Parents are actively involved in the learning process of their children. In addition to the courses offered to teacher of the participating schools, Pro Humanus offers several-week training courses for teachers also from other initiatives within and outside of Peru.

In cooperation with the Centro Medico Antroposófico and together with volunteers from various institutions in Lima, Pro Humanus cares for children suffering from cancer in a public hospital in Lima since 2008. Due to the sterile not-child-friendly environment of the hospital the needs of children are often neglected. Pro Humanus accompanies these children and their families with music, painting, games and fairy tales. Especially the combination of art and education thereby has a healing effect.