Food for Refugees
For over a month, Peru has shut down all but essential businesses to try to contain the corona virus. If you have money saved up you can survive easily enough. You can order food delivered to your door and go to the banks and pharmacies still. But if you are a refugee from Venezuela (there are an estimated 800,000 in Peru alone), life is much harder. You probably don't have any money saved up. Your job as a waitress in a restaurant is gone. You probably don't have a home and the landlord of the tiny apartment you are living in is probably threatening to kick you out for not paying your rent. Even begging on the street is hard as few people are out and foreigners (even us from North America) are held somewhat suspect during crises like this.
Because of this, SIM Peru has been delivering bags of food to Venezuelan refugees here. Today Mia, Mary Beth and I helped prepare 289 bags of rice, potatoes, spaghetti, tuna, evaporated milk, lentils, sugar, beans and a Gospel tract that others will take out to people on Friday and Saturday.
