These students are living proof that life is changing in the rural mountains of Peru, where indigenous farming communities have long been isolated from the modern world. When I say isolated, I mean the children live as far as a 10-hour walk from the nearest high school, in villages so remote they don’t have a priest to say Mass more than two days a year. Most of the adults have little or no formal education, and until recent times, they didn’t consider it important. But now they want to see their children become something more than subsistence farmers, and they know that can’t happen unless they learn reading, writing, and arithmetic.
Thanks to Fr. Jose, the children are not only acquiring the academic skills they need – they’re also learning Catholic moral values and developing habits of prayer and devotion to Christ that will benefit them throughout their lives.
-Tony M.