Pan de Vida: the meal with a message

PERU Focus

Pan de Vida’s principal aim is to meet some of the physical and spiritual needs of children living in the country’s poverty-ridden urban shantytowns.

In the early morning, a local mother serves buns to children at the Esmeralda de los Andes Church (`Emerald of the Andes`) as part of the Pan de Vida program, run by the Peruvian Bible Society and the Urban-Rural Holistic Mission (MISIUR). Lima, Peru. Photo: UBS/Stein Mydske (PER03DJ-70.JPG)

Between 30 and 50 per cent of Peru’s 27 million people live below the poverty line, many in extreme poverty. Under the terms of Pan de Vida, hundreds of children are given a nutritious once-daily breakfast, lunch or supper, usually on the premises of a local church, with the pastor and some volunteers acting as hosts and facilitators.

With the meal comes exposure to the Gospel, through Bible teaching by the minister with the aid of Scriptures, colouring books and so on supplied by the Peruvian Bible Society.

Depending on the local resources, some of the Pan de Vida projects, such as Puentes de Vida (see related story) have, in addition, become centres of academic support for the children, of lifeskills training for their parents and even health centres.

Christian ethos

All the services on offer are steeped in the Christian ethos and aspire to endow the children with Christian attitudes. The organisers firmly believe that this will not only improve their chances in life as individuals but, if taken up widely enough, will contribute to the making of a better Peru. (WR 388/3 - 10/11.04)