We’ve planted over 163,000 trees!
01 Jan, 2025
14 years ago, in the summer of 2011, a group of volunteers from Amoria Group travelled to the shantytown of Las Laderas to build homes for people living in extreme poverty across the region. This was our first trip to the region and it set the template for how we can make a difference to a community who needs the most support. We’ve been helping them ever since.
This June, 10 colleagues will once again be flying out to Las Laderas on what is now our sixth volunteering trip, to continue the work started all those years ago. The trip is self-funded by the volunteers, who are also raising money to cover the costs of the building materials and local labour.
Through the Amoria Bond Charitable Trust and our partnership with UK-based charity Project Peru, we’ve been changing lives in Las Laderas through on-the-ground support from our volunteer trips (where we’ve built over 100 houses, 3 soup kitchens and an extension to a children’s refuge that provides shelter, food and education for children without families or homes), through donations and fundraising to build homes and support local jobs, and by sending annual care packages to the refuge.
Where is Las Laderas ?
Las Laderas de Chillón is a shanty town near Lima, marked by extreme poverty. It is a community of 60,000 people where 2 in 10 families have no housing, and only 2 in 5 families have adequate water supply. The people living there face daily struggles coping with a lack of resources, lack of employment, lack of safety and fear of landslides and floods. It was also one of the areas hit hardest by COVID-19, with one of the highest mortality rates of the pandemic.
The Amoria Bond Charitable Trust has been partnering with Project Peru, who not only support this area by building shelter, offering education, and delivering essential supplies, but also provide work for local people, both in their refuge and through building projects. In collaboration with the local parish and social workers, they are actively working to build a better future for the community.
The trips and donations we’ve contributed over the years are vital for the Peruvian community and its future. These initiatives are not only essential for the survival of many, but also help secure a better and safer future for the children of Las Laderas.
What are we doing in 2025 to help Las Laderas?
Because this community still struggles with shelter, basic needs and employment, our work is far from done. In line with our promise to progress lives everywhere by giving back to the community, volunteers from across our offices will once again travel to Las Laderas in June to help with the construction of 20 new houses, with the potential to create homes for 100 people, and build another comedor (soup kitchen) that can feed over 200 people every day. These pictures show the exact location and a preview of how these houses are built.
Our volunteers will be building the houses and comedor alongside local workers, as well as helping cover the costs of materials through fundraising activities before the trip.
It costs £715 to build each one of these houses. A soup kitchen costs slightly more at £858. The houses may be simple, but with wooden walls, a metal roof, concrete floors and lockable doors and windows, they provide better shelter and security than most people in the region have access to.
How can you help?
Support our fundraising efforts!
Our goal is to raise £15,000 by June – every penny of which will go towards building these houses. The trip itself is entirely self-funded by our volunteers, who will be staying at the local refuge for the duration of the week.
Each volunteer has their own £1,000 fundraising target to hit, and we’re holding a range of activities to gather more donations, including our office auction and raffle at the end of May.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO CONTRIBUTE TO THIS WORTHY CAUSE, YOU CAN DONATE HERE: https://donorbox.org/amoria-group-peru-2025-fundraiser
Who are the volunteers for Amoria Group’s 2025 Peru Volunteer Trip?
Our volunteers for 2025 include a mix of senior and junior employees from Amoria Group’s different entities and offices in Manchester, Cologne and Dallas. Some have been to Las Laderas before and have experienced first hand the poverty in the region and the difference that the hard work makes; while others are due to experience it for the first time in June.
Each is funding their own flights and using their own annual leave, as well as committing to raising £1,000. They will be spending their days building homes with the local labourers, and their nights staying at the refuge. They’ll also be ending the week by taking the children from the refuge out on a day-trip to the zoo in Lima; an exciting event for many of these young people who only usually get to see the inside of the refuge or their local school.
These trips are not easy – the days are long, the environment is tough and the work is physically hard. But every person who has taken part over the last fourteen years has expressed how rewarding and life-changing the experience is for them.
Learn more about our 2025 volunteers, their reasons for joining and their excitement or trepidations as they’re faced with the reality of what they’ve signed up for in our video interviews below. Click on the video to see the whole playlist.
Do you want to help build a better future for the small community of Las Laderas?
You can! Donate and start progressing lives in Peru today.
