In Emergencies,
#ChildhoodFirst
Six years have passed since we met Rosa Maribel Vilcherrez Valverde in Piura. She welcomes us in a protection and socio-emotional containment tent that UNICEF set up in Pedregal Grande, in Catacaos - Piura, northern Peru in 2017 following the floods caused by the El Niño Coastal Phenomenon, and which is still functioning.
Pedregal Grande, Catacaos in Piura, a northern Peruvian region.
Maribel is not alone in the "Tent of Joy", she is in the company of those who were the first users of this protection space. Most of them are now teenagers and others are university students. They all fondly remember their time here.
“I was about to turn 10 when my house was flooded. I saw how the water rose quickly. We didn't have time for anything, the water was up to an adult's neck. We were out of the house for four months. When we came back, everything was mud. The adults stayed there cleaning and we went to the tent; we sang, played, talked, everything was very nice, I made new friends”
Cristopher Estrada, who is now 12 years old and during the 2017 emergency was just 6 years old, also remembers those moments.
"The tent was our favourite place. We had fun and forgot all the bad things. The day of the flood people were screaming, crying, and they took us out in pots and buckets. The whole village was sad and in poverty. After two months we returned and went to the tent to forget about all those bad things. I came to the tent when I was six years old, I liked it”.
Along with them, there is a new generation of children who come to the "Tent of Joy", which has never closed and continues to operate. It is no longer open every day, only on special dates, but when it rains, Maribel always opens the doors to welcome and protect the children.
Maribel's life has been told by the media in Piura. She survived when the Piura River flooded Pedregal Grande during the El Niño Coastal Phenomenon in 2017. She spent a night on the roof of her house with her daughter Marcia Alejandra, watching the water flow carry her things down what used to be her street. All her effort was washed away by the river, but she was grateful to be alive.
Maribel and Marcia left for the desert on the Piura-Chiclayo highway, the only place they had to find shelter. Maribel experienced hunger, thirst, fear and sickness, but she learned to lead a communal kitchen first, and she then became a protection promoter.
"I received talks, I worked with the children, we taught them their rights, how to protect themselves from physical violence or prevent sexual assaults. We took care of them, we played a lot with them because we were sad, traumatised by what we had to live through with the flood, but we knew that they shouldn't go on like that”.
She spent four months there, but fell ill with dengue fever and was taken to Piura for medical care. Her family decided to leave the desert and take back their home. Back in Pedregal Grande, her daughter discovered a tent. It had also been set up by UNICEF on Comercio Street with support from the delegated municipality. For the second time, Maribel became a protection volunteer.
That experience filled her with confidence. Maribel obtained a scholarship to apply to SENATI (National Service for Training in Industrial Work) and now holds a diploma. She is currently studying to become an art teacher at the School of Fine Arts in Piura. She says she realised that studying and serving the community were important for her personal development and that of her people. This year, her daughter Marcia entered university to study Law.
"My daughter is developing a project to help the children of Pedregal, she will start with something small for Christmas and that makes me very proud. My daughter has understood that we can serve, without expecting anything in return”.
What to do to protect children and adolescents in emergencies?
When emergencies and natural disasters occur, children and adolescents face the most severe consequences: injuries, illnesses related to malnutrition, lack of access to safe water and sanitation; displacement and family separation. In addition, the impoverishment of their families exposes them to a greater risk of abuse, exploitation and trafficking. All this has an impact on their physical and mental health, and on the exercise of their rights.
↗ More information here (available in Spanish)
If you want to join UNICEF's actions in Peru you can do so through our street fundraising teams or by visiting https://bit.ly/donar_.
