Global Volunteers works in partnership with the directors of Puericultorio Perez Aranibar, a large "Children's Home" serving 600 at-risk children ages birth to 17. The facility provides security, safe housing, nutritious meals, and a good education on a sprawling, oceanside campus near the city center.
Late in the 1920s, Augusto Perez Aranibar, a Peruvian dentist and philanthropist, envisioned the facility to respond to the shocking and growing number of "street children" who roamed the city's neighborhoods. Having no children himself, the story goes, he resolved to "adopt" a family of hundreds.
After years of fundraising, Aranibar puchased a giant tract of land along the shoreline on the outskirts of Lima and worked with local architects to design and build a "palace for the abandoned." The institution opened its doors in 1930. While it is now run by Peru's Ministry of Family Welfare and Women's Affairs, Dr. Aranibar's image is prominent on the campus and in its history.
