Huánuco

The city of Huánuco with its 300,000 inhabitants is situated on the western slopes of the Peruvian Andes, where the high mountains of the sierra touch what is left of the lowland rainforests of the Amazon basin. Our partners within the international network of Chance e.V. are the Peruvian non-profit organization Chance-Peru and the Christian church „Comunidad Cristiana Vida Nueva.”

For more than 20 years drug lords and Maoist terrorists controlled the entire province. The area was one of the hot spots of coca production and terrorism. Cocaine was smuggled to Colombia from here. Some villages in the rainforests lost over 30 percent of their population in the brutal internal war between mafia, rebels and government troops.

In many places people suffered great violence; and in some cases victims and perpetrators continue to live together in the same villages and neighborhoods. Many witnessed the torture, rape and killings of their relatives and friends. According to research done by the national government in Lima, Huánuco continues to be the second poorest region in all of Peru.

Countless people leave the impoverished villages in the remote mountain and rainforest areas. Consequently the slums all around the city of Huánuco are growing at a high rate. Every year, the slums creep further up the mountain slopes. Unemployment and underemployment reach almost 70 percent. But where should the people go to find help in their distress and hope in their despair? Many do not know how they could possibly improve their living conditions.