babies with peace palsTucked away in an obscure, isolated part of Cusco, Peru, is a little piece of heaven for girls who have known little peace in their young lives. No signs mark the location, only angels painted on the high walls protecting the residents designate the shelter.
Casa de Acogida Mantay (''Mother'' in the native language of Quechua) was founded in June, 2000, to help mothers ranging from 12 to 18 years old and their children find safety and respect. These girls are from abusive homes and are placed by the courts to help them learn to be good parents and productive citizens. Currently Mantay houses 11 mommas and 2 pregnant girls.
The girls attend local schools and learn self esteem, hygiene and parenting while at the shelter. Also, the girls are required to work at the shelter with cooking, laundry, housekeeping and in the office. By the time the girls reach the age of 17, they must select a specialty so that they can financially support themselves after leaving the shelter at age 18. They learn skills such as cosmetology and ''workshop''.
After graduating, many of the girls are hired by the workshop, which produces leather goods, like purses and bags, to be distributed and sold in shops around the world.
The babies are watched in the shelter's child care while the girls are at school. The babies sleep with their momma until the age of 5 years old.
When I learned about Mantay Shelter, several friends and I got busy making Peace Pals for me to deliver to Cusco on my up-coming trip to Peru. We made almost 50 dolls, as we didn't know how many residents lived there. As I counted out dolls for the babies, the director asked if we also would provide dolls for the residents, as they themselves were still children and we brought so many. Of course, we agreed!
A big ''Thank You'' to Adventure Life Travel Agency for leading us to Mantay! Going there and presenting the residents with Peace Pals was truly a blessing to me and a life-changing experience.
We've used Adventure Life for several trips in the past and have always been very pleased with them. The staff is personable and professional at the same time. Erin put this trip together for us in just a few days, and it has everything we were looking for! I recommend them without hesitation.
benn
4 weeks ago
I served as the person responsible for planning a trip to Galapagos and Machu Picchu for a group of 14 people. Jane with Adventure Life was very helpful throughout the process. Making suggestions, offering insight, and in the end helped me overhaul an initial plan into something even better. Also, Jane makes all the plans including the flights within and between Peru and Ecuador. Thanks to her this is going to be a stress-free adventure. After making the final decision about the trip, Jane gathered the contact information for all the travelers and sent out the details to each traveler individually with links to pay deposits, upload passport info, and personal preferences. She also ensured a group email was sent out to the entire group welcoming us to the trip preparation process. Our trip is a year from now and we are excited to make this once in a life time trek. I am happy to have organized things through Adventure Life. However, two small issues came up that were a little off putting. First, Adventure Life adds $50 per person to the cost for each traveler as a donation to a Galapagos conservation fund. I think this should he offered as something that can be added at each traveler’s discretion. Instead, it is automatically added, and each person must ask to have it removed if they do not want it included. Second, although the trip deposit may be paid with a credit card without incurring an additional fee, the balance must be paid in another way to avoid a 3% credit card fee. Maybe this is standard with all travel agencies. In the end I would definitely go through Adventure Life for the next big trip.
Brenda Nielsen
1 month ago
I think it was very helpful that Franny and I spoke on the phone. I think she had a better idea of what we were looking for, and she planned a great itinerary for us!
Elizabeth
2 months ago
My representative Kevin was very responsive generally and in crafting our itinerary to our specific priorities.
Rocco Labella
3 months ago
Easy.
Great work on the follow up and details by Waru.