Free to.... in Lima, Peru: by Kilian Moote

The Not For Sale campaign was founded on five specific platforms, Free to: learn, play, be, create, and work. These were created to initiate action within a wide range of constituents. For the most part the five platforms can incorporate any individual with a desire to take action.

Over the past few weeks we, three University of San Francisco students, have been visiting and working with the children of Generacion in Peru. Throughout our stay here, these five platforms have taken on a deeper and more important meaning. Not only are they unique and innovative ways for constituents like ourselves to get involved, they are an essential part of the children at Generacion’s lives. During the day the kids are where all children their age should be, in the classroom learning. Lucy, the founder of Generacion, has one main rule: to live at Generacion the kids must go to school. When the final bell rings, sounding the end of the school day the kids of Generacion waist no time in engaging themselves in one of the other platforms. The older ones quickly head home, change into their wet suits, and grab their surfboards (both of which were donated by various constituent families). Rarely does a day go by that Generacion kids will not be seen playing on the beach or surfing the waves along the San Bartolo boardwalk. A few have become good enough to stand out among Peru’s Southern Coast natives and have the makings of legends on the San Bartolo waves.

While the older kids are thrashing about in the ocean, the Generacion house is far from dormant. Instead the remainder of the children are sure to be creating music using either a guitar, piano, or flute (with the helping hand of “el professor,” a man who travels two hours round trip to work with the kids). Those who have yet to return are liable to have stopped by the local soccer pitch to play a quick game or headed straight to the skate park.

After dinner, when all has settled down a couple who are not exhausted from a day of learning, creating, and playing might decide to do some work to help support themselves and Generacion. This work consists of string together unique Peruvian river pearls into a beautiful necklace to be sold online, available in the Freedom store. This is simple work that keeps them doing what they love and safe from exploitation. Spending one day with these energetic, sharp, and outgoing kids is enough to realize how essential not for sale’s five platforms truly are. Not only do they encourage each individual to enact change in their own way, they also allow the kids vulnerable to trafficking to have a more complete and fulfilling childhood. Through being able to create, learn, play, work, and be these children are breaking their own cycle of poverty by living a fulfilling childhood and learning life skills that will keep them off the streets and safe from trafficking.

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