Hundreds of minors live in precarious conditions, overcrowded, without access to quality water and, as has been confirmed in recent weeks, threatened by sexual violence. In 2018, the government commissioned FONCODES to improve 25 of these residences in Cajamarca, Amazonas and Loreto. Five years later, this entity did not carry out even one of them and ended up returning the money.
“Did you know that the Ministry of Education (Minedu) promotes secondary schools in rural areas with student residences that serve more than 18,000 students in various regions of the country? Minedu about this program just 4 months ago.
According to this portfolio, the educational service allows “access to quality education and for students to complete their studies in a timely manner.” But the reality is different. Above all, after it was reported that more than 500 teachers sexually abused their students in different rural areas of Amazon. All of this between 2010 and May 2024, where, in addition, several of the minors were infected with HIV.
The oblivion continues
There are hundreds of minors who live and are educated in the student residences of Amazonas and Loreto. All of them coexist under a more than precarious infrastructure. Without a place to put books, with clothes hanging from the ceiling and without sanitary facilities. This is how students live in those boarding schools.
The 226 students of the Arutam School in Boca Chinganaza, on the Santiago River (Condorcanqui) only have two precarious toilets.
The women’s residence in the Kusu Kubaim community, located by the Comaina River, is the largest in Cenepa (Condorcanqui). There, the 24 students who live there only have a silo and a ravine to bathe in. Another 36 students require a space in the residence, but have not obtained it.
In the Huampami student residence (Amazon) there have been reported cases of adults who entered the minors’ bedrooms without any problem in the middle of the night. Likewise, the students must clean up outside the school, so they must cross, in groups of 5, a bridge that could collapse at any moment.
In Iquitos, the students of the women’s residence at the Instituto Superior Tecnológico Fe y Alegría-El Milagro sleep in tents inside a prefabricated construction.
Located on the Iquitos-Nauta highway, this educational center includes primary, secondary, CETPRO and institute and is the only establishment where girls and women in that area can go.
fatal chronology
In 2015, the Ombudsman’s Office warned of these serious conditions, but it was not until four years later that the Emergency Decree No. 006-2019 in which it was established that the Cooperation Fund for Social Development (FONCODES) would be the entity in charge of the construction of 25 residences (3 in Cajamarca, 12 in Amazonas, 8 in Loreto).
Emergency Decree 006-2019 | PDF | Budget | Peru
Emergency Decree 006-2019
Despite the issuance of said decree, which only had the title and not the execution, only in 2022 did Congress issue Law No. 31472, with which the implementation and equipment of student residences in rural areas. However, a year later, FONCODES issued the Official No. 110-2023-MIDIS/FONCODES-DE with which the application is concluded without completing a single residence. The money should have returned to the general state budget.
“It is concluded that to date the 25 agreements of the Modular Structures of Student Residences have been resolved. Therefore, by virtue of the meeting held on 12/29/2022, we request that you evaluate a care strategy (post-resolution of the agreements),” the document reads.
Will ministers travel?
Romer Orrego, president of the Aguaruna and Huambisa Council Organization and Raquel Caicat, vice president of the Regional Organization of Indigenous Peoples, announced that on June 28, the heads of the Ministry of Education and Women will travel to Condorcaqui to apologize and engage in dialogue with community leaders.
All of this, after the unacceptable statements in which both affirmed that the rape of Awajún minors was a “cultural practice.”
However, it seems that plans are changing, because this morning the president of the Council of Ministers, Gustavo Adrianzenreported that the date of the trip has not yet been determined.
“We have not yet determined the date on which this trip can take place, but what I am in a position to affirm is that in the Amazonas region an advance team, made up of the vice minister of governance, the vice minister of women, the vice minister of vulnerable populations, the vice minister of benefits (Minsa) will attend along with other specialists to meet at a technical table,” he told the media.
