Seven church members representing the Presbytery of San Jose recently traveled to Peru to watch and document what organizations there are doing for the environment.
However, they weren’t there to inform local people what to do or to resolve problems.
“That doesn't work,” said the Rev. Elizabeth Boatwright, who attends First Presbyterian Church of Mountain View and has traveled to Peru. “We wanted to hear their story, their solutions, their dreams. Then our job is to accompany them in prayer and to work with them as partners, praying and offering them all the resources we have to make that dream come true.”
The key, Boatwright said, is to be certain that Peruvians “own the solution.”
The team members visited Peru from May 19 to 26 and were particularly concerned about what Peruvian leaders are doing to handle local air and water pollution, oil pollution, lead poisoning, mining corruption, abuse of indigenous lands, and illegal trade. The church members then returned to the United States and presented their findings to their local churches.
“We were told that very few people come to see and hear what is going on, and [hear] the local solutions to the problem,” Boatwright said. “We were excited to come back and tell the story.”
Team members were originally scheduled to make the trip in 2020, but due to political unrest in Peru and complications related to the COVID pandemic, it was postponed to 2024. Mission teams from the Presbytery of San Jose previously traveled to Puerto Rico and Indonesia.
The team members represent six Presbyterian churches in Silicon Valley and Santa Cruz County. In addition to Boatwright, they are David Heacock, a member of Los Gatos Presbyterian, the Rev. Deborah Troester, pastor of Santa Teresa Hills Presbyterian, the Rev. Karla Kress of Saint Andrew Presbyterian in Aptos, Mary and Barry Vickery of Sunnyvale Presbyterian and Olga Enciso Smith of Westminster Presbyterian in the Rose Garden neighborhood of San Jose.
The group visited four major areas in Peru, including a memorial in Lima that commemorates the thousands of Peruvians who went missing, kidnapped or killed during the Shining Path years from 1980 to 2000. The terrorist group Sendero Luminoso (“Shining Path”) carried out a campaign of violence in Peru that is responsible for more than 24,000 deaths.
The team also visited the Chillon River in Callo. Callo has poor air quality due to oil refineries and the river is polluted by waste and oil spills, Boatwright said.
“This trip brought tears to my eyes as I saw the damage to health and nature,” said Smith, a Los Gatos resident originally from Peru. “I am very grateful to be part of this group and to have the opportunity to witness this dire situation.”
The group also visited the town of La Oroya, which had a smelter that polluted the air for decades and caused lead poisoning in much of the population. According to Boatwright, 98.6% of children between the ages of 6 and 12 have extremely high levels of lead in their blood. The EPA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agree that there is no known safe level of lead in children's blood. According to the World Health Organization, lead in children can cause mental retardation or a lower IQ.
“In addition, we also spoke to former teams and learned about their commitment to advocating for the interests of local communities both in Lima and in relation to smelters in the United States,” Boatwright said.
She added that the response was “amazing” when the results from Peru were presented to parishioners at First Presbyterian Church in Mountain View.
“People weren’t aware of what Indigenous peoples were affected by unscrupulous practices,” Boatwright said. “My biggest hope is that folks will consider supporting local people's efforts to create healthy environments, promote self-sustaining agriculture and community constructing, end corrupt practices and offer fair trade solutions.”
The team members hope to proceed to spread the message.
“We pray that we can share our presentation with others in the community who would like to join us in providing the means to fulfill their desires,” Boatwright said.
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