In the heart of LIMA’s most disadvantaged neighbourhoods

Living in precarious dwellings on the slopes of dusty clay hills, the children of Huaycán and their families face many medical and psychosocial problems, such as family violence, sexual abuse, alcoholism, depression, and respiratory and intestinal diseases. However, for mainly geographical and economic reasons, they do not have access to basic social assistance and health services to help them resolve these problems. samusocialPerú’s goal is to meet with these populations.

samusocialPerú’s plan is based on four sections of activity :


A mobile medical and psychosocial team providing emergency assistance
Composed of a social worker, a nurse and a driver, the mobile team cruises the neighbourhood of Huaycán, in Ate, four times per week, in order to care for and listen to people in social emergency situations.
The team has 3 main missions :
  • Medical assistance: Nursing care and follow-up visits are carried out by the team, who when needed refers people to structures under common law.

  • Psychological support: Through structured talks, an analysis of the situation and its related problems is carried out and solutions are sought with the help of people who are met with. As such, the team can refer people to structures that provide psychosocial assistance.

  • Preventive education: The team carries out preventive actions concerning the dangers to which this population is daily exposed. It provides advice related to hygiene, primary healthcare, reproductive health, etc..



Children are the first victims of the social destructuration that strikes the poorest levels of the Peruvian society.
Ate district in one of the poorest areas of East Lima.



Establishment of a medicosocial drop-in centre in Ate
In early 2006, samusocialPerú inaugurates an emergency drop-in centre that will be open daily and nightly :
  • The first medical care will be given to people who have been referred by the Samusocial mobile team and to underprivileged people of Huaycán who come on their own initiative.

  • A psychosocial consultation will be offered to children, teenagers and their mothers, according to need.

  • A nutrition space will open for children and their families, in order to respond to frequent cases of malnutrition and prevent the diseases they cause.

Integration into a network of partners
IIn partnership with the Peruvian subsidiary of the association Firemen without Borders - France, samusocialPerú organised training courses on risk management and first aid for healthcare staff in Huaycán and for the community in the area where samusocialPerú intervenes. More than 300 community leaders learned about Samusocial’s intervention methods and were trained to be the first links in the medical and social emergency chain of action.

Moreover, samusocialPerú’s action takes place within the scope of various complementary collaborative projects :
  • On the field, the association works with many medical and psychosocial partner structures, both public and private, to which it refers many people for whom it coordinates supervision.

  • At the institutional level, samusocialPerú has developed agreements with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry for Women and Social Development and the City council of Ate. Each institution contributes to the project by making staff members available. Thanks to this contribution of human resources, samusocialPerú’s mobile team is able to function at a reduced cost.

Studies and research on exclusion in Perú
One of samusocialPerú's goals is to better know this often invisible population and to analyse the phenomenon of exclusion, in order to raise awareness among different stakeholders and to influence national public policies. It thus systematically collects data on the people it meets and on problems resulting from unstable situations.
samusocialPerú also participates in the roundtable against violence in Huaycán and, along with several associations, it is working on a project to collect information and prevalence data on abuse at the community and institutional levels.