Few more photos of visit in Lima, Peru

A few weeks ago, our EFE program (Education for Employment) held regional meetings with representatives from Colombia, Bolivia and Peru in the city of Lima. I made a post on the meetings, but I also still have some photos from an afternoon we visited a few things in the city. We drove through some of the historic parts of the city and also to an area with lower income house-holds where we visited a small vocational training school. First a few impressions of the historic buildings:

The city is full with buildings like this one from the colonial times, some 400-500 old. During those periods the constructions were copies of the old styles found in countries such as Portugal, Spain and Italy. Many houses had the typical balconies as seen on the photos below, well conserved afetr all these years and every time an impressive sight:

We visited an employment center of the Labor Ministry (Ministerio de Trabajo) which functions as a "one stop" service center for people searching for work and who receive in several steps advice on their resume writing, training gaps for employment they would like to do, training advice and credits available for study & training programs (people with real low incomes can apply for scholarships):

The center was very well structured and could compete any day in efficiency and client-orientation with similar job centers in countries such as Canada. And they have a policy of "inclusion" for example offering this employee an opportunity while working in his wheel-chair (Kerry Thomas, especiallt took this photo for you!!):

We visited a community on the outskirts of Lima. They call these areas "pueblos jovenes" (young communities). The areas start as informal "invasion" areas by people from the country side who look for better work & income opportunities in the big city (urbanization). Little by little these areas become part of the formal city. We visited a very humble training center started by one of the many church organizations and approved by the Ministry of Education with its curriculum. This school started 6 years ago and offers training in textile and hospitality, two sectors most of the new arrivals to city can find employment in. The entry of the school shows its humble beginnings:

The building is well constructed and on the photos below you can see a bit of its environment and the "pueblo joven" of which it serves part of its very low income population:

A lot of the people end up working in the local textile factories. Initially they start as untrained workers, but through the vocational programs in schools like this one, they can learn better skills and can imporve their employment. The photo below shows a laboratory for garment productions, and on the photo below one of the teachers explains their design program (in front of a printer):

They also offer a few very basic maintenance programs, mostly geared towards the same textile industry, but with good articulations to more advanced programs at other vocational institutions. Because of the large culinary and hospitality industry in the city, many jobs are to be found in hotels and restaurants, and therefore the school started training programs for that services sector:

After the school visit, we returned to our hotel. On the way I shot a few photos of the many open city sewers as well as the "colectivos" (small public transport buses) and the "ticos" (mini taxis). They are everywhere and do their share of making the traffic in Lima one of the worst congestions in the world

Busy, busy city with its 14-15 million people (nobody seems to exactly know the number...).
About half the population of Peru lives in Lima.... not an ideal population distribution.