OUR STORY
THE BEGINNING (1990-1994)
Vittoria Savio, an Italian teacher, arrived in Peru in the 1980s as a volunteer with the Italian Lay Movement. During her first years, she worked in Lima, where she came into contact with the Institute for the Promotion and Training of Domestic Workers. Later, in Cusco, she conducted a survey that showed that girls and adolescent domestic workers had no contact with their families, did not attend school, and worked more than 10 hours a day, without pay and in conditions of servitude. In 1994, together with Josefa Condori[1] and Ronald Zárate[2], she founded in Cusco the Comprehensive Care Center for Domestic Workers (CAITH), with the aim of providing survivors with a home, a space for affection and safety.
Dionisia, the first girl welcomed (1995-1997)
At the end of 1995, Josefa Condori and Vittoria Savio found Dionisia Guamán[3], 13, on the street. She had run away from the house where she worked because she broke a cup and feared being punished. Dionisia was welcomed at CAITH, where she said she was an orphan and had fled the care of her uncles because she feared being physically punished for losing a sheep. This life story became a reference for mapping the intervention path at CAITH and later at Centro Yanapanakusun.
Centro Yanapanakusun (2001)
To consolidate the route of prevention and care for girls and adolescents who are victims of domestic servitude and all forms of violence, Centro Yanapanakusun was opened in Cusco in 2001. It carries out preventive activities in the victims' communities of origin. Since 2014, Yanapanakusun has also worked in Puno, a region on the border with Bolivia, one of the routes most permissive of human trafficking. In 2022, it expanded to Lima, Cajamarca and Ucayali, the latter located in the country's Amazonian region.