"Guarderia y Comedor Infantil Urpi-Wasi"

Mrs. Barbara Casanova and some of her Peruvian friends founded the Urpi-Wasi Child Day Care Centre in 1989.


The centre is located in Cusco, Peru. Currently, the centre takes care of over 100 children up to the age of six. Most of the children have been living in single parent households or come from very poor families in the village.

The mission of the Urpi Wasi Child Day Care Centre is to provide a place for children to learn in a caring and loving environment, where they receive nutritious food and medical attention, in addition to instruction and formation.


The centre tries to prepare all children for further studies. This preparation involves intellectual, personal and social formation.

Urpi-Wasi's state-recognized kindergarten, for children between the ages of three and six, affords children an immediate preparation for elementary school level education.


The centre also provides food to 120 – 140 street children from Cusco each day. For most of these children, the meals at the centre are the only form of daily nourishment they receive.


Each day of the week the workers at the centre make small breads to feed the children and to sell in order to raise the money needed to run the centre. Although this project is very helpful, the money earned from selling the breads is not enough to supplement the token payments that parents offer to the centre.


Ten women staff the child day care centre and two women staff the kindergarten.