Jump on the LOVE Train

<p>In 1986 a California nurse made a life-changing decision that would take her away from her rural wine-country lifestyle among loved ones and place her in the majestic Andean mountain community of Cusco Peru and its vibrant blend of Quechua and Mestizo cultures—of the Andean city of Cusco Peru.</p><p>After a challenging Inca trail trek to Machu Picchu in 1985 Rae Lewis returned six months later to Cusco to understand more about the deeper emotional connection she felt while on that trek. In no time she was surrounded by the street children who accompanied her on walks and happily taught her bad words in Spanish. These were not the best times in Peru for a solo woman and these wise ragamuffins she realized were looking out for her. They began to share their raw and dangerous reality.</p><p>Rae reflected on her own three grown sons when they were this age and knew they would not have survived one night sleeping on cold concrete and harassed by predators. Her heart broke and something shifted – a sudden awareness that she could do something unfolded in her. In 1997 she founded the Chicuchas Wasi nonprofit in California to benefit the abandoned children of Cusco Peru. The emergency residential shelter fed clothes bathed healed and educated many street children in the ten years she lived in the shelter and developed the Peruvian team. These children taught us what was needed for greater impact. Educate the indigenous girls left out of education and who will become future teen mothers as it stands now.</p><p>CW was reorganized in 1997. The Chicuchas Wasi Alternative School for Girls was created by Ruth Uribe – local educator and lead team member with Rae – and passionate about CW. Over the next ten years it grew from Ruth seeking girls hiding under beds and later to mothers and aunties in long lines to register their girls to our quality academic school created for them – the poor forgotten ones – Girls.</p><p>One person can make a difference be the spark to attract others and change the world.</p><p>Written as a fund-raiser for Lewis’s thirty-two-year-old nonprofit <em>Jump on the LOVE Train: Many Hearts Await You</em> continues to benefit Chicuchas Wasi. All proceeds from book sales go to this nonprofit.</p>