Ark of Love

Brief history

Our philosophy

Future Centers

How to Contribute

São Paulo

Brasilia

Curitiba

Bogotá

Medellin

Lima

La Paz

A Message from our Ark Captain, Rafael Quevedo

I hope our modest efforts in Peru can help your group to provide better life alternatives to "The Children of God" in your city.

First of all, it is important to know if you know some other organization which is already providing material support to poor or abandoned children. Do you already have a group of children to serve? In our case in Lima we found an organization called "SOS Aldeas Infantiles Peru", part of "SOS Kinderdorf", which was already providing day care facilities all over the country to children (newborns to 5 year-old).

As the Ark of Love's main purpose is to give spiritual guidance through recreational activities to children at high social risk, and not necessarily to provide material resources, we struck an agreement with this organization and started working on July 16, 2005 (already more than one year – how time flies!), going every Saturday from 9:00 am to 11:00 am.
Our main goal is to share our time with the children with all our love, without "teaching" them anything in particular. We are not teachers, we are friends who come to play, sing, dance, practice yoga games, meditate and tell wisdom tales. This creates a safe and loving space where the children can be themselves and feel more confident, finding their own way to take care of their lives.

Every time we start with a new group of children, we find that usually most of them are very
aggressive. However we do not force them to correct their behavior, we just channel their energies in a positive way; and after a few weeks (every child is different), they start to change and become more friendly and loving—all by themselves! Or maybe a better way to say this is that God does His work with His children, and we are just His instruments.

Initially we had only one group of children, later on we added another age group, and finally we added a third class for parents. This last group is very important, as it enables us to help the children receive support from their own father or mother. As the parents share many activities with their children, they have many more opportunities to communicate at home; at the same time, it also gives the parents the motivation to change and provide a better home environment. Naturally, it is much more difficult for the parents to change than it is for their children, but it is nevertheless a very important ingredient of our service.

A typical session with our volunteers comprises the following activities: games in the garden's playground, then we go back to the classroom where we chant three "oms", we sing some songs, we practice a few yoga games and exercises (which vary according to the age group), we practice meditation and tell a few stories of great saints or heroes or ordinary people who had to overcome enormous difficulties in their life. This sequence however is not always in the same order, because children choose what to do. Of course we include other activities depending on our volunteers' capacity—sometimes we perform theater plays, at other times the children perform a little play or a dance, sometimes we celebrate birthdays, etc...

It is very important that to ensure that no volunteer transmits any kind of personal belief or religious creed to the children. We are a non sectarian, spiritual group of volunteers, and many of us come from different religions. Our group accepts any volunteer personally engaged in a sincere and committed effort towards spiritual development, and who is willing to serve others selflessly and lovingly.

Well I hope this letter is not too long and can be of some help for your group. Please let me know if you need something else.

Rafael.