In the heart of the Victoria district in Lima, near the Paradita market and in the middle of the bustle, the waste in the street and crime, is the home of the peace of the missioners of charity. There, every Saturday, a group of volunteers meets to share the love of Christ with residents and make the Church a living space of encounter, friendship and mercy.
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This group of Catholics from different parish communities forms the volunteer “I am thirst”, which, according to Victoria Sevilla, one of its coordinators, seeks to follow “the call of Jesus on the cross: ‘I am thirsty’ and satisfy that thirst for love serving the most fragile.”
The home of La Paz currently houses about 70 elders and 50 boys and girls. Most of them suffer from some disability, often severe, and were discarded by their families or lacked affective ties. The Missionaries of Charity, founded by Santa Teresa de Calcutta, picked them up from the streets with love and returned the dignity of having a home.
“In this place we discovered a bit of heaven on earth: where what the world sometimes discards is transformed into treasure. From that experience the apostolate emerged, in response to that thirst for God who asks to be loved in every suffering brother,” adds Seville.
250 dinners with love at the feast of Mother Teresa de Calcutta
The missionaries of charity in Lima opened their doors more than a year ago to this group of young adults who sought to serve and find Christ in the little ones.
In 2025, a few weeks before the feast of its founder, Santa Teresa de Calcuta, the sisters invited the ninth to pray in their honor and culminate the nine days with a charity work on September 5, the day of their liturgical party.
Cecilia Hidalgo, another of the Coordinators of Men Thirst, said that “one of the sisters of the home spoke with some volunteers and encouraged them to pray.” For his part, Juan Luis Bermejo, also a member of the coordination, explained that the proposal of the missioners of charity was “to make the novena to ask for us and the work we do.”
Throughout the novena, the central activity of Friday, September 5, which consisted of inviting volunteers to sponsor a brother in a street situation was announced. The answer was impressive: in less than four hours, on September 3, They were able to gather more than 250 dinners.
The dinners included rice with lentils, chicken and soda stew, in addition to coffee with milk and more than 300 breads with ham and margarine. Part of these foods were also delivered in the emergency area of the Dos de Mayo Hospital and, later, in the Home of La Paz. Likewise, dental cleaning kits and religious stamps were distributed.
From very early on the morning of September 5, the volunteers went out to acquire the inputs. And during the afternoon, having coordinated with Fr. Luis Ayala Falla, pastor of the San Lucas Church of Pueblo Libre, were received in the kitchen of this temple to prepare food and serve them in plastic containers. Fr. Ayala, former Secretary General of the Vicaría de la Caridad, lent his help with some inputs, plastic containers and chose the cast point.
The day was marked by the enthusiasm and delivery of each of the nearly 30 volunteers: some struggled in the kitchen, others werehed the ingredients or served food in the containers, while some resolved unforeseen or stayed until the end to clean everything. There was no lack of the previous prayer before the Blessed Sacrament and the music and the songs that encouraged the delivery in the streets of the Historic Center near 9 at night.
“This initiative was born as an inspiration of what Mother Teresa de Calcuta did in favor of the poor, sick, excluded, of those who are marginalized, because she followed the steps of Jesus Christ, who went by doing good and healing the oppressed,” said Fr. Ayala Aci Press.
The priest also highlighted the joy he experienced when he saw so many young people committed: “I have felt very happy because it is the way Jesus teaches us. Nobody has love greater than the one who gives life, and it is the way in which one gives life: through service and love.”
He also highlighted the testimony of the volunteers who evangelized while they served: “I felt much happier even seeing many young people committed, cheerful, who as they cooked prayed the rosary, who as they walked were singing, and who with their own eyes saw the misery and the indigence in which many brothers live. That also evangelizes.”
At the end of the day, Fr. Ayala raised a final prayer next to the volunteers near midnight, in the Plazuela San Pedro, where the distribution of dinner began and that is located in front of the Minor Basilica and Convent of San Pedro.
The testimonies of the volunteers
The volunteers agreed that this experience was also a gift for their own lives.
Mariella Távara said that what marked her most “is the fullness I felt in helping and see the Lord reflected in my brother.”
Karina Gómez highlighted “the desire that the volunteers threw, to serve, help, share their time and effort for the good of others, joining us in a single call to an example of Mother Teresa de Calcutta.”
For Olinda Navarro, the most special was “the union of all from the beginning to the end to be able to take a smile and continue with the mission of our Mother Teresa.”
Eliana Cacha claimed to be happy to “see how a simple gesture how to share food could generate so much hope and gratitude in those who received it. Seeing those smiles and words of thanks was a gift.”
For his part, Patricia Quispe confessed that what marked her most of the experience was “the generosity and joy of the people, even in the midst of fear and logistic difficulties to go out at night to dangerous areas.”
He said that he will never forget the happiness of seeing how, in just hours, he could gather and distribute more than 250 dinners: “We exceed the goal of 200 meals and I could feel the smile and gratitude of our brothers, something that filled me with immense peace.”
About how he arrived at the Apostolate, he said that he met Be thirst in 2024 thanks to some friends, although in reality his first contact with the home of La Paz was when he was a teenager in a school visit. “Since then I was moved and I always felt that one day I would come back. Now I consider my second home: reuniting with the children and the elderly was like returning to a family that gives me the peace that I so longed for,” he said with emotion.
What is “I am thirst” and how to participate
Yoshio Tobias Oikawa, coordinator of the apostolate, explains that I am thirst is a Catholic volunteer in which it is not necessary to be a believer: the goodwill is enough to help the neighbor.
Regarding its origin, he said that “the apostolate arose from a group of friends who met every Saturday to visit the home of La Paz with a single end: take the gospel message.”
“At the beginning we were about three or four, but it was so great our faith and desire to serve that we were going regardless of the journey. As time passed, more people joined the same cause and for the same purpose, and so it was formed, I am thirsty.” He explained to ACI Press.
Finally, he stressed that this experience consists in living the mission of Mother Teresa and Jesus: “It is seeing others in Christ, it is to see in the eyes of each little brother and little sister that God is present in them. Being there is a real gift, because not only makes us feel better people, but reminds us that there is still faith and hope in this world.”
Victoria Sevilla thus summarizes the experience of volunteering: “Many think we are going to give something of us, but the truth is that the gift is ours. One enters the home and finds a difficult peace to describe, a peace that can only come from God. You go one day and you can no longer leave it … because what is lived there is not explained, it is experienced in the deepest of the heart.”
“The one who transforms is not the resident, but you: they become your family, and you understand that we are all children of the same father, blood of your blood and flesh of your flesh,” he said.
The volunteer visit is held every Saturday from 3:30 pm to 6:00 pm for more information can enter your Instagram account HERE.
Diego López Marina
I was born in 1991. I have a degree in Communication Sciences. Since 2015 I work as a digital journalist. I started my career in the newspaper El Comercio in Peru. In 2016, I began as editor in ACI Press and I perform as a web editor since 2018. From 2024, I write the Newsletter for Social Media. I specialize in Catholic news focused on the defense of life and family, international politics, technology, popular culture and the Vatican.