The Conditions They Face
Understanding why our girls need a home — and why your help matters.
Why These Girls Need Us
The girls who come to Restoring Children International don’t arrive because of bad luck. They arrive because the systems meant to protect them have failed. They come from backgrounds of abandonment, abuse, extreme poverty, and neglect — conditions that no child should ever have to endure.
We share these realities not to shock, but to help you understand the depth of transformation your support makes possible. Every girl in our home has a “before” story. Your generosity helps write the “after.”
Extreme Poverty
Peru has one of the highest rates of childhood poverty in South America. In rural and peri-urban areas around Arequipa, families live without running water, reliable electricity, or adequate sanitation. Children grow up in homes made of corrugated metal and mud brick, with dirt floors and no heating against freezing Andean nights. For many of our girls, a bed of their own was something they had never experienced before arriving at RCI.
Abandonment & Family Breakdown
Many of our girls were abandoned by one or both parents. Some were left with relatives who couldn’t — or wouldn’t — care for them. Others were found living on the streets, fending for themselves at ages as young as four. Family breakdown in Peru is driven by poverty, substance abuse, migration for work, and a lack of social safety nets. When a family collapses, it’s the children who pay the highest price.
In Peru today: 1 in 4 children lives in poverty. Over 20,000 children live in institutional care. Thousands more live on the streets with no adult protection. Girls are disproportionately affected — facing higher rates of abuse, trafficking, and exploitation.
Abuse, Neglect & Exploitation
The hardest stories are the ones we can’t fully tell. Many of our girls arrive carrying trauma from physical abuse, emotional neglect, and exploitation. Some were forced to work instead of attending school. Others endured things no child should ever face. At RCI, every girl receives not just physical safety, but professional counseling, emotional support, and the patient, steady love of houseparents who are committed to their healing.
Barriers to Education
In rural Peru, many girls never complete primary school. Families who can’t afford tuition, uniforms, or supplies keep their daughters home to work or care for younger siblings. Girls who do attend school often face long walks on dangerous roads, overcrowded classrooms, and teachers who lack resources. At RCI, every girl attends school with full tuition covered. We provide uniforms, supplies, tutoring, and a quiet place to study — because education is the single most powerful tool for breaking the cycle of poverty.
But There Is Hope
Every girl who walks through the doors of RCI walks into a new life. The conditions they came from are real — but so is the transformation that happens when a child is given safety, love, education, and faith. Our girls don’t just survive. They thrive. They graduate. They dream. They become the women God created them to be.
Your support is the bridge between the conditions they face and the future they deserve.
Change a Girl’s Story
For $35 a month, you can take a girl from the conditions on this page
to the life she was meant to live.