A Land of Children in a Forest of Dreams: an ambitious program in Peru aims to strengthen children's love for life and nature while improving their environments.

• Author: Balaguer, Alejandro
• Position: Essay

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The wind is roaring as I make my way towards the area outside of the city of Ica. The Peruvian desert I am driving through divides the western slopes of the Andean foothills from the Pacific coastline. There, amidst the dunes surrounding the town of Santa Vicenta, I am impressed by an outcropping of color, brushstrokes of green eucalyptus running alongside a dusty creekbed. As I approach, I see a group of children with windswept, sand-covered faces playing in the midst of the oasis.

Maricielo Ramos Huamani is sitting on a swing near some recently planted huarango trees. She greets me and then surprises me with an eloquent introduction: "This is our Land of Children, our Forest of Dreams," she says. "We are doing all of this because the climate in the department of Ica is always hot, even in the winter. If we get any rain at all, it is just a little, only one week a year. So we are planting algarrobos, espinos, casuarinas , and huarangos . That way it will be cooler and we'll have more water. But we also want to work for nature, like my friend Julian is doing." The gregarious little girl points towards a boy who can't be more than six years old watering a scrawny little tree. "We water them twice a week," she continues. "The plants are getting used to us and they are showing us that they are grateful. Go ahead. Take a look!"

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Maricielo gets off the swing and takes me around to see this special place. All around me I can feel hope bubbling up ill the hands of these entrepreneurial children. I see in them a joyful tenacity, the attitude and practice needed to overcome the challenges posed by this severe desert geography, whipped by the hardships of the climate and shaken by frequent earthquakes. Girls and boys tumble down to the creek amidst a hubbub of laughter and good-natured teasing, and they fill up bottles of water that they bring back in an effort to coax some green out of the sand. Other children are painting a handrail and some rocks that mark the paths through this parcel of land located next to a simple school building. Still others are painting posters exhorting people to recycle and to take care of the environment. It's a veritable swarm of children engaged in work they care about.

Maricielo explains, "The first thing we did was to clean up this place, because it used to be a trash dump. But little by little we started to plant. The parents in town have been very impressed by the changes we've made here. Now they come with their children to learn. We are like the teachers of the adults! We teach them to respect the trees. We also practice what we learn at home. We water the plants because they help us a lot and they also help us to conserve water...