Ayacucho is located in the central Andean Mountains of Peru, an area known for its extremely impoverished indigenous peasant population and the birthplace of the guerrilla group “Shining Path”.  Ayacucho, then, became the battleground for one of the fiercest guerrilla wars in the history of mankind.  This forced the displacement of thousands of peasants, from their homes and places of origin, to seek refuge in cities and settled in areas where no infrastructure was readily available to receive the massive migration.  Those who remained in Ayacucho were subjected to merciless killings by the guerrillas and to fierce retaliation by the army.  Thus, thousands of peasant lives were lost and thousands of survivors were left permanently disabled.  Furthermore, an entire generation of orphan children emerged from this civil struggle.  The beneficiaries of our Mission are these survivors and recent generations, whose strong commitment and hard work join our efforts to provide safe, evidence based, humanistic and culturally sensitive medical care.