From King's to Peru: Alumna & staff member witnesses impact of local NGO

“As a King’s alumna, King’s is where I began to grow and expand my horizons around my values and understandings of feminism, oppression and privilege and intersectionality,” says Melissa Page Nichols, BA ’00, BSW ’02, MSW ’07, Personal & Accessibility Counsellor.

Page Nichols’s personal journey began when worked on her undergraduate degree with “the amazing professors” in King’s English Literature department. It continued with her work as a sessional instructor in the School of Social Work from 2009-2019 and as an accessibility and personal counsellor at King’s for the past 10 years. All of her work has been an important part of continuing to put these values into practice.

Page Nichols took inspiration from a quote from Sara Ahmed’s Living a Feminist Life. “Solidarity does not assume that our struggles are the same struggles, or that our pain is the same pain, or that our hope is for the same future. Solidarity involves commitment, and work, as well as the recognition that even if we do not have the same feelings, or the same lives, or the same bodies, we do live on common ground.”

Three years ago, Page Nichols became a volunteer on the fundraising committee at Heart-Links (Lazos De Corazon), a small London-based, nongovernmental organization that works to advance community development in northern Peru. She saw a lot of similarities between the vision and mission of King’s and those of Heart-Links.

In November 2023, Page Nichols travelled to Peru with two other volunteers and Heart-Links’ executive director. She saw first-hand the results of several projects that Heart-Links supports, from an educational fair with a focus on combating anemia through nutrition education and supplies, to a food security and income sustainability project that trains women and provides initial supplies for breeding guinea pigs for food for themselves and their families. Another project works with and educates men to reduce violence against women. Heart-Links’ Rural Libraries Network supports literacy for children, youth and adults, as well as the preservation and passing on of Indigenous knowledge and traditions to future generations.

“Each of these organizations and projects was truly remarkable to witness and the scope of their impact is powerful for their communities. The community partners are quite autonomous in driving the projects that they engage in, because they are the ‘experts’ of their experience and of the needs within their unique communities,” says Page Nichols.

The trip provided benefits to both the Canadian and the Peruvian partners. It was the first trip since before the COVID-19 pandemic, and Page Nichols was told by many of the Peru partner organizations staff that their visit helped them feel even more connected with Heart-Links beyond the Zoom screen, and share the great work they are doing.

Heart-Links partners with organizations in Peru to finance and accompany initiatives in education and literacy, leadership training, gender equality and health, among others. Heart-Links works with rural, marginalized communities in three different areas in Peru (Chiclayo, Cajamarca, and the Zana Valley) most affected by environmental disasters, such as flooding due to cyclones. Heart-Links also works to raise awareness in Canada about global issues and work at the local, provincial and national levels to help develop good global citizens.

In 2018, Page Nichols heard about Heart-Links from Sheila Horrell, a local London drumming artist who has led drumming circles for many years on King’s campus for the L’Arche community and for the entire Accessibility, Counselling & Student Development (ACSD) team at King’s this past June. Horrell is a volunteer on Heart-Links’ board of directors.

“When I heard from her about the work that Heart-Links does in Peru, I was immediately struck by the fact that this organization did not sound like so many organizations in North America that feel the need to ‘help’ developing countries by imposing Western ideals, values and ways of operating in a colonial manner,” says Page Nichols.

Page Nichols saw that the values of Heart-Links aligned with her own. “Social justice values have been a long-standing part of my life as work, particularly around gender-based violence, as my career began in that work and has continued to be rooted in feminist, anti-oppressive, and intersectional theory and practice,” she explains. A strong believer in volunteerism, Page Nichols also saw an opportunity to use her knowledge of the Spanish language and to engage in the culture.

The work of Heart-Links also aligns with King’s commitment to reconciliation and equity. Heart-Links partners operate in Peruvian communities that include the Mestizo and Quechua peoples. Peru also has a strong Afro-Peruvian culture with African descendants of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

“Reconciliation has been lived out by Heart-Links for over 30 years in the philosophy of a relationship of solidarity with the partners in Peru and an acknowledgement of the unique struggles, both current and historical, regarding the oppression experienced by rural, indigenous populations,” says Page Nichols.

Learn more about Heart-Links.