Juana Alarco de Dammert

Juana Alarco de Dammert was the daughter of Alarco Garavito and Mercedes Espinoza. She studied at a public school run by Cruz Andrade de Noel and graduated with the help of private French and music lessons.

On December 31, 1861, she married in the Sagrario de la Catedral de Lima church with Juan Luis Dammert Amsink, a prominent German merchant. This allowed her to travel to France and in Paris she devoted herself to reading, which later lead to her growing interest for social health care for children and their mothers.^[3]

In 1894, she formed the society called "Auxiliadora para asistir a los heridos" (The helping society of the wounded). It served the purpose to help the wounded people in hospitals and prisons. She received help from the president Andrés A. Cáceres.

During the civil war in Lima, she installed an ambulance in the Plazuela del Teatro, with 50 beds and attended 227 wounded people. In the next two months, it was used as a makeshift blood donation hospital centre.

After everyone returned home from the civil war, many children had been orphaned and left on the street.^[4]

Juana summoned all ladies of the society to help the unprivileged. She promoted the birth of the Society Helping Children and she dedicated the rest of her life to it. Thanks to the funds gathered by this institution, she was able to fund the establishment of a Maternity School in 1896, where many volunteers were trained as teachers.

Since the funds gathered by the institution were not enough, Juana Alarco de Dammert organized charity events and work, in 1900, in order to reach the needed capital.^[5]