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About Us

Daughters of Ayacucho Educational Fund is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit founded in 2007 by a sixteen year-old American woman. Inspired by her time volunteering in a Peruvian orphanage, she created the fund to give less advantaged young women in Peru the same access to higher education that was available to her. The Board of Directors is comprised of eight Chicago area professionals with varying backgrounds in social work, finance, education, and not-for-profits.
Our Mission:
  • Daughters of Ayacucho Educational Fund provides impoverished girls the opportunity to receive an education, in order to give them hope for a brighter future.
  • We strongly believe education can help break the cycle of poverty and transform not only the lives of these amazing young women, but also have a lasting impact on their families and communities.
Our Progress:
We are so proud of the seventeen girls in our program, including 10 college graduates. Our scholarship recipients have pursued degrees in economics, finance, psychology, environmental engineering, obstetrics and information technology. One graduate, who achieved her dream of becoming a dentist has already paid it forward by serving a year of rotations in areas of extreme poverty. Another student is currently traveling the country as a veterinarian working for a government agricultural agency.

  • How we started

    In the summer of 2006, Jillian Hirsch, our founder, spent three weeks volunteering in Ayacucho, Peru. Ayacucho is a town in the Andes mountains where the majority of the population is impoverished. She met many girls with amazing life stories at a girls' orphanage, including one seventeen-year-old, Pilar. She had ambitions to study medicine in college; however, she didn’t have enough money to take the college entrance examination. Pilar’s future outside of the orphanage did not look bright. With very few career opportunities, and without a supportive family, Pilar's goal to go to college was an impossible dream. Daughters of Ayacucho Educational Fund (DAEF) was started to help Pilar and other girls from the Puericultorio Orphanage

Our team on the ground

Local social worker support
Our in-country mentor in Ayacuchois critical to our organization’ssuccess and empowering these young women. Maria Luisa Guitterez is an experienced teacher and social worker from Ayacucho. She meets with the girls twice a month as an academic advisor. She helps the girls stay focused on their academic and career goals and serves as a trusted advisor to both the girls and our Board of Directors in the US.
Creating a family
Maria Luisa plays many roles in theorganization-a strict accountant,an analyst of each young woman’sindividual needs, and a warm motherfigure. She never forgets to celebrate a girl’s birthday, graduation or successful test score. Maria Luisa has formed a community of women who lift,support, and encourage each other
Mentoring the next generation
With our organization now over tenyears old, the scholarship recipients in Peru have developed deep relationships with one another. They are regularly supporting each other in their progress and sharing tactical advice and guidance from their experience across multiple graduate degrees and programs.
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