Among the victims of Peru's terrorist violence of the 1980s and early 1990s was the country's tourism industry, and few places were hit harder than Ayacucho. In 1992, this graceful Andean city had only 250 visitors, compared to 13,000 in 1980.

But today tourism in Ayacucho has turned around along with the country's economic and political fortunes. Numbers of visitors have regained and surpassed its previous levels, and if current growth trends continue, could top 150,000 annually by 2002, according to official estimates.

Such a tourism rebirth would generate at least 3,000 full-time jobs for trained workers, up from 1,230 today--a significant number for a city of Ayacucho's size.

A rich trove of religious art and architecture remain Ayacucho's principal tourism attraction. In addition to a 17th century cathedral, the city has 32 other colonial churches, many of them filled with spectacular paintings, carved altarpieces, stone engravings and ceramics. The churches are the focal point of numerous liturgical traditions and festivals that culminate each year in elaborate Holy Week celebrations.

In the last six years, the Archbishopric of Ayacucho has launched several restoration and repair projects at local church buildings with the help of national and foreign donors. But despite these efforts, only a small fraction of the city's artistic heritage can now be viewed by visitors because of limited resources and a widespread need for restorative work.

But help is on its way with a $1.6 million technical cooperation grant from the IDB's Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF). The grant will fund a program to train young workers in architectural restoration techniques and skills such as plastering, carpentry and electrical wiring. In addition, courses will be offered in hotel management and other traditional tourism skills for up to 2,000 new and veteran tourism workers in Ayacucho. The program will be carried out by Caritas Ayacucho through the Tourism Training Center and the Development and Employment Workshop School of the Lima Restoration Program.

Program officials hope the training activities will spark additional tourism investments by private sector firms. Banks, airlines and hotel developers are already expanding their operations in Ayacucho, and the Per™ Promotion Commission believes the city could eventually be second only to Cuzco as a tourist destination.

-- Jorge Zavaleta Alegre, Lima

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CHILE
Neighborhood gets new start

After most social development projects are completed, a ribbon is cut, speeches are made, and the beneficiaries go back to their jobs of making a living and raising families. But in the city of ViŅa del Mar, Chile, Marta Fern·ndez de la Fuente, president of the Gabriela Mistral Neighborhood Council, took the time to write about what an IDB-financed urban development project has meant to her and her community. An abridged version follows:

Our neighborhood was established only recently, the houses going up on the hill because the people needed to live somewhere. All of the families here are rich in love, good will and effort, but not in financial matters. So we were not able to pay for suitable housing when we started our families, and for this reason, the majority of the people were initially squatters.

The years passed, and our children grew and went to school. But we never lost hope about improving our community. So at the beginning of the decade six neighborhood groups united and raised the banner of a campaign to carry out a program to realize our dream.

Many neighbors told us that they would only believe it when it became a reality. . . and then the reality arrived. Our neighborhoods were invaded by technicians, workers, inspectors, machines, concrete tubes. Great machines sliced into the earth to install sewage lines.

It took a lot of effort and ingenuity. When the firm saw that it would be impossible to use machines to haul construction materials to the last houses on the top of the steep hill, it bought donkeys to do the work.

But everything was not "honey on pancakes," and we felt called upon to express our points of view and object forcefully but respectfully when we felt we were being pushed around.

As community representatives, we made suggestions and provided support in every way possible, and in the end, more works were carried out than were in the original program.

We are profoundly grateful to all those who helped our neighborhood make such progress: to the municipality, to the subsecretary of development, to the regional government, to the central government, and particularly to the IDB, without whose efforts and interest nothing could have been achieved.

Were it not for all of them, we would perhaps still be wandering in public offices searching for solutions to our problems. We would still have septic pools, sewage running through our streets, still causing disease in our children. The rains in the winter would still make it difficult for us to reach our work places, and the heat and dust of the summer would still cause lung problems in the elderly and the young.

We believe in Latin America, and in this country and in this city of ViŅa del Mar, where there are people who are concerned about others who have fewer resources.