Living in Peru : your everyday companion

Living in Peru
Jobana Soto

For Limeños, everyone is familiar with the great Jockey Plaza. Its stores, fashion, restaurants, major events, practically anything you need at this high-end one-stop shop. But while it's important for Jockey Plaza to keep its reputation as a fashionable retail market, it doesn't mean they can't venture into the world of charity.

For the first time ever, Jockey Plaza will dedicate October for breast cancer awareness month with their campaign Campaña Contra el Cancer de Mama. This campaign is something the retail giant will organize in the following years to come, says Yarina Landa, Comercial and Marketing manager for Jockey Plaza.

So of all the causes to join the fight against, why cancer? According to Landa, they were influenced by the customers who frequent their stores. Nearly three million visitors a month visit the plaza and out of those visitors, 54 percent of them are women. With breast cancer being a major concern, Jockey Plaza decided to focus on this cause and began to organize their October 2008 campaign.

It took a year in the making but Landa and 20 others were able to get through the work needed for organizing all aspects of the campaign. The hardest challenge, according to Landa, was timing -- having everyone stick to the same game plan, making sure everyone involved were on the same page. With the sponsors, designing the promotional merchandise, choosing a non-profit to fund, organizing the 6.5K race, publishing the accompanying Jockey Plaza issue, etc. all these aspects needed to fit in the same time frame in order for the month-long campaign to run smoothly.

To kick off the start of Jockey Plaza's Campaña Contra el Cancer de Mama, Peru Runners and Nike have co-sponsored the grand October 5th race, Paso para Salvar Vidas, at Jockey Plaza. So far, the 6.5K race has two thousand people registered and ready to run at the Jockey Plaza and the Jockey Club. More runners are being accepted at Jockey Plaza and at the offices of Peru Runners , until the day of the event, for S/.40 each with all proceeds going to Alinen, a non-profit that supports people who struggle with cancer. Alinen will receive the support from Jockey Plaza as they raise money for the organization during October.

To draw attention to the race and the cause, artists Analí Cabrera and Cecilia Bracamonte will unite to participate in Paso para Salvar Vidas -- as runners.

While the race is expected to kick off with a big bang, Jockey Plaza is set to have activities set up for the entire month of October -- holding exams, prevention education, custom-made “pink” merchandise promoting the campaign and until the end of the month.