Ayacucho has approximately 200,000 inhabitants and is an old colonial city in the middle of the central plateau of the Andes (2750 meters). The area is one of the poorest and most deprived regions of Peru. In the 1980s and 1990s, Ayacucho was the center of the Peruvian civil war, with more than 70,000 people killed during the conflict.

The population of Ayacucho still bears the scars of the civil war in the form of war trauma, which is also the basis of current poverty and insecurity. This has a major impact on family situations, with many cases of broken and single-parent families in Ayacucho. In addition, many cases involve domestic violence, excessive alcohol use, and sexual abuse. This leads to many children ending up on the street because their parents are no longer able to support and care for them. Domestic (sexual) violence also means that children cannot live safely at home.