Peruvian activist’s role as a PC(USA) Young Adult Volunteer embodies evolving approach to global engagement

On Aug. 15, well-known Peruvian documentarian Javier Corcuera hosted a special screening of his newest documentary, "Escuchar," about the state violence that took place in Peru between December 2022 and March 2023, resulting in the deaths of 49 protestors.

It’s a story about people like Marco Antonio Samillán, a young doctor who was shot in the back while attempting to offer medical care to protestors. It's a story about Marco’s sister, Milagros, who was thrust into the role of justice advocate and activist for victims’ families after her brother’s murder. And it is — in a way — a story about the PC(USA)’s Young Adult Volunteer program in Peru in which Milagros participates. 

A few years ago, even the most gifted prognosticators would have been unlikely to predict that Milagros Samillán and the PC(USA)’s Young Adult Volunteer program would cross paths. Prior to her brother’s assassination, Milagros was a young university student, still living in Juliaca, the rural Andean context where she’d grown up.

“I was just another citizen of this country, living my own life — business, university, and family life — trying to share as many moments as possible with my siblings because we had already lost my mother and were dealing with a very heavy loss for the family.” Samillán said.

Meanwhile, participants in the PC(USA)’s Young Adult Volunteer program have historically been from the United States. The program offered them a disruption to “regular life” — a chance to encounter a different context in another city or another country and spend a year living in intentional Christian community while serving the church and the world. Currently, the program offers sites in four U.S. cities and cities international locations.

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When Covid made it impossible for the YAV program in Peru to accommodate young adults from the U.S., site coordinator Jenny Valles made an innovative shift: she brought on two Peruvian young adults instead. What began as a creative solution born of necessity became a new vision for the YAV program, and Valles continued to invite volunteers from Peru and other parts of Latin America and the Caribbean alongside U.S. young adults.

“I believe having a more diverse YAV community is a more faithful approach to meeting the needs of the global church and addressing the challenges of the world today,” Valles said, noting that the diversity among volunteers also includes faith traditions, social location, and life experiences. Samillán is one such example.

As state violence erupted in late 2022, Samillán and her family weren’t oblivious to the escalating situation, but they were focused on their own grief at their mother’s death. Then, on Jan. 9, police in Juliaca killed 18 people in a single day. Samillán’s brother Marco was a doctor who had heard that protestors were being injured by police and went to offer medical care. Instead, he became one of those murdered, and Samillán’s life changed forever. 

In the months after her brother’s death, Samillán felt a growing responsibility to speak up for her brother and the others who were killed, as well as 1,500 survivors, and the family members of those murdered with whom she had bonded.

“I had two options: lie in bed and cry for my brother's death, or use my brother's memory and my brother's name to help and support the family members' struggle, which is also my struggle, which is not only Marco’s, but also part of the 49 families who are demanding justice today.”

Family members of the victims, including Samillán, came to Lima in the spring of 2023 and slept on the streets — a demonstration that became known as the “Lima Occupations” according to Efraín Barrera, a pastor and professor at an ecumenical theological school in Lima called AETE. Barrera said that, in response to the murders and victims’ families coming to Lima, AETE formed the Evangelicals Presente Collective made up of students and faculty who provided material support to the families and also organized a work of “prophetic denunciation” of the violence done by the government. Through this work, Samillán became involved with AETE and Barrera. 

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AETE has been in relationship with the PC(USA) since 2000 through various Presbyterian faculty members as well as the Joining Hands Network in Peru. More recently, it developed a formal partnership with the YAV program in Lima, and a number of YAV participants have spent their year in Peru working with AETE. As Barrera connected with Samillán and saw the importance of her activism and advocacy work, he encouraged her to apply to the YAV program and work with AETE as a volunteer.

For the past year, the YAV program has provided Samillán with housing, community, spiritual support, and even opportunities for healing from the trauma she has endured. AETE, meanwhile, has provided her with a platform the continue honoring her brother and advocating for justice. Samillán, in turn, has provided the YAV program and AETE with the power of voice, her passion, and her testimony, sharing with churches in Peru why they should not be indifferent to the violence that upended her life and so many others’.

Interestingly, Samillán admits that while she was raised Catholic she struggles a lot with religion and the church.

“For me, it's a constant internal conflict, wondering if God exists and why [God] allows so much suffering in our people.”

Still, the support of AETE and the YAV program give her hope.

“I'm still struggling to believe whether God really exists, but I believe there's hope that gives me the answer to my question. Through these people I'm meeting along the way, through the people who embrace my pain, through the people who support me emotionally, and also through the companions who are the voices of those who are no longer with us and the voices of those of us who today demand justice in our country and in other countries where murder continues.”

Samillán’s activism has helped the story of the state violence that unfolded in Peru become more public, including with Corcuera’s striking new documentary, which will have its formal premiere in January 2026. Her involvement with the YAV program has also enabled it to live even more fully into Valles' vision for how the PC(USA) might engage young adults in faithful service globally.

This year, the Peru YAV site has nine volunteers: one from the U.S., one from Colombia, one from Honduras and six from Peru. That number includes Samillán, who is serving for another year. Valles is hopeful that this commitment to a more diverse recruitment of young adults will build new connections across Latin America and strengthen relationships globally.

“I believe that through the YAV program and together with our global ecumenical partners — churches, theological institutions, and civil society groups — the PC(USA) is in a unique position to help grow global solidarity, spark social justice movements, and shape the narrative of the role of the church and the presence of God in the world by providing transformative experiences for young adults from many different backgrounds,” Valles said.

For her part, Samillán is eager for the opportunity to meet more allies and continue to learn. She continues to hope for and work for justice —work that will continue after her time with the YAV program ends. Barrera and Valles hope other young adults committed to activism and justice follow in her footsteps.

A few years ago, one might not have ever guessed that Samillán and the YAV program would cross paths. Now that they have, whatever path lies ahead for each of them is forever changed.