Rosa Amaro in her community of La Oroya, Peru. Photo by Cecilia Niezen/Oxfam America.

La Oroya, Peru has consistently earned the dubious distinction of being named one of the world's 10 Most Toxic Places by Blacksmith Institute, an organization that monitors international environmental conditions. Since 1922 this town high in the Peruvian Andes has hosted a smelter for lead, copper, zinc, and sulfur dioxide. As a result, levels of lead in the blood of residents is three times that of the World Health Organization's acceptable limit, and 99% of the children who live there suffer from lead poisoning.

The American-owned mining company that ran the smelter, Doe Run Peru, went bankrupt five years ago and pulled out. The bad news about that is that most of the town was employed by DRP and many are out of work. The good news, of course, is that the land has slowly begun to recover. Rosa Amaro, a local activist, says, "You don't feel the chemical fumes in the air, and you can even see some green coming out of the ground. We would love it if it would remain the way it is right now."