The National Social Security Fund's solidarity response to the 1940 earthquake in Lima and Callao

Abstract

This article identifies and describes the immediate solidarity-based actions taken by the National Social Security Fund to assist the affected population of Lima and Callao following the earthquake of May 24, 1940 considered one of the most intense to strike the central coast of republican Peru. These actions are documented using sources from the Fund itself—including Board of Directors meeting minutes and records, annual reports, and the magazine “Informaciones Sociales” as well as coverage of the earthquake in the newspaper “El Comercio” during the days immediately following the event. Despite operating under a contributory model that limited coverage to salaried employees, the Fund provided immediate assistance to the general public, mobilizing a workforce that included doctors, engineers, nurses, social workers, and administrative staff; furthermore, its own facilities provided temporary shelter for vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, women, and children from the working class. These actions, inspired by the principle of solidarity inherent to social security, contributed to the fulfillment of the State’s social function, even though the Fund was a relatively new entity still in the process of bringing its own healthcare centers into operation.