In the summer of 2006, Jillian Hirsch spent three weeks volunteering in Ayacucho, Peru. Ayacucho is a town  in the Andes mountains where the majority of the population is impoverished.

            She met many girls with amazing life stories at a girls' orphanage, including one seventeen-year-old, Pilar. She had ambitions to study medicine in college; however, she didn’t even have enough money to take the college entrance examination.

                Pilar’s future outside of the orphanage did not look bright. With very few career opportunities, and without a supportive family, Pilar's goal to go to college was an impossible dream.
            In December 2006, Jillian started the charity Daughters of Ayacucho Educational Fund (DAEF), to help Pilar and other girls from the Puericultorio orphanage.     DAEF was incorporated in the state of Illinois in February, 2007 and was granted IRS tax-exempt status in July, 2007.  The DAEF Board of Directors is comprised of Glenview community leaders.  Its Founder and Director is University of Notre Dame student Jillian Hirsch. 

            In the summer of 2007, Jillian returned to Ayacucho, Peru to volunteer at the Puericultorio Orphanage and to finalize administrative details of the charity. She went to Ayacucho again in August 2009 to hire DAEF's first employee and educational advisor for the scholarship recipients.