Background – In Peru, between one and two million children and underage youths have to work in order to bolster their meager family incomes, the majority of them in dangerous and unhealthy conditions.  They work as beggars, waste collectors on the streets, or as laborers in brick or textile factories.  The girls are often victims of sexual abuse.  Just as bleak for the children’s future is the fact that many of them drop out of school.  They are doomed to inherit their parents’ poverty, because without an adequate education they have little chance of finding skilled work or earning a decent income.

Project – Swisscontact is confronting this problem with a project which, on the one hand, enables parents to increase their income and, on the other, actively encourages young people back into school. At the heart of the project are girls and boys between the ages of seven and 12—with a particular effort made to reach the female population—in the Carabayllo and San Cosme neighborhoods of the capital city, Lima. Boys in this age group also participate in the project.  Thanks to additional tutoring, the students are able to make up some of the shortfall in their learning.  Further measures work towards enhancing their self-confidence and awareness of their rights as children.  Awareness campaigns for teachers, authorities, parents, and employers reinforce the conviction that children belong in school instead of working on the streets.  Parents attend vocational and business courses so they will lessen their dependence on income from their children, another important part of the project.   At the end of the training, participants who present a solid concept for the setup or development of a small business receives startup funding.   Since the beginning of the project, over 700 girls and boys have gone back to school.  Around 70 percent have stopped working completely, and the others have on average reduced their work by 80 percent.  Even without income from their children, the parents’ income has risen on average by 10 per cent, because many have started up small local shops or other small business enterprises.  They and their children prove that it is possible to escape the poverty trap.