Why help Peru?
Peru is a country of outstanding diversity, rich in natural resources and home to some of the most spectacular landscapes and historical heritage in the whole of Latin America. Machu Picchu alone attracts 1,000 visitors every day.
Yet 81% of the rural population of the Andean highlands is living in poverty, and 57% in extreme poverty.
Why?
Despite its riches, Peru is plagued by political instability and economic inequality, with women and children in the Andean region being amongst those hardest hit. This extreme rural povertyis caused by a complex combination of factors. A lack of governmental investment in rural areas is worsened by social and gender inequalities. Poor prospects, and inadequate health and education servicesresult in mass urban migration, and high levels of child labour.
Read on for more about the problems Peru faces...
Political instability and economic inequality
Peruvian governance swings frequently from democracy to dictatorship and has been continuously plagued by corruption. The resulting political instability is worsened by a persistent gulf between the small elite of Spanish descendants controlling the wealth and power of the country, and the voiceless and powerless indigenous rural poor excluded from it. This economic inequality continues to hold back the country from development and means that the country is unable to meet the needs of its most marginalised and vulnerable.
Extreme rural poverty
81% of the rural population of the Andean highlands is living in poverty, and 57% in extreme poverty. Blighted by malnutrition, poor hygiene and widespread household violence and abuse, the most vulnerable people are women and children, who find themselves excluded from society, denied access to the most basic services and employment opportunities, forgotten, voiceless and powerless to change their destiny.
Social and gender inequalities
The inescapable spiral of poverty does not plague all within Peru. Many have prospered from the country’s great natural wealth and now frequent tourists. However this wealth rarely trickles down to where it is needed most, and those in remote rural areas are often forgotten by tourism and government alike.
The health and education of a family is a responsibility which lies with the mother. However with cultural norms preventing access to education and formal work opportunities for the majority of women, few mothers have access to the finances needed to provide their children with the basic food, health provisions and educational materials they need to have a fighting chance of breaking the poverty cycle. Providing mothers with the means to generate their own income means that they are empowered to decide where this income goes.
Poor access to public health and education services
Education in Peru is both free and compulsory for all children between ages 6 and 15. However this is difficult to enforce, particularly as the most poor rely on their children to contribute to the household income. Even when children can access it, the quality of education is poor - schools face numerous challenges from overpopulated classrooms and inadequate resources and facilities, to poorly trained teachers.
Some families are able to financially cope without the extra household income their children provide but the cost of school materials and uniforms are often so incumbent that a family cannot afford to cover these expenses for each child. They are forced to choose which of their children study and which stay at home to work. Children who are privileged enough to attend school often walk alone for over an hour to get there due to the lack of schools in rural areas. Schools in rural areas are also frequently closed due to lack of teaching staff, or transport strikes resulting in teachers being unable to get to their classes.
Access to decent public health facilities is equally problematic with many rural areas having no access to a medical centre within days’ walking distance. Peru has a nationwide shortage of doctors and nurses, and inadequate medical facilities and proper sanitation infrastructure in many parts of the country, making a life nearer the city seem even more attractive.
Mass urban migration
Lack of prospects in rural regions has resulted in a mass urban migration from the highlands, with poor families leaving in search of better healthcare, education and employment opportunities. Although some are lucky enough to break the poverty cycle they are born into, most end up disillusioned and exploited, living in city slums or in squatter settlements at the edges of the cities. These slums, just like the more isolated rural communities from which their residents came, find themselves without governmental assistance, resulting in poor infrastructure, sanitation, education and healthcare. Faced with unemployment and struggling to survive parents are forced to put their children to work. Children find themselves wandering the streets begging or searching for casual work, particularly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.
High levels of child labour
Many children in both urban and rural areas have to work to contribute an income to their household, meaning they cannot complete primary education and instead are faced with a life of petty trading, begging or prostitution. Child workers on the streets are extremely vulnerable.
