For more than 30 years, Compassion has been partnering with local churches in Peru to lift children out of poverty in Jesus’ name. As of June 2022, approximately 90,000 children are benefiting from Compassion’s support and care at 269 child development centers across Peru. Every one of these children receives the nutrition, access to health care and educational support they need to beat poverty and grow into fulfilled, self-sufficient adults.
Although progress has been made over the last decade, nearly a quarter of Peruvians still live in poverty, and the figure in rural areas is 54%. While urban and coastal areas benefited from an economic boom during the 2000s, the southern Andean region continues to suffer from underinvestment and poor services.
Nearly half of rural families have no access to an improved sanitation facility, and one-third do not have a reliable source of safe drinking water, resulting in widespread waterborne illness. This has led Compassion Peru to focus on disease prevention through a comprehensive health-promotion program that has been met with great success.
Compassion Peru recently launched eight new child development centers in and around the Cusco and Puno regions. The region of Cusco is an area that is under-resourced. Children in the surrounding communities suffer from chronic malnutrition. Approximate locations of the new centers are plotted below.
Peru is particularly prone to natural disasters, including earthquakes, droughts and floods, all of which have a devastating effect on food production. This means food insecurity is common.
Education is free until age 16 in Peru, yet just slightly more than 80% of children finish primary school. Parents often cannot afford the cost of books and transportation, and many children have to take a job to help support their family. Nearly 22% of Peruvian children are engaged in child labor, sometimes in hazardous occupations such as mining, logging and street vending.
Compassion is striving to create the conditions in which every child in Peru has access to a good education, in which every child has enough to eat, and in which every child can access safe water and adequate sanitation. Our child development centers provide an essential base for these efforts. They are staffed by workers who are dedicated to improving children’s lives in Jesus’ name and to reaching out to those most in need.
Quick Facts
- 7% of Peruvians are living in poverty (around 6.7 million).
- Nearly 22% of children ages 5-14 are engaged in child labor (around 1.2 million children).
- 2% of the workforce is unemployed.
- A quarter of the workforce relies on agriculture for income.
Sources: The World Bank; CIA, The World Factbook; UNICEF; World Food Programme; US Department of Labor.