Victor's Vision

Throughout Latin America, literacy and educational proficiency rates have been increasing over the last few years. Overall, students are staying in school longer, learning more and performing better. Unfortunately, in Latin America’s rural, impoverished areas such improvements are absent. Peru stands as a perfect example of such trends. In the last few years, Peru has shown more educational improvement than almost any other Latin American nation. Since 2007, the World Bank has consistently reported Peru’s literacy rate to be at or above 90%. Such studies also show that nearly 70% of Peru’s student population is entering secondary school and 34% is enrolled in tertiary schools. Unfortunately, such statistics are not applicable to Peru’s rural poor. According to studies done by the National Institute of Statistics and Information (INEI), in 2008 only 6.8% of Peru’s impoverished population was enrolled in tertiary schools. Furthermore, nearly 22% of the country’s poor over the age of 15 were considered illiterate and most students were only completing 7.4 years of schooling. Such statistics and educational deficiencies are most strongly apparent in areas like Chulucanas, Peru. Chulucanas is located in the Piura province on the northern coast of Peru. Forty eight kilometers outside of the city of Piura, Chulucanas is a rural community with a population of 69,000. Like in many non-metropolitan areas throughout Latin America, the province of Piura is deeply impoverished. According to the INEI, only 37% of students finish primary school, 27% finish secondary school, and just 4% receive a university degree. In Chulucanas, such statistics are even lower. Throughout Chulucanas, residents lack access to basic health care, proper housing and a decent education. While all residents are certainly affected by such poverty, those living on the outskirts of the area are most deeply affected. It is these students that Victor’s Vision has chosen to work with. All families enrolled in Victor’s Vision reside in the outskirts of Chulucanas and are living on less than $2/day (one third of these families are living on less than $1/day). Nearly two thirds of Victor’s Vision’s students are living with a single mother meaning these children have either been abandoned by their father or their father has been incarcerated. On average, the parents of these students have a sixth grade education and are at best able to find temporary work, selling goods in the local market, driving a moto-taxi or washing clothes for friends and neighbors. Most are unable to afford medical care, electricity or running water for their families and their dilapidated homes are just one indication of the deep poverty in which they are living. In Chulucanas, students attend school for three hours a day. Often their teachers are under-qualified, their classes are overcrowded and their texts are few and outdated. Due to low wages, Peruvian public school teachers often strike leaving students with numerous cancelled school days each month. In such a learning environment, it is difficult for any student to excel academically or gain any true understanding of the value of education. Due to the challenging and under-resourced environment in which Chulucanas’ most under-served are raised, no children receive, or are expected to receive, a university or high school education. Most students drop out before eighth grade, seeing no point in continuing their academic career. The environment in which these students are raised both physically and emotionally inhibits their potential for academic, social and personal growth.