Living in Peru : your everyday companion

Along with the municipal and regional government, UNICEF in Peru - supported by DHL funds - is developing an integrated program against child mortality and chronic malnutrition, including an information campaign on the importance of immunization for children.

Hermann Ude, CEO of DHL Global Forwarding and Freight and Board Member of Deutsche Post World Net recently visited the Rosaspata community in the Ayacucho region of Peru to inform himself about the progress of the project.

"I wanted to get a real picture of the situation first hand and show my support to the local management and to the entire Group for this endeavor," Ude said.

"As a father of three children myself, I can understand how important this is to the local people. As a manager, I am impressed by the organization of the project because it is well implemented within the local community and its culture instead of being brought onto the people from outside," he added.

In Peru four out of ten Peruvians live in poverty. In regions like Ayacucho, poverty affects 68 percent of the population.

The program covers selected municipal districts in the Andean regions of Ayacucho, Apurimac and Amazonas where up to 3,000 pregnant women and up to 7,000 children under age three will receive assistance.

The program's goals by 2010 are to reduce infant mortality by ten percent, to reduce low-weight births, chronic malnutrition and anemia in children under three by ten percent, to increase the immunization rate among children under 18 months to 95 percent and increase birth registration to 90 percent.