Living in Peru : your everyday companion

LivinginPeru.com
Isabel Guerra

When the economic crisis fully hits Peru, some 200,000 will have lost their jobs, which will undoubtedly have a far greater impact on their children, as the latter may not have any other way to afford their basic needs.

According to Jorge Oroza, an expert on children's issues from Save the Children (Sweden), now it is the time for Peru's government to establish a high-rank commission intended to at the highest level in order to monitor this crisis and take mitigating measures since now.

Some of Oroza's suggestions are to increase the resources allocated to ProJoven (a program which offers work training to youngsters between 16 and 24 years old) and increasing also the schools' budgets, to develop strategies to prevent the students from dropping out.

Oroza said another alternative could be to allocate more resources to the Office of Scholarships and Loans (INABEC).

The expert asked the authorities to remember that the lack of investment in children will be “unrecoverable,” since a child who suffers from chronic malnutrition will have a permanent disability and thus will have limitations as an adult.

“We have to stop the cycle of poverty now," he said.

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