An estimated one-third of Lima’s 8 million people live in shantytowns. Many of them are from impoverished Quechua-speaking backgrounds, and have little education.

Many families are dysfunctional. Parents may have psychological or addictive problems. One-parent families with no regular employment are common.

Homework programmes

SIMers Bill and Jean Williamson have been working in homework programmes for children for more than 6 years. They have observed that parents do not always understand the developmental needs of their children.

They may also lack the necessary experience and resources to adequately feed, stimulate and provide their children with a supportive home environment and the varied experiences that will help them develop and achieve their potential.

Therefore, children are at a great disadvantage before they even start school. Most parents cannot cope with their children’s homework, or the discipline needs.

The poverty trap

The shantytowns are full of half-built houses, mostly made of wood or cane. A typical house has earthen floors, no windows, no running water or drainage system and sometimes no electricity.

The roads are not tarmacked, and there is often no rubbish collection system, creating an unhealthy environment. State education in the shantytowns is not good.

This project provides an opportunity both in the short- and long-term to rectify some of the damage caused by the problems described above.

It will educate and equip parents with skills and attitudes through talks and practical, hands-on training, while providing nursery activities for their pre-school (0-6) age children.

Recognizing the parents’ poverty and limited resources, the project will deal with areas such as health, hygiene, nutrition, self-esteem and child psychology, with the goal of training parents to better meet the various developmental needs of their children.

In the long-term, this project will enable children to escape the poverty trap in which they are currently caught.

Eight years ago, the family pictured above, and many others, started to arrive on the outskirts of Peru in order to escape acts of terrorism, find work and give their children a better future.

They had three children. Now there are six (five boys and a girl). The father is a labourer, and the mother takes in washing to supplement their income. All of the children struggle with their education.

Their parents spoke Quecha at home, so they had to learn Spanish when they got to school. Mum didn’t have much of a childhood herself and had little time, or understanding of the important pre-school development period of small children.

There wasn’t enough money to feed them well, and keeping them clean in a room with an earthen floor, no toilet and no water was impossible. They are typical of the families that attend the project.

You can donate online to this project if you wish