Peru
Active in Peru since 1973, Terre des hommes (Tdh) set up health and nutrition programmes. Today Tdh runs projects providing assistance to children in conflict with the law and preventing and combating urban violence. In 2011, more than 1,585 people benefited from Tdh’s activities.
Context
In spite of positive economic growth over the last few years, unemployment in Peru is high, and there still is a significant gap between rich and poor. The main victims are children and young people who have no access to the education system, which is essential if they are to improve their economic situation. Crime in Peru has increased in recent years. Gangs (known as “pandillas”) control poorer neighbourhoods and recruit children and young people to work in drug trafficking. Large numbers of young people are currently incarcerated in Peru, regardless of the penal code’s provisions promoting an alternative to detention for minors. With high unemployment rates, it is difficult to convince children and young people that crime is not the answer to their problems.
Further information on the Tdh intervention in Peru on the delegation's website
Follow Tdh Peru on Facebook
-
-77.029495
-12.013398
Lima
-
-79.837017
-6.753499
Chiclayo
Centered at -75.15152 -9.189967 6
Children's situation
- 60% of children live below the poverty line in Peru
- 2,442 children are in prison, built for only 640 of them
What Tdh can do in Peru with:
- CHF 50.-: offer alternative schooling to young criminals or drug addicts for 3 months
- CHF 400.-: training for an educator to learn penal mediation (120 hours)h3. Achievements 2011
Delegate:: Véronique Henry
Expatriate staff: 1
National staff: 5
Budjet: 599'462 CHF
In collaboration with: Encuentros Casa de la Juventud, Public prosecution, Administration of Justice, Min. Interior, Min. Women and Social Affairs, government, Ombudsman
Juvenile justice – Since 2002, Terre des hommes (Tdh) has been offering legal assistance to young people and helping them escape a life as a criminal. Tdh acts on their behalf, demonstrating to the government and local councils that there is an alternative to imprisonment. These young people have benefited from educational and social measures that favour integration into family and society.
Cooperation with local authorities – Tdh supports and raises awareness amongst operators of justice and authorities through ongoing training on the problems faced by children in conflict with the law.
In Peru, the Restorative Juvenile Justice (JJR) project was implemented in disadvantaged neighbourhoods in Lima and Chiclayo. Tdh and the Peruvian public prosecutor offered assistance to 653 adolescents starting from their detention at the police station, and 167 of them participated in a psycho-educational orientation programme in a non-incarceration setting. Supported by a specialised team, these adolescents at odds with the law took part in a process to assume responsibility for the offences they had committed, make restitution for damages and restore the social link with their communities. A number of their victims also received support from the same team. Moreover, the focus on preventing violence at school resulted in teachers, pupils and parents being sensitised to this problem at seven secondary schools in Lima. And finally, investments by the Peruvian government in the JJR project in 2011 enabled our intervention to be extended to eight further districts (Lima and province).
