UNICEF in Peru
For children in Peru, ongoing political instability, natural disasters worsened by climate change and the impact of the Venezuelan refugee crisis have made difficult conditions even harder. Learn what UNICEF is doing to address these problems and improve the circumstances for both host populations and refugees.
Humanitarian needs of children in Peru
Long marked by a cycle of political crisis, extreme inequality and poverty, and prejudice towards its large indigenous populations, Peru has also been hit with a wave of new hardships exacerbated by climate change and growing numbers of refugees fleeing socio-economic collapse in Venezuela.
A series of exceptionally severe floods and landslides — especially around the disastrous Cyclone Yaku, and magnified by an unusually intense El Niño cycle — have ruined infrastructure, fueled disease outbreaks and greatly strained already limited resources.
Severe El Niño-driven flooding in the northern coastal regions of Piura and Lambayeque, violent social protests in the south, and the impact of roughly 1.5 million Venezuelan refugees who have fled to Peru over the past decade have all combined to amplify the difficulties faced by the country’s most vulnerable.
While these effects have been felt in every region of Peru, hardest hit are the rural poor and indigenous populations across the Andean highlands, and the large refugee populations concentrated in Lima. In all these groups, the threats to health, nutrition and social protection are most heavily borne by children.
Related: UNICEF in South America
How UNICEF is helping the children of Peru
In a broad response to the national emergency caused by flooding and landslides in the coastal North after Cyclone Yaku, UNICEF has made improvements in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), health and nutrition, education, and protection —while also initiating a program of direct cash transfers in Tumbes, Piura, and Lambayeque.
By rehabilitating key water infrastructure and hygiene facilities in the three most affected regions, UNICEF has been able to provide access to safe water and sanitation crucial for the recovery of tens of thousands of children and families in the hardest-hit population.
To improve health and nutrition for the children and pregnant mothers in the region, UNICEF has distributed zinc tablets for the treatment of diarrhea, provided nutritional supplements for children suffering from anemia, and conducted a communication campaign on disease prevention in local schools and community centers.
UNICEF has promoted access to safe schools by supporting the installation of twelve temporary classrooms at schools affected by flooding, and has also provided kits for removal of flood debris, and school supplies for thousands of impacted learners.
The flooding in the coastal North and other areas has also created a fertile breeding ground for disease, and resulted in a dangerous resurgence of Dengue fever and several other infectious illnesses. UNICEF has set up teams of monitors, working with local authorities to assess the severity of outbreaks, address the needs of adolescents in affected areas, and preposition supplies for a multisectoral response.
UNICEF has also undertaken a humanitarian response to the political violence in Lima and the South which not only addresses basic needs like food, water, shelter, and health care, but also provides socio-emotional support to children who have witnessed violent confrontations in their communities.
UNICEF aids migrating and refugee children in Peru
Of the roughly 1.5 million refugees who have fled Venezuela in recent years and made the long and arduous trek to Peru, a disproportionate share are children or adolescents. The largest segment of them have settled in the impoverished neighborhoods of north Lima, where they face socio-economic conditions even harsher than those that confront the native inhabitants. The children of these refugee communities are heavily afflicted by poverty, exploitation, insufficient nutrition, and limited access to health care and education.
UNICEF is working with multiple government ministries to bolster social protections in these vulnerable populations by accurately assessing multidimensional poverty. It has funded a pilot program to register 1.4 million households in the poorest districts —facilitating the targeting of protection programs at the people who need them the most.
UNICEF’s programs for sexual education and reduction of teen pregnancy and gender based violence specifically aim to help the girls and young women of these immigrant communities who have generally been on the lowest rung of the ladder in Peruvian society.
The difficulties that face the children of Peru are multi-layered and seemingly intractable, but with donor support, UNICEF is making a difference.
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