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Asociación SOLAC implemented a pilot microfinance project in the community of Alto Perú, Lima, from July 2009 to January 2011, with the aim of introducing the methodology of Village Banking to this area, and stimulate the interest on the part of microfinance institutions (MFIs) to enter the area and provide its inhabitants with the benefits of microfinance services. The project has now been passed-over to a Peruvian MFI that will continue to expand the outreach of microfinance within Alto Perú.
The area of Alto Perú, in the district of Chosica-Lurigancho (East Cone), is one of the most rural areas in the periphery of Lima. It has long been accustomed to migration from the Andean interior and this, along with the inexorable demands of industry and the deriving industrial contamination, has resulted in extreme standards of living and sanitation, and pervasive child labour.
Previously, Asociación SOLAC has built a library in the school with the help of the community, to give the children and adolescents a place where they can develop their educational and creative skills. However, the library has not been used to the extent hoped for. Soon it became clear that children could not spend more time at the school premises as their labour was inevitable for the families' income. Most families in Alto Perú earn their living by making bricks out of contaminated water and earth. They get paid per 1,000 bricks produced and need the help of their children from as early as 3 a.m. every day. After school, children need to continue making bricks. Not only does this lead to a lack of concentration and children being tired during class, but they often suffer respiratory and similar problems and miss classes for many related reasons.
Microfinance will allow the families to receive a sum of money that they will invest in a way which is most beneficial to their situation. The loans will be accompanied by courses and workshops (such as how to keep track of money, as well as practical workshops on, for example, producing and selling textiles) and emphasis will be placed on the promotion of saving. The long term aim is that children spend less hours working and have more time to devote to education and simply being a child.
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