The Cajamarca Region is one of the poorest in Peru, with 63.8% of the total population living in extreme poverty (INEI 2007).
 

Cajamarca, capital of the homonymous region, is a beautiful colonial city nestled in the northern highlands of Peru at 2709 meters above sea level.  The city and its surrounding areas host a population of about 157,000, although the actual number of inhabitants is much higher than the official count, as many residents are unregistered by authorities (INEI 2005).

During the last decade, Cajamarca has witnessed great economic growth, primarily due to the presence of a large gold mine in the area. Whilst the city shows the signs of rapid development, the urban poor continue to live on the margins of this growth, largely excluded from its benefits. As land and bread prices go up, they find themselves struggling to keep up with the increasing costs. Social inequalities in the area, historically very pronounced, have been growing even more evident during the last few years (UN-HDR 2002).

The inhabitants of marginal urban areas are for the most part scarcely and informally employed, earning less than minimum wage while having to provide for large families. Many adults are illiterate and minimally educated, which impedes their access to more profitable forms of employment. Families therefore rely on the low-skilled labour of both parents and often that of the older children for living.

Women work as washers, milkers, cleaners, and sell sweets and fruit. Some, being too old or sick to work and with no one to take care of them, go begging in the centre of town. 
Men work as farmers, construction workers, weight carriers in the market, custodians, or as sellers on the streets.

Many children also work to support their family; they sell sweets and drinks on the street, often until late at night. Some shine shoes, guide tourists, and carry peoples’ shopping bags with wheel-barrows in the market, while others help their parents by working the land and raising animals.

The precariously built adobe houses where these families live rarely have access to water, electricity or sanitation, and are often overcrowded and lacking in hygiene. Both children and adults therefore suffer from sicknesses directly connected with their living conditions such as infections, pneumonia, food poisoning, and parasites. Infant mortality rates are generally high and underreported in these barrios, and malnutrition affects 33% of children under 14 years of age residing in the urban areas (INEI 2005).

These harsh daily living conditions are shown in numerous ways. In the shanty-towns of the poor, alcohol abuse rates are high, as are those of criminality and domestic violence (596 cases reported in 2003). This in turn leads to a high rate of female-headed households (18%) and child abandonment.

In this impoverished and often dysfunctional context, families have great difficulties handling the expenses of their children’s schooling. Many single mothers rely on their oldest children to help them support the family, and education is generally not seen as a priority in comparison to the daily needs of the family.

Children from poor families therefore often fall behind in school, repeat several grades, and usually drop out after only a few years. A total of 42% of the population does not attend secondary school, while 17% does not even make it through primary (SASE 2005).

In many cases the parents’ inability to offer their children an adequate education forces minors to abandon school to search for low-skilled, poorly-paid jobs like those of their parents. Cajamarca is in fact the Peruvian region with the highest rate of child labour in Peru (Mimdes 2005).
The lack of education amongst children from poor families only perpetuates the vicious cycle of poverty and social exclusion which these children and their families struggle with. While in Cajamarca there exist both charities and government programs that deal with the problem of child labour (MANTHOC, Chibollitos, NATS, etc.), few have attempted to address the issue at its root: to prevent children from dropping out of school.
It was with this intent that Incawasi was created.