CUSO in Peru

CUSO-VSO working with unemployed youth in Peru

In poor districts of Lima, Peru, youth unemployment is high and job-hunting skills are few. CUSO-VSO volunteers and a Peruvian NGO give them a leg up.

A new youth employment centre is a collaboration of CUSO-VSO, the Quebec NGO Carrefour Jeunesse Emploi de l'Outaouais, and the Peruvian NGO Kallpa. It is financed in part by the Canadian International Development Agency and the Quebec Ministry of International Relations.

Produced with the support of the Government of Canada through the Canadian International Development Agency.

Mike Cameron, a 27-year-old New Brunswick native, is in Lima, Peru for a two-year placement with CUSO-VSO to help youth find work in one of the poorest districts in the Peruvian capital.
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Cameron talks about the work being done in Lima for a video that can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/v/0VPjorrkjr8
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Jackelinne Quispe-Brito, a 19-year-old Lima native, had never held a formal job before she found work using the resources available at the youth employment centre organized, in part, by CUSO-VSO volunteers.
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With the tools she gained through the youth employment centre, Quispe-Brito was able to find work at a call centre for Bembos, a Peruvian fast food chain. After three months, she was in a supervisory position in one of their restaurants.
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Quispe-Brito and her mother outside their home in San Juan de Miraflores, the poorest district in Lima. "I learned how to present myself at job interviews and that helped me a lot to find the job where I'm currently working," she says.
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The youth employment centre, launched in partnership with a Peruvian community-development organization and NGO, Asociación Kallpa, offers assistance in finding work, resume writing and basic entrepreneurship.
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Cameron estimates that 25 to 30 percent of youth who come into the centre find work and stick with it. In their first year, 3,000 youth came in and about 1,800 went through their workshop programme.
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It's estimated that in this district of Lima, there are 46,000 unemployed or underemployed youth out of a total population of about 300,000.
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Mike Cameron, a 27-year-old New Brunswick native, is in Lima, Peru for a two-year placement with CUSO-VSO to help youth find work in one of the poorest districts in the Peruvian capital.

Cameron talks about the work being done in Lima for a video that can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/v/0VPjorrkjr8

Jackelinne Quispe-Brito, a 19-year-old Lima native, had never held a formal job before she found work using the resources available at the youth employment centre organized, in part, by CUSO-VSO volunteers.

With the tools she gained through the youth employment centre, Quispe-Brito was able to find work at a call centre for Bembos, a Peruvian fast food chain. After three months, she was in a supervisory position in one of their restaurants.

Quispe-Brito and her mother outside their home in San Juan de Miraflores, the poorest district in Lima. "I learned how to present myself at job interviews and that helped me a lot to find the job where I'm currently working," she says.

The youth employment centre, launched in partnership with a Peruvian community-development organization and NGO, Asociación Kallpa, offers assistance in finding work, resume writing and basic entrepreneurship.

Cameron estimates that 25 to 30 percent of youth who come into the centre find work and stick with it. In their first year, 3,000 youth came in and about 1,800 went through their workshop programme.

It's estimated that in this district of Lima, there are 46,000 unemployed or underemployed youth out of a total population of about 300,000.