Asociación Kallpa

Despite recent economic growth, poverty in Peru’s Cusco province is still widespread: over a third of the population lives in extreme poverty. Although education rates have improved in recent years, youth unemployment and underemployment remain high, particularly among young people who come from precarious urban areas and whose parents lack professional connections. Founded in 1990, Asociacion Kallpa works with local schools, government, community organizations, and youth activists to develop and implement sustainable, collective solutions to a range of health and related challenges facing at-risk children and youth.

EMpower’s first grant to Kallpa supports the organization’s youth employment center in Cusco, with a particular focus on livelihoods orientation for adolescent Quechua girls who have migrated to the city of Cusco from surrounding rural areas.