Project Launch:

Contumaza is a rural community in the northern highlands of Peru where farming is the sole occupation. District wide, over half the population lives in poverty, a quarter in extreme poverty. The illiteracy rate in the province is more than 60 percent.

A $500 grant from World Connect's Kids to Kids Program, supported an afterschool reading club for third and fourth graders and a story hour for kindergartners, first and second graders at the local library. The goal of the project was to get children accustomed to reading and being read to. The municipality chipped in and provided at least one appointed official charged with promoting the value of reading to the local community.