Daniel's Story

Daniel benefits from 2 for 1

Daniel is 8 years old. He lives with his mother and two little brothers in Chuquitanta, a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, in a small house made of mud and reeds. The house has no plumbing, and Daniel doesn't know whether it belongs to his family or not. Daniel's mother operates a cart selling salchipapas (french fries and hot dogs), and sometimes Daniel helps her by selling to customers or washing cars. Daniel's mother did not have the money to pay Daniel's school costs (for his uniform, textbooks, etc.), but managed to meet these costs by performing odd jobs for the school. Still, Daniel often has to stay home from school to help his mother. These absences, in a school system where classes meet for only 20 hours a week anyway, caused Daniel to fall behind most of his classmates last year. By the end of second grade, he still lacked basic reading and writing skills and had to repeat the year. Daniel became rebellious and began acting out in class. Daniel was selected for Two-for-One because he tested in the bottom third of his class and was at risk of failing again. Almost immediately, however, Daniel's teachers noticed a profound change in his behavior: he was more outgoing, more respectful of his classmates and more confident. Daniel's grades improved dramatically, and he has been promoted to the third grade. Daniel works very hard to finish his chores so he can go for walks with the other children in his group, and gets along very well with the group's teen mentors.