6.2 million Peruvians under the age of 18 live in poverty. Although a majority of children are enrolled in primary school, many never learn basic skills and, without basic literacy, almost a quarter of them drop out before the fifth grade.

UNICEF, along with the Peruvian Ministry of Education and a number of local organizations, is working to ensure that poor children in Peru have the skills and support they need to stay in school. They are concentrating their efforts in Lima, the nation's capital, and the Andean area of Apurimac, one of the poorest areas in all of Peru. Taking a creative approach to the issue, UNICEF has implemented the 2-for-1 program, which trains teens to act as peer tutors for poor first and second graders that are failing or are close to failing their courses. Everyone benefits: the young children receive the individual attention they need to stay in school, while the teenagers get the opportunity to build self-esteem and leadership skills.

With help received from Openwave Systems, UNICEF and its partners are enabling 3,500 adolescents to teach 11,200 children how to read and write, as well as training those 3,500 adolescents in using the Internet. Normally, the retention rate of this at-risk group of children is about 50%. With 2-for-1, at least 75% remain in school. Unicef promises to keep at least 2,800 children from dropping out, and improve the test scores of the whole 11,200 children involved.