Samuel Ardaya Rivera, 13, knows first hand how hard it is to attend school when you're dirt poor.
The little he makes washing auto windshields on the streets of Santa Cruz, Bolivia, goes to help with home expenses and pay for school supplies, according to the newspaper El Mundo. Life is a struggle, and for many children like Rivera, school is an unaffordable luxury.
Helping to get working children off the streets and into the classroom, and at the same time strengthen parental involvement in their children's education, is the aim of a new project being carried out by nongovernmental groups in Santa Cruz as well as the cities of La Paz, El Alto and Cochabamba. Financed with the help of a $2.65 million IDB grant, the program is benefiting 1,900 children from extremely poor families--21 percent of the total number of working children in those cities--with after-school tutoring, school supplies, clothing, snacks and meals.
In Santa Cruz, each of the three institutions carrying out the program has contracted eight tutors. Their main job is to help the children keep on top of their school work as well as engage them in recreational, artistic, cultural and science activities.
The program has resulted in a significant decline in school dropout and repetition rates. In fact, a year into the program, 90 percent of the 1,900 participating children completed the school year.
An important side effect of the tutoring is strengthening the children's self-esteem, which in many cases has been damaged by their work experiences and family situation.