Research in Peru Results in Departmental Honors: Nicole Blough

If you're considering studying abroad through the IFSA-Butler Peru program, you'll have the wonderful opportunity of getting involved in the community as part of the mandatory Peruvian Social Reality course. The IFSA-Butler students on the program work closely with a local NGO in different capacities.

For Nicole Blough, of Anderson University, the research and the work she did at House of Panchita (Casa de Panchita) while in Peru resulted in departmental honors when she returned to the States! The experience you gain and the research you complete while abroad can be supremely valuable even after you return. Below is Nicole's account of her research (as well as some of the data) and the honors that resulted from it!

"The honors is from the Department of Modern Foreign Languages at Anderson University for my Spanish major and is awarded to one graduating student each school year. The honors is awarded based on GPA, departmental participation, and most importantly a paper and presentation over a research project. When I studied abroad, I did a research project in Panchita as part of the Peruvian Social Reality course required through IFSA.

My project was based on the database of domestic workers that they have at Panchita. Working with the information from 2006, when the database was started, I found 170 cases in which the job placement ended prematurely due to firing or quitting and found 21 common reasons for the terminations. I then compared those 170 cases (which were all females) with 5 aspects: the duration of the placement, current age of the worker, age at which the worker first started working, department of birth, and level of education. I did this to see if there were correlations between those characteristics and the reasons for which they were losing their job. I found a lot of information, but I won't mention all of it in this email. Some of the main statistics that I discovered are:

-The main 3 reasons for which the placements were terminated were: The worker was uncomfortable with the family or the work she was doing, the employer was discontent with the worker or the quality of the work being done, and that the worker did not show up to work on the first day although she signed a contract.

-Although the contracts are usually meant to be long-term, 79.7% lasted less than 3 months.

-8.8% of the workers were between ages 14-17 (when it is legal to work part-time in Peru). 40% of the workers were between ages 18-25 (this is the most common age group). 90% are under the age of 45.

-Many of the domestic workers come from departments outside of Lima that move to the city to find a better quality of life. Apart from the department of Lima, the 4 most common departments are Apurimac, Huanuco, Cusco, and Puno. Of those 4, Apurimac, Huanuco, and Puno are 3 of the 5 poorest departments in Peru. 45.6% of the workers come from departments in the desert, which often are areas of extreme poverty.

-52.3% of the workers had finished their high school education or higher, while 45.8% completed less than that level. (There was about 1.7% without data.) -17.7% of the women had started working (illegally) between the ages of 6-13. 53.2% started working between ages 14-17. 23.3% started working between ages 18-25.

I learned a great deal from this project and understand some of the social issues in Lima, Peru that I would not have understood as well if I had simply heard about them in a classroom."

Congratulations, Nicole! All of IFSA-Butler is proud of your dedicated participation and research in Peru, as well as the recognition you received upon your return! We are wishing you much success in the future!