By: Della Hareland U.S. Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Lima, Peru

How do you reach new youth audiences to provide a positive message? How do you help juvenile offenders reintegrate into their communities? You use a language and activity they know and understand: hip-hop and graffiti. The U.S. Embassy in Lima, Peru organized a two-day hip-hop and graffiti program in Lima and Chiclayo with U.S. Hip-Hopper Jose Collado, alias “Rey Chesta,” and Peru’s graffiti artist Alexis Villanueva, alias “Salsa,” April 4 and 5. The artists held a workshop in El Agustino, one of the most dangerous areas of Lima with a high prevalence of drug use and gang activity, and another workshop in the provincial city of Chiclayo, an area with a high rate of delinquency.

Participants in the workshops were sixty 13- to 18-year-olds who are part of the Juvenile Restorative Justice Program (JRJP) led by NGO Encuentros Casa de la Juventud. When young people get… more »