Christina Porras had to make a choice about whether to continue her education.

Christina lives in Peru, where 12 percent of children leave school before age 13, and 17 percent do not finish secondary school. Many leave to start work at a young age.

At her school, Christina was shown a series of informative telenovela-style videos about the impact that finishing secondary school can have on a student’s life. This program was evaluated as part of an IPA-implemented study with Peru’s MineduLAB and led by researchers Christopher Neilson, Francisco Gallego, and Oswaldo Molina.

The evaluation found the telenovela-video information campaign was effective at changing educational plans and lowering dropout rates.

In response to this evidence, the government scaled up the campaign to over 2,000 public secondary schools in Peru, reaching tens of thousands of girls like Christina.

This is just one example of how IPA’s research leads to real improvements in people’s lives. But starting today, you can help us achieve even more impact: your donation will be matched dollar-for-dollar by an anonymous donor until December 5th.

Thank you for joining us in creating a world with more evidence and less poverty!

The IPA Team