Twenty-one year-old William Laura was born in Ayacucho, a province in the Peruvian Andes, that gained a reputation as a hotbed of terrorist activity during the 1980s. When William was just a baby, his family moved to Barrios Altos, a slum community in Lima, to escape the violence around them. Yet here William, like many of his peers, faced other challenges, including widespread poverty, a pervasive drug culture, high youth unemployment, conflicts at home, and peer pressure at school and in the community.

William admits to growing up with low self-esteem. “I always felt uneasy and nervous,” he says. “Sometimes I’d become blocked altogether in social situations.” Tense relationships at home, especially with his father, didn’t help matters. “My family used to tell me I was a nobody, unlike my siblings,” he recalls.

Then, William discovered De calle a calle (Street by Street), the local Make a Connection program in Peru. Run by the Centro de Información y Educación para la Prevención del Abuso de Drogas (CEDRO), the program provides youth with educational, cultural, and recreational activities aimed at getting them off the streets. It also assists them in launching volunteer projects in the community. “I began to go to the meetings and participated in every activity – music workshops, encounters, community visits,” says William. As a result, he now feels more capable and has started reaching out to others in need. In addition to helping his family, William helps those who are on the verge of using drugs. “I help them to overcome the same problems I’ve been dealing with,” he relates. “I’ve become a counselor. I talk to them a little. I’ve received a lot of information about the effects of drug use.”

William has also gotten in touch with his passion for music and gift for playing the guitar, performing Peruvian and Latin American folk songs for other young people who come to the program. While he still struggles with how he’ll support himself one day, William remains hopeful about the future. “My goals are to continue improving myself,” he says, “to study a career and be the best in what I love: music and guitar playing. I won’t give up.”