..Bruce Peru: 'Huanchaquito' Centre for Street Children
Volunteer vacancies:4
volunteers at any given time
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Twinned and supported by Spectrum Community School, Victoria, Canada
Introduction
HUANCHAQUITO CHILDREN'S CENTRE is part of a non profit organisation operating from the city of Trujillo, Peru, with the aim of giving aid and support to children from impoverished backgrounds living in and around the area. A team of international and Peruvian volunteers provide food, classes and activities to children who would otherwise be in the streets - our mission is to get them educated.
HUANCHAQUITO will work at getting all children to attend school
and help with the provision of school materials.
In HUANCHAQUITO itself, we will recruit a group of volunteers to join our trained social worker and a team of Peruvian staff to work at the project in the mornings every week day. Children will come for lessons and lunch, remaining at the centre until they are attending school regularly. The social worker liaises with parents, teachers and community members; the volunteers organise activities of a wide-ranging nature.
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Many children do
not attend school in HUANCHAQUITO, due one or mor of three reasons:
extreme poverty (even attending free school in Peru costs about $110
a year), abandonment or parental abuse (children of poor parents
often are made to work instead of attending school) Our primary goal is to
get as many children into school as possible, and this involves
encouraging learning, talking to parents and in some cases
purchassing uniforms and school books. We have the more general aim
of providing children aged between 6 and 12 with fun activities to
do in the morning, to keep them occupied, together and away from the
streets, and to give extra help to those struggling in school and
with learning difficulties. |
What to expect as a Volunteer:Your Job at 'HUANCHAQUITO' will involve:
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Accomodation & food costs:We ask a fee from our volunteers to keep our work going. The money goes to pay for the bills, meals, and the cost of the social worker, cook and secretary - also to promote the opening of other Children's Centres in Peru. This fee includes accommodation and 3 meals a day, 5 days a week.
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Besides these activities, we welcome new ideas to make our project most effective for the children. Volunteering at HUANCHAQUITO can be a tiring but immensely rewarding experience. You should be able to cope with big groups of street children demanding a lot of attention and enthusiasm. You will have to be a team worker, working together with Peruvian and international volunteers. In the centre you will be a representative of the project and are expected to be responsible and behave as an example for the children. What you do in your free time outside the centre is up to you.
Volunteering at 'LAS DELICIAS' is a fantastic way of getting to know Peru, of improving your Spanish, and above all, of interacting with the community and with the children of the city in a positive and helpful way.
The Region:
Trujillo is a
city of 651,000 inhabitants, on the Paciffic Ocean in northern Peru. It is
the site of the largest city in the Inca Empire, has the largest quantity
and best preserved Inca ruins in Peru. Today it suffers from a range of
social problems, including bad sanitation, lack of electricity and a
shortage of food, and was recently classified as one of Perus poorest
cities. Like many Latin American settlements, it is characterised by an
attractive and ornate colonial centre, with the poorest partssprawling
along the coast to the north and south, and to the west toward the Andees
mountains. For the visitor it is a safe and lively place, with good
restaurants and bars, an excellent market, all manner of beach and ocean
sports and, as a testament to the great Inca civilisation, the palaces of
Chan-Chan and the Temples of Huaca de la Luna, which lie just outside the
city. The local inhabitants are generally kind and friendly, and we have
been able to cooperate well with schools and families in the past.
The Programme:
Our centre is located in the heart of HUANCHAQUITO, and is
comprised of a small semi-complete plywood building, separated into thwo
class areas - for children of differing learning skills.. Children attend
the centre from between 9 AM and 11:30 PM, (ending with lunch) during the
children's time in the centre volunteers organise a range of workshops and
activities, including art, music, science, sport and drama. Groups are divided
up according to age or ability; individual classes are also given to help
with reading, writing, spelling and maths. None of these children go to
school, so an important of our program is teaching them group discipline
and study habits. We regularly plan trips outside the centre, to play football
and other games. Our international Volunteers do not live in the HUANCHAQUITO
centre, but rather on our main campus, which is located in the centre of
Trujillo, a half block from the main square. HUANCHAQUITO is only an eight
minute taxi ride from the campus.
The Language School:
In the evenings English-speaking and French-speaking volunteers give English and French classes to poor Peruvians of all ages, who pay a small monthly contribution to our work. Our students know that their tuition goes towards our work with the children and enables us to maintain HUANCHAQUITO and our other centres. Volunteers are therefore obliged to give at least one class per night to maintain our Language School.Spanish classes are offered for free to all our volunteers.
