.Bruce Peru: "Pesqueda" Street Children's Centre
Volunteer vacancies:6 volunteers at any given timeJan 08 - Dec 08:3 vacancies Jan 09 - June 09 4 vacancies On line Application |
Introduction
PESQUEDA CHILDREN'S CENTRE is part of a non profit organisation operating in 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.
PESQUEDA works at getting all children to attend school and helps with the provision of school materials; it also fosters good relations within the community.
In Cerro Pesqueda itself, a group of volunteers, a trained social worker and a team of Peruvian staff work at the project every week day. Children come in daily for lessons and lunch, remaining at the centre until they are attending school regularly and ready to graduate. 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 Cerro Pesqueda, due one or more 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 PESQUEDA 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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volunteer with childrenBesides these activities, we welcome new ideas to make our project most effective for the children. Volunteering at Pesqueda 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 with PESQUEDA 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 Waka 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 Cerro Pesqueda, and is comprised of a large open plan semi-complete brick building, separated into three class areas - for children of differing learning skills.. Children attend the centre from between 9 AM and 12:30 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 Pesqueda centre, but rather on our main campus, which is located in the centre of Trujillo, a half block from the main square. Pesqueda 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 adults, who pay a monthly contribution to our work. Our students know that their tuition goes towards our work with the children and enables us to maintain Pesqueda 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.
