Build Schools/Orphanages with a Construction Project

Project At A Glance

Location: Cusco, Start point: Cusco End Point: Cusco Duration: 2-12 weeks Hours: 30-40 hours per week Food: Local meals (3 times a day) Room: Homebase or host family Date: First and Third Monday of each month

Project Summary

Volunteers in Peru construction projects work to repair or build homes and schools for orphaned children, occasionally there is work on community improvement projects. Construction activities are physically demanding, and include digging, removing dirt, carrying bricks, mixing cement, plastering, painting, cleaning and various other needs related to construction. Peruvian construction volunteers help build and reinforce the country’s physical stability, thus helping to develop and secure its robust future!

Skills/Qualifications Needed

Construction labor is very physical in nature so volunteers need to be physically healthy. General worksite knowledge is important. Basic Spanish fluency is important, but not mandatory. If you cannot speak Spanish, we suggest you enroll in our Spanish language course to make your stay more rewarding – both for you and for the children you are helping.

Volunteer Responsibilities

Working hours are normally Monday – Friday from 8- 12:00 pm and 2- 4:00 pm. Hours may vary based on weather, project needs, and construction schedules. Construction projects are led and organized by a local foreman who will determine specific work projects and guide volunteers with efforts.

Room/Food/Supervision

Most volunteers placed in Cusco projects stay at our home base – a permanent home set aside for international volunteers and manned with a local staff. Our home base provides a same-gender shared room and shared bathroom with running hot water and a “western” style toilet. Volunteers will have the ability to do laundry at the home base. Volunteers receive three prepared meals per day. If volunteers will be out of the house during lunch hour, volunteers can request a lunch "to go" that volunteers can take with volunteers or eat out. Meals are cuisine, which is traditional to Peru.

Our Cusco home base is located in the center of beautiful Cusco city. Most of our volunteers’ projects are located within 2-5 miles of the home base. Therefore, volunteers can simply walk to their projects or take a local taxi. Most necessary services for travelers are located within 2 km of the homebase: internet cafés, restaurants and grocery stores.

Occasionally, depending on volunteer traffic, available projects or distance to a volunteer’s assigned project, we may also place our volunteers with carefully pre-screened host families. Our host families are socially respected and experienced hosts of international volunteers. They have strong interest in our volunteers’ safety and well-being and demonstrate this with caution and care. In most host family situations, volunteers will share a room with another volunteer of the same gender. Volunteers receive three meals a day. Our host families do not offer laundry services, but some will happily take up the task for a small fee. This is up to volunteers to negotiate upon arrival. If volunteers choose to do their own laundry, most families are happy to let volunteers use their washbasins where volunteers wash by hand then line-dry their clothes.

Throughout the volunteer project, our local staff stays in contact with volunteers either with face-to-face visits or via email/telephone. Volunteers are always welcome at the local office in Cusco. If project placement is local, we request that volunteers stop by the office once a week to keep us posted on how they are doing with their home stay and project. If project placement is very far, then our local staff members maintain communication by either email and/or phone and try to visit every 2-4 weeks if possible.