Working in an Orphanage

Project At A Glance

Location: Cusco or Manu Peru Start Point: Cusco End Point: Cusco Duration: 1-12 Weeks Hours: 20-40 Hours per week Food: 3 local food daily Room: Local Host family or hostel Date: Mondays of each month

Project Summary

Volunteer in an orphanage in Peru and immerse yourself in Peru’s colorful culture and help add brightness to the lives of orphaned or abandoned children. Share love, compassion and skills with these very-unfortunate children who have lost their parents due to complications caused by poverty, disease, family violence or simple abandonment. IFRE’s orphan projects in Peru projects aim to provide homes, education, love and hope to these children. The homes are run with the atmosphere of a large family accompanied by live-in parents that are there 100% of the time to support, care for and nurture the children. Volunteers will undoubtedly have the chance to brighten the lives of orphans while at the same time growing personally and professionally.

Volunteers who are willing to volunteer for at least a month with special skills such as counseling, social work, psychology or nursing can volunteer in orphanages and homes for special children, “Las Estrellas” (the stars). These children are emotionally, mentally, developmentally and/or physically challenged and need extra special attention and care. A caring and devoted organization in Cusco has taken on the challenge of caring for them, but they need your help and support. If you are up for a challenge, consider working in this type of orphanage.

Skills/Qualifications Needed

No specific skills or qualifications are needed to volunteer in an orphanage in Peru.  Beginner to intermediate knowledge of Spanish is preferred (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. There are no specific qualifications needed to join IFRE's volunteer orphanage projects in Peru. All volunteers are expected to be flexible and patient, as well as possess a passion and love for children.

Volunteer Responsibilities

As a volunteer in an orphanage in Peru, volunteers work with schools and nonprofit organizations 4-5 hours per day, Monday through Friday.  Depending on individual skills and interests and the needs of the local staff, daily activities may include:

• Teaching Basic English (2-4 hours to children ages 6-16, depending on orphanage and school schedules)
• Helping students with their homework
• Planning and leading extracurricular activities such as dancing, singing, drawing, painting, playing sports,
• Teaching children about health and personal hygiene
• Teaching computer classes
• Helping take children on field trips
• Teaching life skills and daily tasks such as cleaning, cooking, business skills, getting dressed, sewing, gardening, etc
• Working on maintenance of the facilities
• Assisting in orphanage and school administrations with daily tasks
• Fundraising

Room/Food/Supervision

IFRE manages your living accommodations in Peru.  In Cusco, most volunteers live with a host family, but you may request to live in a hostel. 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.  Host families will prepare three meals a day for volunteers consisting of local ingredients and foods traditional to Peru.  In most host family situations, volunteers will share a room with another volunteer of the same gender. Our host families do not offer laundry services, but some will happily take up the task for a small fee.

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 our local offices in Peru. 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.