Work In an Orphanage

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

Immerse in Peru’s colorful culture and help add color into orphaned children’s lives. Share love, passion and skills with these very-unfortunate children who lost parents due to poverty complications, HIV/AIDS, violence or maybe these orphans were simply abandoned. IFRE’s orphan projects in Peru projects aim to provide homes, education, love and hope to these children. In this particular Cusco project, volunteers generally teach basic English skills and organize creative, extra-curricular activities such as game playing, singing, drawing, etc. This program is the perfect place for volunteers looking for a chance to make an immediate and positive difference in the lives of Peruvian children.

Skills/Qualifications Needed

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

Orphanage volunteers teach English (3-4 hours a day) in the orphanage or local school (where the children attend during the day). Volunteers offer daily life-skill support with physical and dental hygiene and dressing for school/life. Evenings are a chance for volunteers to show off their creativity by organizing games, drawing, singing, dancing and other creative educational and extra-curricular activities.

Extra-curricular activities may include organizing sports training and inter-school football (soccer) matches. Volunteers also playing music and teach subjects such as mathematics, world affairs, personal hygiene and nutrition. The possibilities are endless.

In the evening, volunteers also help children with their homework and help monitor their academic progress. If volunteers are not interested in teaching during the day, they can opt to stay and care for the younger children remaining in the orphanage. Volunteers are also expected to assist with serving and preparing meals, maintaining the garden, various administrative duties and day trip support.

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.