Community Work with Children Near Cusco

  Peru

• Cusco: 
Cusco

Durations of Program: 2-4 weeks, 5-8 weeks and 9-12 weeks
Typical Duration of Program: 2-4 weeks

Description: Hatun Sonqo (big heart in Quechua) is a sheltered home for 37 children. Most of the children are bilingual, speaking Spanish and Quechua. It is located in Pomacanchis, in the district of Acomayo, two and a half hours away from the historical city of Cusco.

This home offers shelter, food, clothing, health care and educational support to the children, whose ages range from 2 to 17 years old. Some of the children are orphans, others are from vulnerable backgrounds & would be left alone at home if they did not come to the centre as their parents leave home early to work the land and come back late. Some are from the immediate local area, and some of them come from neighboring communities. The children go to school in the mornings, and instead of returning to an empty family home, they go to Hatun Sonqo to be looked after by the volunteers until their parents return from work. Besides the Director, two women take care of the children. They cook and look after the children. One of these women is a psychologist.

Hatun Sonqo has a piece of land that needs to be prepared in order to create a garden for sustainable agriculture and self-sufficiency. It also has an area that needs to be sorted out for organizing workshops, so that the children may receive vocational training which would allow them to develop skills for work and to help look after themselves. As this is a community-based project, activities are flexible. However, we can say that during the mornings the volunteers will help with the maintenance of the Center and in the afternoons, when the children come back from school, they will organize and participate in workshops with them, as well as work in the garden, play, teach English to children, and to the peasants if they want to.

Qualifications: You need to really enjoy working with children, be patient, determined, imaginative and compassionate! It would help if you are reasonably independent as this project is quite isolated, being a good distance from Cusco and conditions are basic. Also, the more Spanish you know, the better you will get on, as the children do not speak English.

Cost in US$: 1909 for 3 weeks. 155 for each additional week

Experience Required: no

This Program is open to World Wide Participants.

Post Services Include:

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Year Founded: 1994