incawasi street kids

Volunteer vacancies:

7 volunteers at any one time
Nov. - April: 2 spaces
May onwards - open

Introduction

Inca Wasi is a recently founded non profit organisation operating in the city of Cajamarca, Peru, with the aim of giving aid and support to local children from impoverished backgrounds. A team of international and Peruvian volunteers provide food, classes and medical attention to children who would otherwise be on the streets.

Inca Wasi works at getting all children to attend school and helps with the provision of school materials; it also fosters good relations within the community. Originally set up by Agenda SOS in March 2004, Inca Wasi is currently managed by 5 volunteers living in Cajamarca, Peru.

In Cajamarca a group of volunteers, a trained psychologist and a team of Peruvian staff live and work together on the project. Children come to the centre on a daily basis for lessons and lunch. They remain with us until they are attending school regularly and are ready to graduate. The secretary liaises with parents, teachers and community members; the volunteers organise activities of a wide-ranging nature.

Many children do not attend school in Cajamarca, due to several possible factors: the geographical difficulty of getting there (it can be over an hour of walking time from homes in the hills to the centre), the obligation to work, and an inability or reluctance to pay for school expenses. 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 providing uniform, school books and school fees. We have the more general aim of providing children aged between 5 and 12 with fun activities to do in the morning or afternoons, to keep them occupied, together and away from the streets, and to give extra help to those struggling in school and with learning difficulties. Another of our primary goals is to improve the health of the children attending Inca Wasi. Doctors from the local hospital carry out regular check ups on all the children.

Who do we need?

We are looking for enthusiastic volunteers who are interested in working with children and who have initiative to implement new programs. You will be working as a part of a team of international volunteers. Volunteers stay for as long as they like – although we ask for a minimum of 1 month – and live and work on site. Both male and female volunteers are welcome. Preference is given to volunteers who are already proficient in Spanish.

Accommodation & food costs:

We ask a fee from our volunteers to keep the centre running. The money is there to pay for the bills, meals, and the salaries of the house-keeper, cook and secretary. This fee includes accommodation and 2 meals a day for 5 days a week.

What to expect as a Volunteer:

Your Job at Incawasi will involve:

• Social work

• Teaching children

• Recreational activities

• Giving English classes to adults

• Publicity and Promotion work

Besides these activities, we welcome new ideas to improve the project in any kind of way. Volunteering at Cajamarca 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 Inca Wasi 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 Environment:

Cajamarca is a city of just over 110 000 inhabitants nestled in the mountains of northern Peru. It is best known as the site on which the Emperor Atahualpa was imprisoned and executed by Pizarro, thus marking the collapse of the Inca Empire. 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 Peru’s poorest cities. Like many Latin American settlements, it is characterised by an attractive and ornate colonial centre, with the poorest parts in the surrounding hills. For the visitor it is a safe and lively place, with good restaurants and bars, an excellent market, beautiful hikes in the surrounding mountains and, as a testament to the great Inca civilisation, the Baños del Inca, 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 Cajamarca, and is comprised of a ground floor, with reception/office, 3 classrooms, a yard and a kitchen, and an upstairs, with dormitories, a balcony and a volunteers’ common room. Children attend the centre from between 10 AM and 3 PM, with a lunch break in between, during which time volunteers organise a range of (planned) 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. Children that go to school in the afternoons stay with us in the morning, and vice versa. We regularly plan trips outside the centre, to play football and other games.

The Language School:

In the evenings English-speaking volunteers give English classes to adults, who pay a monthly fee. We also offer French and German classes. The money from this goes towards our work with the children and enables the ongoing survival of the centre. Volunteers are therefore obliged to give one class per night to maintain our Language School.

Spanish classes are offered for free to all volunteers who need them, and the cost of these is included in the fee mentioned above.

Visa Requirements:

• Passport, must be valid six months beyond intended stay

• Tickets and Documents for return or onward travel

• No Visa required for stay up to 90 days (US citizens)

• Vaccinations - International Certificate of Vaccination for Yellow Fever required if arriving from an infected area.