Orphanage
There are children who have lost both their mother andfather; others were living on the streets before being rescued, while some children are brought to the orphanage by their parents who can no longer physically or financially take care of them.
Our orphanage & care project offers you the opportunity to make a valuable contribution to the lives of some of Cusco's most vulnerable children, assisting at one of the many children's homes in Cusco.
The activities you can do with the children depend on the age group. For the groups with the little ones the main work is playing with the children, hlping with the milk and food and taking care. In the older groups the focus will be more on educational activities, creative activities, encouraging self confidence and for example teaching personal hygiene.
Community center
You can volunteer in a cultural community center. The community center has a library, a cinema and a room for theater. The goal of the community center is to give the people of Cusco a place with the right atmosphere to give them access to cultural activities. The main target group is children and youth in difficult situations. But the center is for all the people of Cusco, young and old, rich and poor, in order to get a mix where people can learn something from each other and to bring people together.
Juvenile detention
The juvenile detention is in Cusco. Its aim is to prepare the young offenders for a return in the community. The boys (there are no girls in the detention) follow general education within the prison and they receive training to learn a trade. You can assist in workshops for the guys. Or you can help the social worker with following the development of the guys. Only male volunteers are allowed in the detention and you have to have a background or study related to the work.
Handicapped children
The organization where you can volunteer provides long term shelter for handicapped children. The children are all physically handicapped, but some children also have the down syndrome or autism. In the shelter for handicapped children we need volunteers who wish to support in the following areas: hospitalization, feeding the children, recreational therapy, drawing and painting, stimulation games.
Elderly people
In the shelter for elderly people, the poorest elderly people of Cusco are being given a shelter. For the elderly, some of them living on the street before, a home is given where they can live peacefully.
In this placement you can help by listening to the elderly people, to talk to them or to take them out for a walk. In the morning and at lunchtime they receive a meal and you can help with this. Most of the elderly don’t have a lot of family and they have been through a lot of things in their lives (such as extreme poverty).
