Proyecto Peru Blog

One of Proyecto Peru’s projects is English teaching. There are plenty of volunteer opportunities in Cuzco so you’ll surely find something to match your skills!

Do you prefer working with children? Teach English and other skills to children at local schools. International Volunteer teaching English project empowers volunteers to assist in local schools, gain teaching experience and pass on invaluable English language skills to local children. This is a great opportunity to support Peruvian children in their development. Usually, the children are between 5 and 12 years old.

What to expect and how you’ll make an impact

As a volunteer teacher in Cuzco, you’ll assist qualified English teachers and help with English lessons in local schools, after-school programs, and community centers. You’ll help students to develop their spoken and written language skills in a fun and interactive way.

Discover, immerse, experience & grow! Cuzco is your gateway to the Incan Empire – Take advantage of this, and use it as your base.

Cuzco is home to many wonderful sights, ruins, and museums, its real benefit is that it serves as a fantastic base from which to trek deep into the Andean countryside and explore the Sacred Valley; a place linked by ancient trails and punctuated with history.

Teaching English however, may sounds easier that it is, speaking a language fluently is not the same as teaching it. Therefore we give you some tips on how to teach English in Cuzco!

1. Keep it simple

Especially in the beginning, make sure to speak english in a simple and understandable way. If you speak english a in a formal and complicated way, the students might get nervous or feel bad because they don’t understand it. Use the first week to evaluate your students English level and adapt your speaking style to this. Moreover, using gestures is essential to help them understand better!

2. Evaluate their level

It is important to evaluate their level every now and then. In that way you can track their progress, but also figure out what teaching styles might work better. Usually, you are not the first or only volunteer teaching English at this school. The evaluation is essential in responsable volunteering, make sure to check their level and knowledge so you can pick up where the other volunteer left and make a real difference. 

3. Be creative

When you work with children, it is crucial to be creative! Children easily get bored so don’t expect them to work on one exercise for a whole hour. Teach english through games, sports, arts, music or find another creative way. You can for example sing some of their favorite english songs or integrate english words into a game. Moreover, most people love talking about their hobbies and passion, use this as a starting point to get their interest!

4. Don’t give them too much homework

The children in these projects usually come from different backgrounds. Don’t expect them to do homework at home. The objective of these projects is to support and teach them a skill and knowledge, but also to provide them a safe environment to be a child and have some fun. They key is to find a balance between those two! 

In Cuzco, every corner tells a story and every story is captivating, mystical, and inviting. Imagine walking through streets with names like “Ataúd” [Coffin], Siete Culebras [Seven Serpents], and “Arpías” [Harpies]. In these streets time seems to have stopped, every corner offers a piece of history, and the stones remain alive because they have survived intact.

Cuzco witnessed the arrival of the Spanish, and yet to this day it conserves ancestral magic which captivates the thousands of visitors who each year form part of its living history.

Interested in teaching English in Cuzco? Contact info@72.62.129.111 for more information!

During or after a medical study, most students follow-up with an internship. Internships are globally highly encouraged and are becoming more and more populair to get experience and gain knowledge and confidence. Especially in the medical field, internships are crucial to get comfortable in your workfield in a challenging, but also save environment.

This time is a special experience to develop yourself both personally and professionally. And if you are one of those persons, who are always looking for some extra challenge, then a medical internship is something for you!

Luckily for you, Proyecto peru provides a wide range of medical internships in Cusco, such as doctors assistant & nursing, midwifery, physiotherapy, psychology, dentistry and more! (https://proyectoperucentre.org/internship/medical-internship-peru.html)

Cusco is a beautiful place in the Andes with a rich history and where traditions are still lively celebrated. And not to even mention the delicious food of Peru. It is located in the mountains and relatively close to the Amazon. And with Machu Picchu nearby, Cusco has become a popular city to visit. (https://proyectoperucentre.org/about-peru.html)

In the Cusco region, there are many local communities located in the Andes mountains. The access to quality healthcare can be complicated for these communities. They have to travel far to get to a city, or a doctor has to visit them for help. Moreover, Amnemia is still a serious problem, approximately 43,5% of the urban children and 51,1% of the rurar children between 6 and 36 months year old have anemia. (2017, World Health Organization). This leads to the first reason why you should do a medical internship in Peru:

1. Your help is needed!

These topics can be difficult to discuss, but besides all its lovely and fast-developing progress, there is still work to do! The pandemic in the last year has pointed out how Peru has progress to make in its healthcare system. And especially now, your help is needed more than ever. Whether you do a doctors assistant & nursing project to support in vaccinations, a midwifery project with healthcare workshops for young moms, or even a psychology project to adress domestic violence, your help is needed and will be appreciated.

1. Profesional growth

During your internship in Cusco, you will be placed in one of our local clinics or hospitals. In the beginning, you will follow and observe your doctor, nurse, psychologist or physiotherapists. Dependent on your study & Spanish level, you will get the opportunity to build up your tasks. And with our rotate-system, you will be able to observe several areas in your clinical placement! You observe and work with real patients with real problems and emotions. You might even be able to assist operations and more. These experiences will provide you many insights, broaden your knowledge and give you confidence as a medical professional in this working field.

1. Personal growth

Besides your growth as a professional, you should not underestimate the progress you will make personally. During this internship, you will be faced with different, new and challenging situations. It is very likely this will broaden your view and perspective on the world, healthcare systems and individual beings.

Moreover, the internship is a great way to power up your Spanish skills, talking with patients, other doctors, your host family and other locals. You will improve your Spanish quickly, especially if you support this further with Proyecto Peru’s Medical Spanish Programme. (https://proyectoperucentre.org/spanish-classes-in-cusco.php)

1. It is an amazing time & experience!

Most of all, it is an amazing time, experience and a lot of fun! Proyecto Peru organizes weekly activities to meet other volunteers and interns in Cusco. Together you can go to a Salsa class, exotic fruit tasting, international food night and more. And in the weekends you usually have time to discover the beautiful andes area, Cusco’s history or to just have a great time with the other interns!

Interested in a medical internship in Peru? Contact info@72.62.129.111.

Volunteering is a great experience for both local projects and volunteers. Sometimes however, it can be challenging to discover how you can contribute and actually make a difference. The goal of Proyecto Peru is to support volunteers so they can fully exploit their skills to help local projects. 

Responsible volunteering focuses on the needs and wishes of local projects. It is important to first dive into the local project and analyse what is truly needed, then it is possible to make a planning and see how the skills of volunteers can contribute to these goals.

So how can you be a responsibly volunteer and contribute the most? Here are Proyecto Peru´s best tips on how to make a difference!

1. An open mindset

Make sure to always have an open mindset. Try to put yourself in the projects position instead of the I position. Responsibly volunteering is about putting the project first. The feeling you get when you realise you have truly contributed to an improvement is definitely worth it!

2. Focus on long-term goals

Short-term goals can be fun to work on. However, if you really want to make a difference then try to focus on long-term goals. For example, be part of a long-term English programme. Are you just coming for a couple of weeks? Instead of just starting with the basics of English, check at what level and what topic the other volunteer left and pick this up. In this way, the children won’t be learning the colors or numbers every time again but can actually make real progress!

*Proyecto Peru works on continues teaching English programmes in which every volunteer is part of long-term learning goals*

3. Adapt!

Volunteering abroad can be very challenging, the culture, the language and punctuality can be different from what you are used to. The best tip we can give you is to adapt and to be flexible! Don´t get frustrated because of less structured schedules and unpunctuality. Moreover, use your network of other volunteers. You won’t be the only volunteer who might be dealing with culture shock, talk and laugh about it with your colleagues!

4. Get to know yourself

Most people underestimate how valuable it can be to evaluate yourself. What are your skills or what special talent do you have? Proyecto Peru encourages students in this journey to find out how they contribute in their way. There are so many ways to contribute and to make a difference, are you good at listening and talking with the students, or at teaching english, music or even art? Or maybe you have some special leadership skills you can use when coordinating a special trip for them? Use this experience to evealute and recognise your skills so you can put these skills into practice and make a difference!

4. Enjoy!

You will find that this volunteering journey will also include a lot of fun! It is very likely you will grow as a person during your volunteering programme, this experience brings you new ideas and most of all, provides new insights and perspectives! Not even to mention the many and deep friendships you build with other volunteers and the children you might work with!

As in all countries, the pandemic has been difficult and unfortunately caused an increase in poverty. Therefore your help is now needed more then ever! Read more about our projects at https://proyectoperucentre.org/volunteer/volunteer-teaching-peru.htm or contact now info@72.62.129.111 for more information about how to contribute to our social work and education projects.

The amount of Spanish speakers in the United States has increased significantly with over 233% since 1980. Nowadays, there are more than 41 million Spanish speakers in the United States. 

Especially first generation immigrants sometimes struggle with language barriers. This also affects their healthcare. An investigation was conducted on how language barriers affect access to healthcare. It turned out that latino parents reported much more cases of their children living in poor health than non-latinos. 

The investigation also mentioned that non-English-speaking patients receive fewer preventive services and have less access to healthcare than English-speaking patients. Moreover, over 90% of the physicians noted that they needed much more time to treat non-English-speaking patients. Which complicated their healthcare services. 

In the past years, this topic has become more and more relevant with the growing spanish-speaking population. Universities are now offering minors in medical Spanish, studies abroad and internships to better prepare their medical students for language barriers in their work field. 

Even some basic Spanish skills can greatly improve someone’s healthcare experience. Here are some tips on how to deal with language barriers in the medical field. 

Don’t be shy to use google translate and interpreters

We now live in a very dynamic world with many useful digital applications. You should not be shy to use google translator or other types of interpreters. When you work in the medical field with a high amount of Spanish-speaking patients, then this application is a must-have for you!

These tools can easily help you turn a 15 minute, difficult, uncomfortable and unclear conversation into a 5 minute and understandable meeting. And even though communication though an application might not be the best method when talking about someone’s health, it is always better than having misunderstandings about such important topics. 

Be careful when using friends or family-member translators

Although it is a nice gesture from a non-English speaking patient to bring a friend or family member to help in translation, this can cause problems. As most workers in the medical field now, the medical vocabulary is very different from the general and spoken english. Even though someone might seem fluent in the spoken english language, does not mean he also has the comprehensive skills of medical vocabulary. 

It is not true that you can never use patients’ friends or family-members as translators. But you must check carefully if they truly understand you and are able to translate your information correctly to Spanish. Incorrect translations through family members, and especially through someone’s child can get you in serious legal problems if things go wrong. 

It might seem like the quickest and easiest option, but the translation application method might still be a better option.

It is not just a language barrier, there is a cultural barrier

The more experienced workers in the medical field will definitely recognise this, it is not just a language barrier, but a cultural barrier. Even if you speak some Spanish, it is very helpful to be aware of some cultural differences. The best service you could offer is providing a bicultural environment. This supports the patients in truly opening up and providing you all the information you need. 

With the current demographics, translation services within the medical field are no longer considered to be a luxury, but a necessity to provide the needed healthcare services. 

Do you work in the medical field or are you a medical student? Then Proyecto Peru´s extensive medical spanish course can help you master medical spanish skills!

The course is focused on hands-on Spanish speaking skills and teaches you medical introductions and greetings, medical vocabulary and most importantly; how to discuss a patient’s symptoms, diagnosis and treatment. Don´t waste time on learning endless grammar rules, but learn Spanish you can implement tomorrow at your job while gradually improving your grammar, vocabulary and speaking skills!

Spanish can be a difficult language to learn, this is because the Don Quijote’s language is made up of lots of variations and exceptions since a phrase can be built in different ways without changing the its meaning. In this article, Proyecto Peru will give you some tips on how to learn Spanish faster.

Native Spanish speakers are able to understand all the language variations and, usually, use them with no effort. Having said this, even though the phonetics are easy to comprehend, some phrases can be extremely difficult to understand for people that didn’t learn the language at a young age.

It is also true that people that speak romance languages, such as French, Italian, or Portuguese, are prone to learn Spanish faster since the grammar can be similar. You also have to consider that every country has their own norms and customs. For example, there are words that Spanish use, but the Peruvians don’t, and vice versa. However, this doesn’t mean that learning Spanish is impossible. It does require and effort and time.

To help you in our journeys, here are some tips:

Be patient

Lots of students hope to learn Spanish fast and then lose interest when they realise it’s not going as fast as they hope. In order to properly learn Spanish, it is necessary to invest quite some time. This is why it is important to go slow and have realistic goals that we can achieve without difficulties. You can reward yourself for each goal met and always remember not to have unrealistic goals.

Study abroad

With the current situation, this is not the best idea; however, with how advanced technology is nowadays, you can access to Spanish schools around the globe. So, take Spanish classes online and make sure your teacher is a native speaker of the language. All our teachers at Proyecto Peru are native speakers and are certified by the renowned Cervantes Institute, so you will have the best experience in your language journey.

Read in Spanish

You can considerably improve your Spanish proficiency by frequently reading news articles and short stories. This is also a great way to improve your vocabulary and learn common phrases. This way you will be able to use this phrases in your daily life and gain confidence when speaking Spanish.

Organise yourself and your work

Nowadays, we have a great variety of available resources to learn Spanish. This makes it easy to have an overload of information, such as notes, books, and internet resources. Because of this, it is important to be able to revise everything you’ve learnt and understand it. After that you can organise all your material the way works best for you. There’s nothing more annoying than to try to look for information over and over again in a pile of notebooks.

Put a label on everything

Both teachers and students agree that labeling is a great method to memorise important words and phrases in Spanish. For example, you can place them on your furniture, using post-it notes, writing that they mean and memorise them while you walk around you house.

Watch subtitled movies

This is one the easiest and most enjoyable activities to learn Spanish. Try to spend some time watching TV and movies in Spanish or in your language, but with the Spanish subtitles turned on. This is very useful when we want to improve our speaking and listening in Spanish. We recommend you want films you’ve already watched, this way you will have a deeper understanding of the film and you will be able to concentrate more on the language.

Use memory cards

A memory card is a small card of piece of paper that you can carry during the day and you can quickly have a look. If you hear a work very often during your day, write it down. You can also have cards for words you have a difficult time learning.

Learn with a friend

Learning Spanish can turn out be very frustrating when you don’t see fast results. The best way to not lose motivation is to find friends that can help you. Learning Spanish with a friend makes this easier as you can practice with them out of study hours.

Distribute your time

It’s impossible to learn everything in one sitting, but it’s usual to study one week or the night before an exam. The best you can do is to distribute your time and it’s better if arrange short study sessions with homework instead of study loads of information before the big day. Having short study sessions will help you notice common mistakes and correct them for your next class.

Join a Hispanic community

A lot of people of people, just like you, want to learn Spanish. You can join online communities that want to practice with other Spanish students. And you are living in a Spanish-speaking country, you can even meet your online friends and practice with them in person.

As you can see, learning Spanish can be sound impossible or very difficult. Your learning progress will depend on how much work you put on it and the resources you have at hand. Depending on how you see things, this can also be fun and gratifying.

If you really want to learn Spanish, you have to put your heart and soul to do it. Only one hour every now and then is not enough, you need to come up with a strategy and stick to it.

At Proyecto Peru, our teachers are more than qualified to help you in your language journey. You can book as many hours as you want and we will be there to help you. For more information on our online packages, please check our website.

Article taken and translated from Salminter.

If there is one thing we can all agree on, then it is that 2020 has been a year full of surprises. The COVID pandemic has put countries worldwide in a lockdown. We all had to adapt to social restrictions, lockdown and other limitations. This has been no exception for Proyecto Peru, the long lockdown has started to take his toll and therefore we started a fundraising to help us get through the lockdown. https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-local-projects-in-peru?

As it has been a challenging year for most of us, it is time to stay focused on the positive! Because besides our continues support to local projects and communities, Proyecto Peru has provided hundreds of students with meaningful and learning experiences in the past 15 years! And we definitely want to continue helping them discover, immerse, experience and grow in the following years. Therefore, Proyecto Peru gathered some of our previous student’s stories of Peru. You can participate and share your story of how you discovered, immersed, experienced and grew in Peru on Facebook or Instagram using the hashtag #DiscoverImmerseExperienceandGrow

How Cierra discovered, immersed, experienced and grew in Peru

‘my time in Cusco was absolutely amazing and I owe a lot of my great experiences to Proyecto Peru. They helped me meet friends while i was in Peru and gave me the best professor in the world to teach me Spanish.

The organized activities were important to me and helped me immerse into the Peruvian culture while making local friends.

Some of my best memories are from the salsa and bachata classes in ‘mama africa,’ we ended up dancing there several times a week!

On top of all, we had the most caring and happy family and I am grateful that I spend 3 months with them. My experience had taught me a lot about the diversity of life´

How Lasse discovered, immersed, experienced and grew in Peru

From the moment I took my first steps on Peruvian ground I felt that something huge was going on. I’m not talking about something big for the general public; I’m talking about something that happened inside me. That feeling expanded over the course of the next four months when I got to know a lot of amazing people from Cusco in general and from Proyecto Peru specifically. With their support and outgoing mentality I had the foundation for an adventurous time in this beautiful country. 

They provided me with a secure base which meant I had all the energy to discover and grow as a person, and they functioned as a central point of social gatherings which made me immerse myself into Peruvian culture and experience some of the most breathtaking views I have ever seen. Proyecto Peru made an immense impact on a journey that would already have been unforgettable. 

Don’t hesitate to contact the lovely people at Proyecto Peru if you want a fantastic experience!

How Emil discovered, immersed, experienced and grew in Peru

The time I spent in Cusco volunteering with projects was awesome. I felt I made a difference, and working with Proyecto Peru was completely awesome in becoming who I am today. Peru became a home, and Proyecto Peru played a big part in that, while making sure you have a good time they worked on improving the community which led to a total peace of mind. So make a difference by working with proyecto Peru. You won’t regret it!

Usually, Christmas is a special and busy time at Proyecto Peru! In previous years, Proyecto Peru donates chocolates and gifts to our afterschool’s, kindergarten and childcare projects. The month December we are busy wrapping and distributing gifts, chocolate and visiting projects. Unfortunately, this was not possible this year due to Covid. Luckily, Proyecto Peru has been able to donate some small gifts to the local project coordinators. Once the childcare projects open again (expected to open in March), the gifts will be distributed!

This year, Proyecto Peru primarily donated some books, school materials, candies, toys and some clothes to the childcare projects. Another small donation of dog toys and food was made to our dog shelter and a bag full of clothes and shoes was donated to the woman protection centre.

The Proyecto Peru team stays positive and we cannot wait to welcome students again to Cusco! In the meanwhile, any help to get us through the lockdown is much appreciated, you can donate at:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-local-projects-in-peru?fbclid=IwAR1YbGQX2NjIqC1Dr_cXeVJ4K9fqBy2oHSGmo9VveQnKw7JjQwLOlxvboTA

Proyecto Peru was founded in 2005 by Dora Elguera Velarde, having the dream of spreading the Spanish language while contributing meaningful work to local communities. 

We can proudly say that since 2005, Proyecto Peru has been able to do so! We have received many volunteers and interns who contributed to more than 40 projects such as after school programs, early childhood development, dog shelters and much more. We also received many donations from our supporters, donating food, equipment (like refrigerators), educational materials and much more.

Proyecto Peru envisions a network of travelers dedicated to connecting with the communities they visit and set a standard for responsible and sustainable tourism. In the past years, Proyecto Peru has contributed to driving positive change and improvement by::

1. Sending responsible volunteers and investing in local projects to contribute to positive change and development of the Peruvian communities

2. Sending students to host families (with which many local families have been able to generate extra income)

3. To give native Spanish teachers the opportunity to teach and share the Spanish language

4. To not just send our students away to a volunteering project, but to provide them continuous support in their experience, making sure they leave Peru with a cross-cultural, giving and rewarding experience

Proyecto Peru is passionate about providing an intercultural experience. The continuous in-country support is an important aspect for us. With weekly meetings we make sure the students contribute to the project while they discover, immerse, experience and grow inter-culturally. Moreover, we match students with the project, making sure everyone’s special skills or talents are connected with the right project in which they can contribute the most.

About the projects

Proyecto Peru supports animal care projects, including a dog shelter and wildlife rescue center. The dog shelter has to maintain more than 150 sick and injured dogs. Their main goal is to rescue these animals from the street and to find them a new home. It often happens that volunteers fall in love with the dogs and sometimes they even adopt one of these beautiful animals!

Moreover, the dog shelter usually organizes several types of campaigns, such as free sterilization, vaccinations and more. In this way, they support the local community in taking care of their dogs.

In Cusco there are many childcare projects. Unfortunately, still not everyone has access to good education and a safe environment. The childcare projects focusses on providing a safe environment in which the children can really be children for a moment. Moreover, Proyecto Peru supports these projects in education (sending responsible volunteers, developing education programs and of course providing educational materials and more).

Proyecto Peru works closely together with more than 40 projects, in all type of categories! We for example also support special education projects, medical projects & campaigns, woman protection center and many more.

It is Proyecto Peru´s passion to be part of positive change and improvement. However, to continue to do so, we now need your help to get us through the lockdown until our clients come back!

Donate now with the link below and let us continue to help many more projects in 2021!

https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-local-projects-in-peru?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=p_cf%20share-flow-1&fbclid=IwAR3R8zkuXQIBozsZpxpJI0q2EecVuJC43Hj4bY6iZkKvpBmOG-VovQ4oVEY

Read more about our volunteer projects: https://proyectoperucentre.org/volunteer/index.html