About Us |
PeruForYou Programme
Helping PeruForYou’s work is to promote social development in Peru by providing the international community with a secure ‘one-stop’s to communication with and information about the Peruvian social sector. PeruForYou promotes greater transparency while facilitating wise assisting decisions.
PeruForYou Programme.
Is a international volunteering program without political or religious affiliations.
PFY - Philosophy
We do everything we can to be a truly responsible travel and we believe that everything we do should minimise the negative aspects of foreign travel and make a positive contribution to the places that our travellers visit.
PeruForYou aims to provide volunteers with quality, flexible, safe and highly affordable volunteering placements in developing in Peru. In addition to providing aid and assistance PFY endeavors to increase education and heighten awareness through not only the skills and expertise taken by volunteers to their host communities and institutions, but also through the experiences and lessons volunteers will in turn take back to their own countries and cultures.
Our Vision
Our vision is to help disadvantaged people through our own initiative and support of local projects through the placement of international volunteers.
Volunteering is an amazing way to gain an insight into the culture of a country. Once you volunteer you are no longer just another tourist, you will work intimately with the local staff and more importantly give a special gift to the project and community you visit. Volunteering is for those who have an interest in other cultures and want to help those less fortunate than themselves. Also to meet like minded people, adventurous, open minded and with a willingness to make a difference.
Our Mission
PeruForYou mission is to promote the development of a more engaged, socially aware, and active international community by facilitating experiential education programmes that leave a lasting impact on participants, and will contribute to the creation of a more sustainable civil and social sector.
We offer a wide variety of highly customizable programs to those seeking insightful, socially-oriented experiences that will at once teach them about Peruvian life, integrate them into the Peruvian culture, and acquaint them with Peru’s most pressing social issues.
We believe in the power of international voluntary social service to break global and cultural barriers.
Through a unique blend of intercultural solidarity and community service, Insight Peru’s goals are twofold: to assist its network of Peruvian civil society organizations with both human and financial resources, and to facilitate enriching international experiences for its participants.
Support and Education - To provide support and help to communities and projects in need of education, health and development.
Our Beginnings
The PeruForYou Volunteer Programmes was launched in January 2001 by Richard Stewar from England and an excelent peruvian team.
We began our work by talking to local children in the most under-priviliged area in Huancayo and the jungle, so that we could understand their needs better and plan how to help them.
The main problems that the local children around Huancayo faced were created by the unemployment of their parents.
Peru has an unemployment rate of over 35%.
This shocking figure meant that many of the children we spoke to were unable to attend school, as they could not afford to buy a school uniform or stationery.
Many others had to work, shining shoes or selling sweets, to earn just a few soles a day for their families.
We felt very strongly that our local children needed help, in order for them to break this cycle of poverty, so they could receive an education and then gain regular employment.
We believe that promoting health amongst the children, and providing an education for them, holds the key to the future of these children, and decided that these were the main ways in which we would help them.
We were offered a spare room in a local house, and began teaching English.
We felt that this would encourage children to take education seriously, and would also provide them with an important skill that could help them find work.
The project began with a group of 20 children being taught English for an hour a day, and soon grew to over 120 children being educated.
The project was a massive success, and after a time, the older students were helping to teach their younger peers and were also acquiring valuable teaching skills.
The project attracted the attention of Western tourists travelling through the area, and we soon had a regular number of volunteers who helped us to teach English and other activities.
Their work was very successful, and we soon started to look further afield for people who could be help run our expanding projects. We set up our website and soon had a regular supply of volunteers from around the world who wanted to help with our vision to change the lives of our local children.
Our successes soon led to other programmes, again with a focus on providing local children with lifelong skills.
With the support of a local technical college, we began a partnership that enabled the children to learn carpentry skills there, and therefore be able to support themselves with a trade that could provide regular work at a decent rate of pay. We are always looking for professionals in technical areas who can offer their services, such as mechanics, construction workers and people involved in Information Technology.
Again, our successes led to more people becoming interested in our work, and with the help of local doctors, we widened our programmes to include a focus on health issues.
We felt strongly that the health of our students was of paramount importance, and that both health and education go hand in hand.
A local nurse came in and taught basic First Aid skills.
Our health programme focused around promoting good health and ways in which our children could remain healthy. The children were examined by doctors, and offered medical support. We later extended this programme to offer medical support and supplies to indigenous people in the peruvian high jungle (Rio Tambo), in the Amazon.
Programmes
We also ensure for every project the volunteers are needed on the ground and the aims of the project are measurable and achievable in the long term.
We also offer services that include, but are not limited to, Spanish language classes, tours, trips, housing options, and cultural activities, based on the participant's needs and interests.
Organization Experience
PeruForyou programmes go well beyond volunteering.
During these years, our organization and volunteers, who have and share powerful life experiences, have been contributing to the development of peruvian communities has an outcome and a positive impact in life of people we support.