So really, what are you still doing in Perú?

Maybe I should have led with this at the start of the year.  But in all honesty, I didn´t really know exactly what I would be doing in my posts this year until recently. 

So what do I do?

For starters, I work with two organizations:  One is an NGO and the other is an Organization.  I contacted them towards the end of last year when I realized I wanted to stay in Lima for a longer period of time.  I coordinated with these two organizations to see if they would have work for me if I offered myself up as a volunteer.  Then, I worked with Peace Corps to see if the position was of value to them.  Ultimately, they decided it was, and hopefully a volunteer from the Peace Corps Response program will fill my position once my year is up. 

So what do these two organizations do? 

GEA

The NGO is called Grupo GEA.  They are a big NGO that has been around for 30 years. They manage all kinds of projects from clean water campaigns, to helping companies ¨go green¨.  I work on one specific project under their ecological schools campaigns.  The program is called Buena Voz or ¨Good Voice¨.  The idea of Buena Voz is to invest in Peru´s youth, specifically in poor areas in and around Lima.  The program presents itself to different schools in these impoverished areas, offering to train teachers and provide reimbursements for transport and food for all the participating teachers in order to start the program.  The program consists of sessions that are held every Saturday for the entire school year with a select group of around 30-35 students in the last three years of high school from each school.  These students are selected based on their leadership qualities and interest, and not at all for their grades.  During the year, they learn about self-esteem, leadership, environmental problems and the history of their area.  By the end of the year, the majority are much more outspoken and participative.  What really makes the program special is that it offers a space for youth in difficult situations (poor families, no water, a lot of crime in the area, no idea/prospects/funds for education after high school) and are given the opportunity to be heard and to make changes.  At the end of the year, the students in the program do some sort of school or community project that they themselves choose, plan and execute. 

My role is to help with the teacher trainings before the school year starts (it is just not starting).  During the year, I will be meeting once a week with a group of students that have graduated from this program and keep them informed about possibilities for work, study or extracurricular activities that they could participate in.  I will also invite professionals, institutions and schools to meet with this group to help them figure out their interests and try to encourage them to go to college when they finish high school.  I also help monitor and evaluate the Saturday sessions every Saturday. 

ENO

The other organization I work with is call ENO - Environment Online.  It is an organization whose idea is to create an international learning network through their website.  They have campaigns in countries all over the world.  The idea is that they find a coordinator in each country who then spreads the word to local schools so that the schools participate in environmental events and education.  They select monthly environmental themes that schools should focus on, and they organize two tree planting events per year.  Their goal is to plant 1,000,000 trees by 2017 around the world by working electronically with schools.  I work with the country coordinator in Peru.  We train teachers on how to teach the different environment themes by teaching them fun activities they can incorporate and how to tie it in with different subjects.  I also help her find more schools to participate, and will help coordinate the tree planting days. 

That is a basic breakdown of my work this year.  I seem to like organizations with 3 letter acronyms... haha.  The day to day stuff varies constantly, but is seems to always keep me on my toes.  Meanwhile, I am still technically a Peace Corps volunteer!  Linking Peace Corps to more national organizations so that we have more partners and more outreach.  I definitely work many more hours than I did when I was in my small village in the north of Perú!  Not that the two are even near comparable.  I certainly miss hanging out in the river and playing in the fruit trees!

I plan on writing soon about the day-to-day of living in Lima.  With lots of pictures! 

Thanks for reading, until next time!