Aldea Yanapay- Free Volunteering in Cusco Peru

Morning: Aldea Yanapay is a non profit social project based in Cusco, Peru. The Yanapay school is for disadvantaged Peruvian children aged 3 - 13 yrs who come to learn, play, and feel part of a loving community. The city of Cusco has many social-economic problems so the children treat the after school club as a bit of a haven away from their daily lives.

As a volunteer your mornings are free! The school day starts from around 12.00pm - 7.00pm. Every Friday at 10am volunteers meet at the Yanapay Cafe, which is another strand to the charity. Here the project founder Yuri talks through the activities for the week & welcomes new members of the team. Most volunteers choose to stay at the Hostel Magico or Haydee's House Homestay. Both of which are affiliated to the project and are an indirect way of generating income for the school, as your volunteering itself is completely free. Both are beautiful houses with shared dorms or private rooms, plenty of hammocks, and a peaceful base to meet all of the other international volunteers.

Afternoon: When school starts everyone gives a warm welcome to their classes as they arrive. The school emphasizes a friendly, open environment so the kids are quite tactile and always grateful to be there. Each new volunteer is allocated to assist a specific class and age range, which is lead by a long-term volunteer. Then, on rotation, you teach art, read in the library room, supervise the homework room, or play games. Around 5pm the whole school of around 50 students meets for the 'circle of expression' where they are encouraged to sing and join in with a cultural exchange quiz. All of the classes are taught in native Spanish, but even the 5 year olds can count to 10 in at least 7 languages! On Friday afternoon everyone works on a performance for 'The Friday Show.' This is always a spectacle, and brings out the inner-performer in all the volunteers as well as the kids!

Evening: Volunteers are encouraged to be as energetic and committed to kids as possible, therefore weekday evenings are pretty low key. There is still lots of socializing, with volunteers eating at local restaurants or cooking together in the communal kitchen. You are also only ever a 10 minute walk from the main square, with great markets, churches and beautiful cobbled streets. At the weekend, Cuzco has great nightlife. Every Friday the whole volunteer team can normally be found in The Wild Rover bar, more often than not in various themes of fancy dress.

Highlights: Undoubtedly the highlight of my time volunteering on the project was being part of Yanapay's annual festival. It was here I found myself in a Cusco park, with my face painted as a tiger, manning a trampoline one sunny Saturday. About 30 of us volunteers set up a music stage, with fairground games and food stalls , which raised money from the local community and promoted the work of the school. The kids absolutely loved it, as did my friend Rachel and I as we sneaked rides on the trampoline! The whole social project works so well for volunteers as its flexible, well structured and really well regarded in Peru. Plus of course the benefit of volunteering in Cusco is that it's so close to Peru's most famous attraction and one of the 7 Modern Wonders of the World; Machu Picchu. You definitely cannot leave without seeing it.