Volunteer Programs in Peru with SKIP

My name is Dave, and I am from England. I worked at SKIP for 8 months back as the Sports leader.

I undertook the position at SKIP, having no prior teaching experience and a sketchy level of Spanish - I had somewhat thrown myself into the deep end. Through the help and support of those around me within the charity, I was able to ensure that my relative lack of knowledge and experience did not prove to be a problem.

The Sports Coordinator role takes patience, enthusiasm, energy, and creativity. The role included teaching students at both primary and secondary school level. In addition to the teaching, there was responsibility for creating and maintaining a curriculum, managing volunteers, and assisting where help was needed in other departments. The limited resources and requirement to keep lessons fun, interesting, and engaging will drag out your inner creativity! Although, at times, the work was hard and tiring; patience, persistency, and perseverance pays off in the end making the good times all the more rewarding. The kids themselves are amazing to work with, full of energy, talented, kind, and caring.

My highlights at the school came in through the trip out into the countryside with the kids, the father’s day football tournament, and the Saturday football training sessions that we ran. I felt proud to be able to look back and compare the differences in the first classes that I took and the last classes.

In addition to the role, the opportunity to work at SKIP is unique. Living together with other volunteers helps to create an inseparable bond – the family meals, house BBQ’s, nights out at La Barra, and trips during school holidays all stay with me today. Living in Trujillo also provided too many highlights to list but the stand outs – Hermelinda Markets, playing football against the locals every night at the Stadium Mansiche pitches, and amazing street food!

I volunteered with SKIP for six months, from June-December 2012. Although it’s impossible to sum up my time at SKIP, there are several things that stand out to me about my time working with the organization. First of is the amazing team of volunteers who come from all over the world to work with SKIP—in my time there, I worked with people from over 15 different countries! The volunteer house is a great place to get to know the other volunteers and there’s never a dull moment in the house. I was constantly amazed at how committed our volunteers are and loved working as a part of that team.
Secondly, the way SKIP is set up makes it a great organization to work with. We holistically support our students’ families through our economic development, psychology, and social work departments, in addition to our education department. This means that our families are supported in every way and also that we have volunteers who have varying interests and experiences.
Finally, of course, are the incredible Peruvian families that we work with. During my time as a primary teacher, I got to know my students and some of their families and this experience has left a lasting impact on me. The motivation and commitment of the parents and students is amazing and something that I’ll carry with me for the rest of my life. While I can confidently say that I made a difference in my students’ lives as a teacher, I can also say without a doubt that I learned more from them and their families than I was able to teach them.
SKIP is a great place to make lasting friendships, learn about how development work really functions, get to know Peruvian culture, and to make a positive impact on a community. The SKIP experience is truly unforgettable.

Age: 24

Nationality: Australian

Position: Eco Dev

Time with SKIP: 14 months

My experience with SKIP is very difficult to put into words, let alone put into a few words! It is an experience that in all honesty, needs to be lived in order to be understood. It is an experience on which no price can be put, an experience in which you will meet incredible people from all walks of life, an experience which will force you to question your own beliefs, to reassess your own priorities, to challenge your own boundaries and limitations, to inspire you to try new things and take on new paths of life, to teach and most importantly, to be taught. Well, I can’t guarantee that you will experience any or all of these things, but they are just some of the things that made my experience at SKIP so worthwhile. So when people sometimes think I am crazy to work for next to nothing, the reality is that in my opinion the rewards are gigantic, they’re just a little bit harder to put a number on.

I had worked for a number of other NGO’s in the past and was well aware of the number of non-profits which, due to lack of ability or simply because they wanted to take advantage of people who were willing to contribute resources to a worthy cause, were terribly mismanaged, inefficient and lacked transparency. So it reinstated faith in NGO’s for me to discover SKIP and learn that there are NGO’s who are legitimately committed to helping out people in need. SKIP’s holistic methodology is really well thought out and implemented and I was able to see first-hand the real impact the project is having on the families. I honestly believe in the project, so much so that I went back for a second time! I can only give my personal opinion, try and describe my personal experience and say that if I had to do it all again, there is very little, if anything, that I would change.