Kaya Volunteer Programs in Peru

I spent 3 weeks in Cusco, Peru working as an intern at CEBE Don Jose San Martin, a school for kids with communication and intellectual disabilities. I worked in a classroom helping a teacher plan and create activities and lessons for the kids. It was an amazing experience and I am so happy to have done it. The Kaya team was so helpful and supportive throughout my entire experience and made it run very smoothly. The internship is now called a special needs internship probably because the job is more useful for people wanting to work with special needs children. Cusco is a magical city and I definitely wish I could've spent more time there. There's always an exciting tour waiting for you. The food is great, the people are friendly, it's a wonderful time. I strongly recommend it.

I spent 3 weeks in Cusco, on the 'Teaching English in a Rural Province' project.
I would meet the other school teachers in central Cusco in the early morning, to be driven half an hour to the school is a smaller district. The facilities were limited there, with most classrooms only having a light as the electricity in the room. I would teach English to a class of 21 9-12 year olds for around an hour, though this varied depending on the day. To do this, I was expected to develop my own teaching syllabus and all my own materials - which was a struggle as I hadn't been told this prior to my arrival and did not have access to a computer. Still, the lessons went well and the kids were all very enthusiastic to learn. Another thing to note, was that I had been told only a basic level of Spanish was needed, which didn't turn out to be the case - future volunteers on this programme should be proficient, as no other staff members at the school speak English.

My homestay family were lovely and very welcoming, and luckily another volunteer with a different project lived very close to me, so we did lots of after work things together. Had there not been another volunteer it may have lonely though.
Over all, I enjoyed the project, but hope some minor changes have been made to make it easier for future volunteers.

I was placed in a local private hospital for my volunteering project. I felt that this particular hospital was very well run, and operated in a similar fashion to those in England. Though this did mean, that as a third year medical student, I wasn't experiencing anything particularly new. The staff were helpful and allowed me to speak to patients where possible, perform minor examination and attend theater. I would advise learning to speak as much Spanish as possible to really make the most of the experience.

With regards to the social aspect, i felt that this could have been improved. I was told i was the first person to sign up for this particular course and that others would join during my first week. This didn't happen. I found this disappointing. Although i did attend Spanish classes in the evening where there were more people of my own age which was nice.