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Volunteers
helping street children in Latin America Bruce Ecuador................................HOME GOOD NEWS FOR POOR CHILDREN SEEKING AN EDUCATION - Good News ecuador. |
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Volunteers
helping street children in Latin America Bruce Ecuador................................HOME GOOD NEWS FOR POOR CHILDREN SEEKING AN EDUCATION - Good News ecuador. |
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| Who qualifies |
Anyone who is positive, works well with others, has something to contribute and possesses a natural affection for the people we are trying to help (poor children and abandoned mothers). Age, sex, race, religion and nationality make no difference. Although it is not part of our entry criteria we strongly recommend that you have a basic level of Spanish before joining us. This will help you to get the most out of your experience as none of the children and very few of the teachers you will be working with in schools speak English. You will therefore be teaching the children to read, write and do maths in Spanish. The minimum term of volunteering is one month. We welcome any questions you may have......info@bruceorg.org | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Types of work Available |
Most volunteers come to help as teaching assistants in the classroom; whilst some have teaching experience, most do not. In addition to teachers, Bruce Organisation also needs Project Directors, fundraisers and people with public relations experience. As school finishes for the children in mid-December and does not start again until January we recommend that you time your work with us to take this into account - during the two brief annual breaks the rest of us are busier than ever recruiting and testing new children for the next term (and volunteers are welcome to join in), also our other projects; such as poverty eradication and abandoned pregnant teens often conmtinues as usual. In March there is also a short break between the summer school finishing [remember, seasons are exactly opposite here in the Southern hemisphere] and the longer school session starting (late Feb./early Mar.) when there is no school. During this time teachers go out into the poor areas of the city looking for children who are working but who should be in school. There is plenty of work, just not teaching | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| We offer our volunteers accommodation
during their stay with us. We also provide three meals a day, five
days a week (weekends, holidays and days when we are not preparing
meals for children there is no food service). In some centres this
does not apply, but in general do not count on food service from 17
December to the beginning of January·(See
Note) and for a few days in March (See
Note) as there
is no school for the children at this time. All international volunteers
need to live in the Bruce Organisation centre or in approved accommodation,
although some long term volunteers have the option of living in an
apartment outside of the Bruce Organisation centre. It is assumed
that all volunteers have come to work only with Bruce Organisation
and not to take on outside work or assignments. Note: There is plenty of work going on during these breaks, just not classes for the children - we are busy recruiting for the next term, fitting uniforms, registering children in national school, opening new schools. Volunteers are welcome to join in, just that we have found many use the break to travel. All volunteers are urged to come with their own travel insurance - here's a firm we recommend. |
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Cost of Volunteering |
There is no cost to register as a volunteer with us. All volunteers pay €360 per month (or any part of a month) for the first three months, after that the price decreases for those who have paid in advance. We are self sustaining, everyone other is a volunteer and we do not rely on government or institutional support [Note:some Teachers, Psychologists and Social Workers are not volunteers]. Your entire donation should be paid not less than one month before your arrival. If you are a couple and would like a double room (€20 extra per perspn per month) full payment must be made upon notification that a double room is available in the centre you have applied to). Double rooms are available on a first come first serve basis. Free Spanish lessons are available to our volunteers (two afternoons per week, 1.5 hr lessons).. |
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| The money that Bruce Organisation
receives is used to help the children (and sometimes mothers) you
will be working with when you join us - any amount which is left after
covering your room and board goes toward this. It costs €120 to pay
for the first year of a child in our programme - this includes paying
for school materials while the child is in our informal school, transport
for teachers and volunteers to and from the school, payment of teachers,
daily food, medical/clothes/sundry assistance, registration fees when
the child is accepted into the national school system, purchasing
a uniform, school books and event fees. It costs €55 for their second
year of school. In addition, money from volunteers also helps to pay for the following: ... · Food/drink for the children (sometimes the only food they get that day) ...·· Classroom equipment and books ...· Peruvian teachers living expenses (all Peruvian teachers are volunteers) ...· Salaries for permanent Peruvian staff who run the centres eg administrative/secretarial staff and cook ...·· Salaries for Peruvian professionals who help the children and their mothers eg social workers, psychologists, health workers, educational specialists. ...· Accommodation and food for volunteers ...· Overheads of running volunteer centres eg rent, electricity and water The pie chart below gives a breakdown of how the money received from volunteers and from English classes is spent annually:
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| Teaching Language classes |
Bruce Organisation also runs English, French and other language classes for local Peruvian adults which are taught mostly by volunteers. These are taught during weekday evenings, usually from Monday to Thursday. There are textbooks that volunteers can use to teach the classes as most of the volunteers who come to Bruce Organisation are not qualified language teachers. All volunteers teach 1 or 2 classes a night, each of which lasts an hour. Before you start your volunteer work with Bruce Organisation you may want to look at a grammar book to prepare you for teaching English classes when you arrive. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In the morning volunteers make sandwiches for the children before eating their own breakfast. Volunteers then start teaching with their Peruvian teacher. In some cities children come into the centres for lessons, in other cities the schools are located both in the city centre and further away in the barrios (the poorest parts of town). The morning is spent teaching literacy and maths to the children. Some volunteers help generally with all the children in the class, others will have a specific group or child of their own to teach, depending upon the needs of the class. The Peruvian teachers decide what the volunteer needs to do within the classroom but often volunteers are left to teach the children for whom they are responsible as they see fit. At least one day a week the children also play sport. At the end of the morning the children have lunch. In some centres volunteers eat lunch with their children, in others they return to the centre to eat with the other volunteers. During the afternoon, depending on the centre ...· volunteers will
do the following Evening meals are usually ready around 5 or 6pm, after which most volunteers teach English language classes (mostly to young adults and people of low income). Classes last for one hour and run during the evening from 6pm - 9pm. The students of these classes pay a small tuition fee for their lessons which helps to fund our programmes with the children. Volunteer days will vary
slightly according to the centre in which you are volunteering.
To read a description of a typical day at each of the centres, go
to the ´Centres in Peru´ box at the top of the page and click on
the relevant centre from the drop-down menu. |
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| Present and past volunteers at Bruce Organisation we normally have between 20 and 45 International Volunteers and 30 to 55 Peruvian volunteers serving at any given time (in spite of the large number of volunteers who have served in our programs, we remain a small organization). |
In fact we are all volunteers;
doctors, dentists, three economists, lots of social workers, even
more university students (medicine, systems, education, psychology,
communication, architecture), cooks, lots and lots of teachers, child
minders, psychologists, attorneys, engineers, a biologist, nurses,
musicians, artists and laborers. The longest time anyone has volunteered
so far is two years. The list below includes former
and current volunteers. Demographics
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| How
to volunteer |
Begin by filling in the VOLUNTEER APPLICATION FORM and we will respond as soon as possible. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Useful Information | Click HERE for useful information before coming to Peru | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) |
...· Can I choose
the centre I work at? ...· Is there a minimum
length of stay? ...· What type of
accommodation is provided/how many people share a room? ...· What hours do
people work including evening teaching? ...· Are there breaks
allowed for longer term volunteers? ...· How do you renew
your visa if you stay longer than 3 months? ...· Is there an Information
Pack available to volunteers before they arrive to help prepare
them for their work with Bruce Organisation? |
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| Finding out more | If you would like to speak to a current or ex-volunteer of Bruce Organisation then please email us at: info@bruceorg.org and a volunteer will contact you. If you are interested in speaking to someone in particular eg male/female, a volunteer at a particular Bruce Organisation centre, particular nationality etc, please let us know in your email. |
