frequently asked questions about volunteering at the A.C.J. Educational Day Centre
What do you offer the volunteers?
- Really warm and enthusiastic children. They can be challenging and they might not have much materially but they have a lot of love to give and need some back too!
- Educational, creative and sporting materials to organise activities.
- Working spaces to house your activities.
- Sports field nearby to play sports.
- Contacts with local artist and fair trade store to organize activities with.
- Spending of the Otra Cosa restaurant tips to organize your activities.
- Otra Cosa Volunteer discounts
- Introduction to Trujillo/Huanchaco and El Milagro
- Guidance in your tasks
- Cheap housing with local families in Huanchaco or in the Otra Cosa volunteer house in Huanchaco can be arranged
- Free use of the Otra Cosa bike to cycle to ACJ - if its still working and no-one else has got it first!
What are the advantages of working as a volunteer in this program?
- Get to know the about the reality of the lives of children who live by the garbage dump collecting and selling recyclable garbage.
- Have a good time with some really great and loving kids!
- Get an impression of the work of an NGO as A.C.J. and how they try to help.
- Learn a lot about working with children with a difficult background.
- Of special interest to volunteers with interests in education or social work with poorer children.
- Get to know a Peruvian city like Trujillo from an inhabitants perspective instead of the short stay tourist perspective.
- Extend your travelling time in Peru at a very low cost of living and recharge your travel batteries.
Do I need to know Spanish?
Yes, an intermediate to fluent level of Spanish is necessary to handle the kids and work with them. Otra Cosa can help arrange affordable (15/18 Soles/hour) 1:1 Spanish lessons and free intercambio (1hour of English conversation for 1 hour of Spanish) with local University students. So if you have basic Spanish but need to improve you can schedule say a month here of intensive Spanish before you start volunteering.
Other project specific questions
For any other project specific questions just include them in your e-mail to Peter or Juany and we'll try to answer them.
General questions
For general questions about volunteering with Otra Cosa Network, life in Huanchaco, how to get here etc, see our General Frequently Asked Questions page.
For anything not included there, simply include your questions in your application e-mail and Peter/Juany will try their best to answer it.
