For the second part of my Peru trip I headed south to the sunshine city of Arequipa to visit the orphanage project. Guarded by three volcanoes the “white city” has a picturesque backdrop and with beautiful colonial architecture it is not hard to see the charm this city has on travellers.

Becky, Placement Manager

The orphanage that we work with in Arequipa offers care for approximately 15-20 children under the age of 10 who have been placed by the government having lost one or both parents, been morally and/or materially abandoned or who have been deemed at social risk by the government.

The orphanage is run by full time Peruvian volunteers – calledtias (aunties) - who get only food and board for their work. The orphanage works with the government, who sends them children, but no money or resources. The Director, Delia, places great emphasis on trying to get the children back into their family home when it is safe to do so or, where this is not possible, into an extended family home, with adoption as a last resort. If possible the orphanage should only provide a temporary home for the children where they can be cared for and receive good nutrition, clothes and educational support.

I visited the orphanage on my first day and was blown away by the work that the tias are currently doing. The orphanage at this moment in time has 16 children; one very small baby (2 months) seven under 3 years, eight “older children” aged between 4-10. Anyone who has previously worked with babies and toddlers will know that just one or two babies in a room can be a chaotic handful – this cheeky bunch are certainly no different!

An average day at the orphanage

Volunteers are scheduled into two shifts; morning and afternoon. Both are long shifts of around 5 hours and so you only do one per day (5 per week).

For the morning shift, volunteers need to arrive at the orphanage for 7am which meant a painful 5:50am alarm clock! The journey to the orphanage takes around 30-40 minutes depending on the traffic so we left the house at 6:50am to walk down through early morning Arequipa and catch the local bus for approx 16p in British terms. The journey is a nice chance to wake up and a great way to see the city coming to life.

On arrival you immediately swing into action as the children are usually up and about and ready for breakfast. The tias get the children up and dressed and prepare the breakfast for them all before 7am (if everything runs to plan!) however volunteers can get stuck in at 7am to relive the tias and ensure the babies are all in highchairs, eating (not throwing) food and that the kitchen washing up is not in backlog. After breakfast the older children head off to school and volunteers and tias focus attention on the babies. Tasks include washing clothes, sorting clothes (a bigger job than it sounds), sweeping, mopping, clearing rooms, washing dishes, feeding the children, changing dirty nappies and of course playing with the children and encouraging their development. In the morning they are also joined by a child development specialist who does an hour of songs and activities with the babies and toddlers to ensure they are engaged and are developing their motor skills. This time is the perfect opportunity for volunteers to get the chores done without being interrupted! At 12pm the children sit down for lunch and volunteers can start to pack up and head back to the volunteer apartment (or into town!) for lunch and enjoy the rest of their day.

The afternoon shift starts at 1pm and volunteers usually arrive to a full house as the older children return from Primary School at lunchtime. Generally the small babies will be waking from their naps at this time so changing nappies and clothes can also be necessary, it is then play time and homework time for the older children. With so many babies around it is easy for the older children to be left out and so it is great if volunteers can sit with them to help with homework, for beginners in Spanish maths is the easiest to help with but if you have some Spanish under your belt then other subjects can be tackled – a dictionary is useful for this! After dinner time volunteers help with pyjamas and nappies and then it is bedtime. Volunteers usually leave around 6pm however the tias are always thankful when you can be flexible on this.

Relaxing in the volunteer accommodation

Although the work at the orphanage is very hard, the volunteer accommodation and location in Arequipa definitely compensate as you can truly embrace your free time. The volunteer apartment is located within a Spanish School for travellers run by Sofia, the Project Coordinator, and so the atmosphere in the house is fantastic. The garden is full daily with people from all over the world practicing their Spanish with one-on-one tutors and everyone is eager to talk to you and get to know you – volunteers and Spanish students alike. The apartment has a terrace overlooking the garden, two bathrooms, WiFi and a TV with DVD player. Many of the volunteers have chosen to get Spanish lessons downstairs to complement the volunteer work and help with interacting with thetias at the orphanage. Sofia also arranges Peruvian Cookery Lessons and trips and tours in the local area so she can help advise volunteers on everything they need.

Sadly as my stay was so short I was unable to take language lessons however I did get stuck in with the cookery, making the famous Arequipeño dish Rocoto Relleno (stuffed rocoto peppers) and the formidable Pisco Sour and arranged a trip to the Condor Cross in the Colca Canyon on my final day.

The big fundraising drive

The orphanage is doing intensive fundraising to finance the construction of a new home. Currently the orphanage is located in a three storey house in Arequipa however the house belongs to a friend of the director and at this time they need to have the house returned. Thanks to many kind donations, work begun on a new purpose-built home in August 2013 and on my first day in Arequipa I was able to visit the site to see how the building has progressed. The walls and shape of the first floor is now clearly visible and the director was happy to show us the architectural plans of how it will develop in time – it will be a fantastic home for the children but something that will take a few years more to complete. Thankfully the current property is not on a time limit so for the meantime the children, tias and volunteers will all be staying here for the next few years but it is great to see the orphanage planning ahead for the change. If you would like to donate towards their fundraising efforts please see the PoD Charity Page.

How you can help

The orphanage is always in need of help from volunteers, the work load involved in caring for 20 young children is never ending and so if you would like to volunteer here we would love to hear from you. You can read more about the orphanage volunteer role on the project page or click here to apply now!

I have come to Peru to visit our childcare and teaching projects in Huaraz and Arequipa. My first stop was to the Ancash Region, where I visited our Community Education project in the heart of the Cordillera Blana mountain range.

Becky, Placement Manager

The Community Education project was established in 2006 to support a low income area in Huaraz where many children were struggling to achieve in the school system. Yuri, the director of the school has devoted his life to improving the education levels in his home town and he is supported by a full time Peruvian teacher, Mariela, and local and international volunteers.

The project encourages a holistic approach to education combining homework tuition, emotional well- being classes, recreational activities and daily nutritious meals in a family orientated environment. There are approximately 35 children that attend the school as a voluntary addition to their education at local school.

My time at the Community Education project

In the mornings the secondary students arrive around 9am, there are 15 students who attend regularly and others who visit when they can. On arrival they immediately sit down to do their homework, some of the children request help from the teachers and volunteers and others are able to complete their work independently, I was very impressed by the work ethic of the students. For many of the children this is the only time they will be able to access the resources they need to do their homework; computer and internet access for research, colour pens and paper and text/reference books. At around 11am the school prepares a healthy snack, yogurt or oat based drinks and sandwiches, before the children brush their teeth and head off for secondary school.

From 12pm-3pm volunteers have a break, some choose to eat out over the break or head back to the apartment for food, this is a good time for lesson planning but siestas are also popular!

At 3pm the Primary School children arrive, there are around 20 regular attendees of primary school age and they attend various schools across the city in the morning. This rag tag bunch are a little cheekier than the older Secondary students but I was just as impressed with how eager they were to get working, most students produce their homework as soon as they arrive. The younger children need more support and attention in the afternoon and English, Maths and Writing are the most common homework types – my 12 times tables were challenged more than once! When they finish their homework they are given activities from the volunteers, this can be worksheets, educational games or even just an extension of their school work! At around 4:30/5pm recréo begins and depending on the schedule this involves a trip to the park, games or a film. Finally they too receive their nutritional snack and brush their teeth before heading home.

The role of the Community Education project in Huaraz

The children attending the school come from a variety of backgrounds but all are from families of very low income. Most children are cared for by one parent oranother family member and issues such as alcoholism, neglect, malnutrition, teenage pregnancy and in some cases family violence can be common. The children often come from families where the importance of education is not recognised and where they may receive little support and attention in the family home. The role of the school is to change this, to provide the children with one-on-one attention, educational and emotional support and change the families perspective on the importance of school. The Community Education project works in collaboration with their families, having regular parent meetings and encouraging sibling groups to attend. They provide the educational support, food, tooth brushes, day trips and occasional clothing donations free of charge to the families.

The community school also has a number of ‘graduates’ who return to mentor younger children; one is studying Engineering in Huaraz and the other is a trainee chef in the city and frequently comes back to cook for the children as part of the nutrition project. These students act as fantastic role models for the current students.

Over the past year volunteers have contributed to the school with a number of new projects at the school;

• Nutrition Project

Many of the children at the school are very small for their age, when asking ‘Cuántos años?’ I frequently presumed I had misheard the answer. Following a fundraising drive from past and present volunteers they have now raised enough money to provide a nutritious snack to every child for the next year. The Community Education project is focusing on protein rich food that they would not have access to at home.

• Paso a Paso – Step by Step

A former volunteer from a social work background has implemented a mentorship program whereby the children are asked to focus on their strengths and set their own aims, whether it is academic or social. She found many of the children were focused on where they were failing at school and had low confidence, rather than identifying also their strengths. The program involves regular contact with Spanish speaking volunteers and staff Yuri & Mariela to ensure that they maintain a positive outlook and achieve each aim step by step.

• Maths Progress Reports

Maths is an area that many of the children struggle in and a few students have been kept back a grade (some more than once) due to low marks. With the class sizes in Huaraz so large and confidence low, there is little room for the children to improve at school alone. A current volunteer who is also a teacher has established Maths Progress Reports for each child to identify what skills they should be achieving based on their grade and recording when they reach each level. This means both staff and volunteers can identify what skills they need to practice and once a month Yuri & Mariela can re-assess the children to ensure they are progressing well.

The continuation of these projects however relies on future volunteers. The Community Education project does not require teaching experience but a passion for working with children and embracing education is essential. Similarly Spanish is not a requirement but your interaction with the children increases with each word that you learn. Spanish speaking volunteers are a great asset to the project but if you are a beginner don’t worry, the children love to chat regardless and the project team can help you book Spanish lessons at the volunteer apartment with Ethel a local teacher. I personally speak very little Spanish but found I learnt new words from the children every day!

My time in Huaraz

My stay here was only five days however the team here were very eager to ensure I experience all Huaraz, and Peru, has to offer. On the Peruvian “to-do” list, I ticked off cerviche (fish in lime juice), lomo saltado (Peruvian beef stir fry), pisco sours (the notorious cocktail), poncho and picarones (hot sweet milk drink and dohnuts) and Inca Cola (a neon soft drink). Every morning I have been amazed by the beautiful mountains on the horizon and on my final day I was very pleased to be able to get out and see the views properly - thanks to Fiona and Lacy my guides!

If working with children in Peru is something that interests you then you can read more about the project on the following page:www.podvolunteer.org/Teaching/community-education-peru.html or book through GiveGo Travel here http://www.givegotravel.co.uk/peru-community-education-volunteering.html

For many people, the idea of getting to play with, cuddle and even bottle feed lion cubs comes high on the to do list when travelling to Africa and offers a once in a lifetime opportunity. However there is a darker side to this understandably appealing attraction.

This form of petting tourism is becoming increasingly popular especially across South Africa both to tourists who visit a lion park for a couple of hours and to volunteers who choose to spend a few weeks helping at these parks. Visitors and volunteers are told that they are saving lions in the wild by supporting these parks and many claim to be releasing their hand-raised lions back into the wild.

There are numerous issues with releasing hand-raised lions into the wild. These lions will always associate humans with food (as they have always been provided with food from humans while they have been growing up). Hand-raised lions will still have their natural instincts; however they will not have the same natural fear of humans that wild-born lions have, which will make them more likely to come into conflict with humans after their release.

These lion parks make a considerable amount of money from tourists who pay for interactions with cubs. Generally, cubs that are aged between 1 and 3 months are used as these are most ‘suitable’ as they are small, photogenic and at an age where the size of their teeth and claws mean that the damage they could do to tourists is limited.

However something which is overlooked is the fact that young animals (like humans) need a lot of rest and sleep whilst growing. On busy days at these parks when there are a lot of tourists wanting their chance to play with a lion cub, the cubs are not given this time. Regular interaction with humans can also cause health problems with the cubs. Many cubs in these facilities have been known to die of stress-related diseases and they can suffer injuries by being incorrectly handled by inexperienced staff, volunteers or tourists.

In order for the parks to be able to offer interaction opportunities with cubs, they are taken from their mothers after a few days to a few weeks (depending on the facility). This can lead to viral, respiratory and nutritional problems with are common amongst hand-raised predators due to substandard milk formulas being used to replace the mother’s milk. This can lead to lower immunity and the regular contact with humans can cause the cubs to contract diseases such as ringworm (often passed from visitors’ own domestic cats at home).

The removal of cubs from their mothers at a young age also leads to problems for the mother herself as the lioness can come back into oestrus sooner than she should do. This allows the park owners to breed from the lionesses at a much more regular rate than lionesses in the wild would reproduce. This in turn allows a constant supply of cubs that can be used for interactions.

The lion breeding industry is growing and with it so are concerns of welfare issues for these lions. Most volunteers and tourists who go to these parks do so unknowingly and with the best of intentions. When questioning the conservation ethics of them, they are told that they are helping to increase numbers of lions in the wild, but evidence of this is hugely lacking and this is linked to the issues of releasing hand-reared lions into the wild, as discussed above.

These facilities need a constant supply of cubs at the right age for interactions, where they are still cute for photographic opportunities, small enough to cuddle and of little danger to visitors, which begs the question, what happens to these cubs when they are too old for interactions?

There is no straightforward answer to this but there are a number of agreed possibilities that are widely accepted within wildlife circles. Many of the lions are sold for private collections but the most commonly acknowledged destination for these lions is into the canned hunting industry. Canned hunting refers to the highly controversial act of raising an animal within a confined area and then hunting the animal within a confined area in order increase the likelihood of the hunter obtaining a kill. Therefore visitors and volunteers at such facilities are unwittingly supporting the canned hunting industry.

There is a lot of money in this industry as people are willing to page large amounts of money to shoot a lion, and canned hunting makes this possible for people who have limited time and hunting skills as the animal is in a confined area. The money that can be generated from selling lions into this industry is enough for lion parks to sell their lions that have previously been used as interaction cubs to canned hunting facilities where tourists can have the ‘ultimate hunting experience’ by shooting a lion.

It is of paramount importance that PoD and GiveGo Travel only work with projects which are sound in their conservation ethics, where the project is truly needed and where volunteers are needed to assist with their work. We do not believe in working with projects which offer nothing towards the conservation of the species that they work with or where they simply offer an ‘experience’ for the volunteer such as hand-raising and cuddling lion cubs, especially when the future of these cubs is so bleak.

"Here I am, with my backpack ready to jump on the plane for Thailand. I was very much looking forward to sharing this experience with my best friend. She lives in France, and there here we are in Bangkok.

After a crazy night in Bangkok (where we barely slept!), a car came to take us to the Wildlife Rescue project. The Centre was located close to Cha Am in Thailand about 160 km south of Bangkok. It was a fairly remote location, not far from a small village situated alongside a large lake.

PoD Volunteer was organising our trip and they made sure we had the necessary information about how to plan your trip, what to bring and what vaccinations we needed. They charged us a fee for all our placements in order to cover the overseas costs of volunteering, running their organisation and the centre… Well at least you know where your money goes! Volunteering is not cheap but it’s well worth it. Some immunisations need to be done at least three months in advance, as they require a series of injections. The “must have’s” were: Diphtheria, Hepatitis A, Polio, Tetanus and Typhoid Fever… Malaria is not currently present in the province but it was recommended by my doctor. Other things to keep in mind other than the shots: Flights, insurance, visa application if you intend to stay for more than 30 days, currency change, photocopy / scan your personal documents and leave copies with your family/friends, buy the necessary equipment like working gloves, mosquito repellent, hat, gumboots… I spent days in 'Kathmandu' shop!

After a two hours trip in the car with Shakira as the background music and the driver who barely spoke English, we finally arrived at the Centre. By the end of this trip, we were able to say basic Thai words: kapunka, sawa dee, gin, deun and ting tong!

I must say I didn’t know what to expect from the experience, I just wanted to help and be close to animals, learn about the species but also the issues regarding wildlife conservation and animal welfare - something that I will use as a reference for another project I’m working on with a friend, Endcount.

The centre’s aim is to save wild animals and their habitat from destruction. The founder is Edwin, who has recently been seen on the Bondi Vet TV Show. There are currently over 300 rescued animals, with just over 200 primates. This includes five different species of Macaque, 2 species of Gibbon, Civets, Elephants, Sun Bears, Asiatic Black Bears, a crocodile and exotic birds.

The centre rescues wild animals from places where they are mistreated and/or neglected, and helps them spend the rest of their lives in a sanctuary as close to the natural environment as possible with the best possible care. One of projects main focus is the rehabilitating of captive or domesticated animals and, if possible, preparing them for a reintroduction to their natural habitats.

In Thailand huge tracts of forest are disappearing at an alarming rate, destroying the habitats of many species of flora and fauna. Wild animals are poached for meat, medicine and the illegal pet trade. This has left some of the remaining forest under-populated and extinct of various wild animals. Most primates are classified under Appendix One in the Convention for International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) and it has been illegal to acquire a wild animal as a pet in Thailand since February 1992, yet regretfully, this practice still continues today.

A volunteer day typically involved feeding the animals and cleaning their cages. Duties were dependent on the duration of your stay. For us it was quite short, so we had basic duties, you still break a sweat though and the good thing is you get rotated, so you will look after all animals by the end of the week. Vanessa was mainly looking after the apes and I mainly looked after the bears. We had to wake up at 6am and be ready to work at 6.30am. Our shower and bedroom were very basic; there was no time for make-up, brushing etc.! The first duty was to go to the communal kitchen and prep the food for the animals, which included washing and cutting the fruits, dispatching the food in a basket for each animal, carrying and distributing the food to the animals. We would wait for e.g. the bear to eat before we could clean up their habitats and open the cage again. Anyway it sounds easy but takes about two hours, depending which section you were in. Then you have a 30min break and you go in again to clean up their mess. Just remember that you have to do that for all the animals e.g.: 26 bears or 50 apes! We were also going to “New Land”, an area of the centre which is where gibbons live; it is a support-fed island and is the release part of the rehabilitation program. The program involves putting healthy captive gibbons into a series of environments, which promote their physical health and natural behaviour necessary for survival in the wild. It’s a 4 phase program: Quarantine, in-cage rehabilitation, support-fed island release and finally an acclimation period in conjunction with release in the rainforest.

The day was on and off like this, morning and afternoon, until 5pm. We were also doing other tasks such as food enrichment, maintenance work and housekeeping.

Volunteers were between 18 to 40 years old, everyone came from different countries, had different jobs, but most of them were working with animals, there were a lot of students or people in their Gap Year and all came for different reasons.

At 5pm, all volunteers usually were going out, either Hua Hin or Cha-am markets or we headed to a nearby spa! And what a SPA!

In your one week you have one day off, we decided to go to Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park to visit the cave…It was such a great day off.

By the end of the week we were exhausted, sad to leave but content about this amazing, fun and emotional experience, we were able to look after these beautiful animals and watch them play despite their disabilities, and whilst being educated to the threats that face all wildlife, but particularly species in Thailand.

During our trip I learnt about the political issues, corruption and tourism abuses such as logging operations, you learn so much by talking with the staff members and volunteers. Though the news is not quite positive, logging is an issue in Thailand and illegal markets such as ivory, fur and bear bile are still very common and economically hard to fight. It broke our hearts. But you keep your hopes up and you keep working towards protecting and spreading the word or use whatever talents you have to change things, like I’m trying to do with Endcount. Though I realise I had to change a few of my habits! Education, spreading the word is critical to the survival of the endangered species and deforestation… So I count on you too!"

* Thank you to Lily for letting us share her experience at the Wildlife Rescue project! *

Volunteer Lily is also behind a fantastic artistic social awareness project called "Endcount"
Endcount is a project collaboration between Lily and Joe.

Our mission: To bring attention to the human impact on the cohabitants of our planet by putting the message in a context that raises awareness and provokes conversation, and raise the profile of charities working to save these species. Our first initiative is a series of artworks that aim to highlight the declining numbers of certain endangered species through a mixture of fine art and data visualisation. Each piece is a mix of code, print, canvas and paint that captures the extreme fragility of these creatures. Each artwork is a representation of the total number of remaining members of a given species ranging from a few hundred to a number of thousand.

For more on Lily’s project please see: http://instagram.com/endcountproject 

This blog was written for PoD Volunteers, a partner company of GiveGo Travel.  

Past volunteer Phil gives valuable insight into the Lionfish infestation of the Atlantic and the research he conducted whilst working on the Reef Conservation Project in Belize.

I recently returned from the Sapodilla Cayes Marine Reserve in Southern Belize, where I spent two weeks working as a volunteer a Reef Conservation Project which is dedicated to coral reef ecosystem conservation. Located 30 miles off the coast of Belize on the southern tip of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef (the second largest in the world, after Australia’s Great Barrier Reef), the Sapodilla Cayes constitute a unique ecosystem.

Along with other volunteers, I assisted the marine biologist with population surveys of conch, lobster, and commercial fish species, as well as coral reef health checks. At least one, and sometimes two surveys were carried out each day. The data collected is provided to the Belize Fisheries Department as well as to other cooperating NGOs.

Now about that fish on a spear. One of projects main objectives is lionfish control. Spears and collection bags are taken along on pretty much every dive, and dive leaders and volunteers try to spear as many lionfish as possible (while taking appropriate care not to damage coral or other marine life in the process). As a long time diver who would never have thought of carrying a spear, I must say that it was quite a new experience. Lest you think that the spearing is completely gratuitous, and intended only to appeal to divers’ primal instinct (OK, I’ll admit it, I did feel like Rambo in the ocean), the project also monitors incidence of lionfish population and undertakes dissections of a sample of 20 of the 100 or more lionfish that are speared each week. Data on size, sex, and stomach content is provided to the Belize Fisheries Department as a contribution to an emerging national lionfish management plan.
 
Why all the fuss? Simply put, lionfish are wreaking havoc on coral reef and other marine ecosystems throughout the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and Southern Atlantic Seaboard of the United States. Native to the IndoPacific, lionfish were introduced (it is uncertain whether by accident or through release by aquarium owners) into waters off south Florida in the mid- 1980s. Since then, they have spread rapidly (click on this link for an interactive map), and are now established in waters as far north as the Carolinas and as far south as Colombia and Venezuela. Their spread has been described as the worst marine invasion ever. Indeed, in 2010 scientists included the lionfish invasion as one of the top 15 threats to global biodiversity. Lionfish are voracious and indiscriminate eaters, preying on a large variety of fish species (including commercially valuable species such as snapper and grouper) as well as larvae of crustaceans such as shrimp and lobster. I saw evidence of this personally during my stay in Belize.

Stomachs of 40 lionfish that we dissected while I was there contained more than a dozen species of fish as well as shrimp and crabs. Particularly troubling was the high proportion of parrot fish and other herbivore species that are important for keeping harmful algae in check. In the stomach of one fish that I dissected, I found 8 juvenile parrot fish. In another specimen, 22 cm in length, I found an intact parrotfish 9cm in length. Unbelievable! On top of this, lionfish reproduce rapidly; females can lay eggs as frequently as every 4 days during the spawning season, with a single female able to lay up to 2 million eggs per year. And if their gluttonous feeding behaviour and fecundity weren’t enough, lionfish have no natural predators in the Atlantic, in part due to the venomous spines (more about these later) that line their dorsal and anal fins. All in all, the perfect invader. It’s no wonder that studies have found that lionfish can reduce the population of native fish on a reef by up to 80% in a matter of weeks.

In my next post, I’ll talk about what has and might be done to control the Atlantic lionfish plague."

Thank you to Phil for allowing us to use your blog, we look forward the next installment!

We have a new up and running Pinterest site for information on volunteering abroad this summer. Click on the links below to find out more.