Help at a Skate Ramp for Underprivileged Peruvian Children

The Skate Ramp is up in the hills on the outskirts of Huanchaco town, in an area not visible from Huanchaco itself. This shanty town area is called Cerrito de la Virgen and most of its inhabitants come from ENSO phenomenon (El Niño Southern Oscillation), a natural climatic occurrence that caused excessive rainfalls about 13 years ago and resulted in US$ 3.5 billion economic losses in Peru. The Peruvian government didn't have the capacity to cope with the resulting housing crisis that left millions of Peruvian families homeless. In the La Libertad region, authorities located some of the ENSO victims on the very arid land of Cerrito de la Virgen. These people had no choice and were made no promises by the government, there was not even any electricity or water available for the new inhabitants. They just got there and had to start building their lives again. As a consequence, the needs of the children, including their education were put aside while their parents were more worried about surviving.

The children living in Cerrito did not have access to a particularly stimulating environment, or much to amuse themselves with and as a result they tended towards misbehaving and acting up. However, our volunteers saw a lot of potential there, realised that with a little attention and some activities, these children could really flourish. With some land donated from the local surf school, the volunteers mobilised and built the Skate Ramp to offer a fun and stimulating environment for the children to play in.

The main goal of this project is to offer children a safe place to play, while providing the children with positive role models. Alongside the Skate Ramp itself, this project has recently expanded into being able to offer some educational activities for the children. The children can be found at the library where volunteers help them with their homework as well as providing some educational and fun activities for the children such as science experiments, sports classes etc. Furthermore, twice a week our volunteers take the children surfing. If you enjoy working with children, have a sense of fun and understand the importance of being a good role model then you cannot miss this volunteer opportunity!

Volunteer Roles/Working Hours

The main task of volunteers is organizing a schedule with activities that will suit the children and might help their development. Tasks include:

• Teaching skateboarding and games to the children
• Instilling the values and importance of good manners
• Looking after the facility: tidying-up, cleaning and ensuring proper care and maintenance.
• Bringing new ideas about how to improve the space and add new appealing features for children.
• Helping with English lessons and afterschool sessions.

During the summer holidays, the Skate Ramp can be opened anytime from Monday to Friday - preferably in the afternoon (15:00pm till 18:00pm). Generally, however the ramp is open for skateboarding Monday, Wednesday and Friday (15:00-18:00) and on Tuesdays and Thursdays the children are in the library for homework classes (15:00-18:00)

Volunteer Requirements

• Age 18+
• Basic Spanish level. We can arrange classes for your arrival if you have no Spanish or need/want to boost your level.
• Minimum commitment: 4 weeks- the longer, the better.
• Able to cope with active streetwise children.
• Empathetic, Responsible and open-mind personality.
• Volunteers should have some experience of teaching or working with or looking after children, and may be subjected to a full criminal record check.
• Leadership and discipline are must for this position. Experience in skateboarding would be an advantage, but not mandatory

Application Process
Please visit our website to apply: http://otracosa.org/apply-now.html

For further information about the program, please visit: http:otracosa.org/browseallprojects/item/191-helping-out-at-the-skate-ramp.html