Tel. +44 (0)1273 600030 (UK)
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On joining us as a volunteer at the Rainbow Centre in Urubamba you will be making a huge difference to the lives of many people.
Our centres have been built in communities that previously had no provisions or support for children and families affected by special needs or abuse, children received no education or therapy and families no help, understanding or support. When we began our work we found many children tied up or locked away; due to a lack of support and services, financial instability and a misunderstanding about special needs, parents were desperate. Now we run educational and therapy centres, children’s homes and parental workshops and community outreach programmes in two poverty-stricken areas of Peru. The number of families we have worked with in the ten years we have been running is astounding, as is the evident positive change we have helped happen.
We have been able to create and sustain these projects through the vital help of volunteers. Our centres are run by local professionals, they are the people who in the future will take over all aspects of the projects, but their workload is such that without the help of unpaid volunteers such results could just not be achieved.
As a volunteer you can take on one of many roles, dependent on your skills and interests and also on what is most needed at the time. You could support one of our special education teachers in the classroom, support our physiotherapist in individual sessions, support our social worker on home visits, assist in medical campaigns, help organise art, dance and drama workshops…the list is endless! Working as a volunteer at the Rainbow Centre or Mama Cocha you really do make a difference.
Apart from making a difference directly to the children, families and staff from the centres you will also be making a difference to the local community and the environment. We organise all of our trips around Peru with environmentally conscious and active tour companies who use local professional guides who have spent all their lives living in the area in which they guide: their knowledge is astonishing! We use a host family, Delfina (who is the sister of the Rainbow Centre’s head teacher) has been looking after our volunteers and taking them into her family for seven years. She cooks excellent meals, all made from the market’s locally sourced fresh produce. We also use a local family run hostel when we have larger groups.
As an organisation we are committed to looking after the environment in any ways we can: we always endeavour to send information via email to save paper wastage and also unnecessary costs, we recycle paper in our office, we avoid air travel when possible, we use tour companies with environmentally responsible policies, we use low waste water tanks in our centres, we use all locally sourced materials in construction, we have an organic farm at the Rainbow centre and we run recycled art workshops with the children.
We take on small groups of volunteers so as to minimise the impact on local culture and on the environment. All of our volunteers are issued with responsible travel codes of conduct to help them minimise their impact. We provide volunteers with intensive Spanish courses so that they are able to interact with locals and maximise their contribution to the local community.
We invite every traveller who books a holiday via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the holidays they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same holiday can have different views!
