Family volunteering in Peru

Planet

Our volunteer placements are designed to immerse you in a different culture, living and working with local people. There’s plenty to gain personally from this. But we make sure that local people benefit too by choosing projects that bring tangible improvements to their lives. Our local Peruvian partners are leaders in sustainable tourism. All activities and itineraries are designed in collaboration with the villagers themselves, based around the principles of community-based tourism. We are committed to providing local people with a complimentary source of income while still continuing their traditional way of life.

We send out comprehensive pre-departure briefing, which includes a section on protecting the local environment. In particular we advise participants to take care with water, which is an issue in many of our destinations. We recommend they avoid unnecessary washing, using hand wash gel where they can. We also instruct them on how to dispose of waste properly, not to litter and, where possible, to avoid using plastic water bottles which are not easy to dispose of environmentally.

We also encourage them to reduce single use plastic while on tour (either through partnering with accommodations who are doing this and/or by encouraging travelers to bring reusable bottles with them.
- When traveling through areas our guides also help guests to be in the environment in a responsible way (i.e. keeping minimum distances from animals, not dropping waste in nature, etc.)
- The restaurants/lodges we use local and seasonally grown food that is also always good to mention this as it cuts down food travel miles which some restaurants feel they have to have in order to cater for 'western' guests.
- We also keep transport emissions down on the trip through walking to projects as much as possible. Where possible we always encourage volunteers to use shared public transport like buses- which not only supports the local economy but sharing rides and transport keeps emissions down too.

People

All of our activities and itineraries are designed in collaboration with the villagers themselves, based around the principles of community-based tourism. We are committed to providing local people with a complimentary source of income while still continuing their traditional way of life.

Local Experiences: For any excursion, the guides, host families, handicraft cooperatives – receive fair wages as stipulated by the community- based tourism committee. We ensure that a majority of the money from each trip goes directly to the villagers and contributes to the community fund. This creates jobs to help families stay together instead of working in towns far away, and supports scholarships, youth activities, and other initiatives.

Machu Picchu and local tours : Our ground partners share our commitment to responsible travel. Our accommodation and destination partners ensure respect for both the environment and local culture. When you book with us, you can be sure that you will have a responsible and fun-filled tour.

Volunteer and Service Placements: Volunteer time, effort, and attention are of great value to the villages, schools, and children’s homes that we serve. We also provide our partners with financial support as they rely on limited government funding and/or donations. A project donation to the volunteering location is included in the program.

Cultural sensitivity: We emphasise the importance of showing respect for local people and their customs in our briefing material. Participants will work alongside permanent staff, forming close bonds and getting an insight into real life in Peru. Our policy is to send people to the developing world in small groups or individually. This minimises the environmental and social impact that the participants have on the destination and helps them to integrate into the local community.

Pre-departure preparation
All of our participants receive pre-departure guides. This covers topics on how to be culturally sensitive, how to best look after the environment when in the country and how to stay safe as well as up to date information on the political situation. They are also briefed on how to dispose of waste properly and where possible, to avoid using plastic water bottles as these are not easy to dispose of environmentally.

Meaningful Volunteering
We are working with an established local organisation in Cusco that provides a support to the indigenous community by employing them and also working with them by sending them volunteers.
We are also working in local schools who are in desperate need of volunteers to help with education particularly for English so they can get better paid jobs in the future.

Child Protection
We have a strong child protection policy and require police checks and DBS from all our participants. Staff who take photos are required to ensure they are up to a standard approved by our local partners or schools. We have strict expectations of volunteers as far as how they interact with the children. We also give no information to the volunteers about the children’s backgrounds.