.Bruce
Peru: 'Las Dalias' Children's Centre (Piura)
A school
for externally poor children, in the Las Dalias barrio of Piura, Peru
First Year
at a glance
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| December 2009 Udate |
Report, 30 June 2009............................
Las Dalias CHILDREN'S CENTRE is part of the NGO Bruce Organisation, operating in the city of Piura, Peru (also throuout Peru and some other Latin America countries), with the aim of giving aid and support to children from impoverished backgrounds living in and around the area. A team of Peruvian professionals and volunteers provide food, classes and activities to children who would otherwise be in the streets - our mission is to get them educated.
Bruce Peru (Las Dalias
) works at getting all children to attend school and helps with the provision
of school materials; it also fosters good relations within the community.
In Las Dalias itself, a group of professionals, a trained social worker and a Peruvian teacher and assistantf work at the project every week day. Children come in daily for lessons and lunch, remaining at the centre until they are attending school regularly and ready to graduate. Those too old to enter first grade will continue to be taught at the centre until they can pass the entrance for the grade of their age..
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Many children
do not attend school in Las Dalias, due one or more of three reasons:
extreme poverty (even attending free school in Peru costs about
$200 a year), abandonment or parental abuse (children of poor parents
often are made to work instead of attending school)
Our primary goal is to get as many children into school as possible,
and this involves encouraging learning, talking to parents and in
some cases purchassing uniforms and school books. We have the more
general aim of providing children aged between 6 and 12 with fun
activities to do in the morning, to keep them occupied, together
and away from the streets, and to give extra help to those struggling
in school and with learning difficulties. |
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(When enough volunteers
have applied to serve in Piura, we will open a volunteer centre
What to expect as a Volunteer:Your Job at Las Dalias will involve:
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and
the following will apply): Accomodation & food costs: We ask a fee from our volunteers to keep our work going. The money goes to pay for the bills, meals, and the cost of the social worker, cook and secretary - also to promote the opening of other Children's Centres in Peru. This fee includes accommodation and 3 meals a day, 5 days a week. 
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How they liveBesides these activities, we welcome new ideas to make our project most effective for the children. Volunteering at Las Dalias can be a tiring but immensely rewarding experience. You should be able to cope with big groups of street children demanding a lot of attention and enthusiasm. You will have to be a team worker, working together with Peruvian and international volunteers. In the centre you will be a representative of the project and are expected to be responsible and behave as an example for the children. What you do in your free time outside the centre is up to you.
Volunteering with Las Dalias is a fantastic way of getting to know Peru, of improving your Spanish, and above all, of interacting with the community and with the children of the city in a positive and helpful way.
The Region:
Piura is a city
of 400,000 inhabitants, near the Paciffic The province of Piura is located in the Northwest of Peru and streches out over a varied geography from coastal desert to the high regions of the Andes.
The city of Piura, tidy and dynamic, is famous for the happy and wellcoming spirit of its inhabitants. Appreciated for its music (tondero and marinera), its exquisite food and its varied handicraft with the outstanding Chulucanas pottery. The flower decorations with ornaments from the sea and the filigree of gold and silver are another characteristic of the city.
The Programme:
Our
centre is located in the section of north Piura, and is comprised of an
open plan adobe building, separated into fhree tables - for children of
differing learning skills.. Children attend the centre from between 8:30
AM and 12:30 PM, (ending with lunch). During the children's time in the
centre volunteers organise a range of workshops and activities, including
art, music, with the main emphasisbeing on reading, writing and maths. Groups
are divided up according to age or ability. None of these children go to
school, so an important part of our program is teaching them group discipline
and study habits. We regularly plan trips outside the centre, to play football
and other games. Our international Volunteers, when they come, will not
live in the Las Dalias centre, but rather in our Piurs volunteer accommodation,
which is located in the centre of Piura, a half block from the main square.
Las Dalias is a 30 minute bus ride from the cemtre of Pioura.
The Language School:
In the evenings English-speaking and French-speaking volunteers may be asked to give English and French classes to adults, who pay a monthly contribution to our work. Our students know that their tuition goes towards our work with the children and enables us to maintain Las Dalias and our other centres. Volunteers are therefore obliged to give at least one class per night to maintain our Language School.Spanish classes are offered for free to all our volunteers.
