Juan Pable Segundo LIMA - Volunteer Bruce Peru Lima, "Juan Pable Segundo Lima"

. Bruce Lima: "Juan Pablo Segundo" shanty school

Update August 1, 2009.
Last month the children at the Bruce Peru school, Villa El Salvador, Juan Pablo Segundo received new an used shoes, and had a little fiesta. We thank friends and family for helping.

It is now mid February 2009. The children pictured below (and in the Album) graduated from our informal school and will enter public school at the end of the summer break, in three weeks. The children pictured above are 6 years old. They are in our summer project, and will now get to attend the first grade in three weeks. Their entire kindergarten preparation (class discipline, basic literacy and maths) has been learned in just two months.

Bruce Peru Lima, helps poorest children in Juan Pable Segundo squatters camp

Staffing: Teacher (1 full time), Social Worker (1 part time), Teaching Assistant (up to 2 volunteers). Doctors and Dentists - as needed and available)

On line Application

Introduction..Juan Pable Segundo is the newest ´Invasion´ in Villa El Salvador [Photo Album] Christmas.08

'Juan Pable Segundo' CHILDREN'S CENTRE is in the Juan Pable Segundo community of the 'Cono Sur' slums on the south side of Lima, Peru. Our aim is to give aid and support to the children of the families (mostly ababndoned mothers) who squatted this sandy mountain in May 2007. The squatters were ejectedat least once before they finally overcame resistance from the Limal authorities and are now foriming a makeshift community on the sandy lot which now houses roughly ten thousand in tiny woven reed & plastic 'homes', some already being replaced by adobe.. In the ensuing years their improvised houses will be improved first to adobe and then brick houses. But there is no electricity, water or school. Some electricity is rented privately from nearby houses, but water has to be trucked in several times a week. Bruce Peru have agreed to provide our standard project of educating the children up to the point they can pass the entrance examination to enter the grade appropriate to their age, in the National School system.

The Juan Pable Segundo Children's Centre is housed in a very basic shanty house, belonging to our kind hostess, Rosa..

Juan Pable Segundo was formed by a group of Andean peasants all known to one another. When they finally succeeded in posessing the land they bonded into a community; everyone looks out for everyone else. It is isolated from the rest of Lima, the only road climbing up the mountain to Juan Pable Segundo has a gate and a guard. It may be a shanty town to the ourside world, but to its residents it has as much community spirit as any community anywhere.

Bruce Peru Juan Pable Segundo director, Rosa Caycho

2 of the first 10 children to attend Bruce Peru Lima

Many children living in Juan Pablo Segundo do not attend school 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
Who do we need?
We are looking for volunteers to join our organisation who are interested in working with children and (preferably) have some knowledge of Spanish . Volunteers stay for as long as they like – although we ask for a minimum of 1 month (three months for 2 female volunteers) – to live in our Miraflores accommodation, located on Park Kennedy, the touristic heart of Lima..

What to expect as a Volunteer:

Your Job at 'Juan Pable Segundo CHILDREN'S CENTRE' will involve:

Teaching children
Team working
Sport activities
Recreation activities
Teaching English to adults, evening hours (back at Lima central)
Promotion work in Lima.

Tom, our Lima Director, shows how to maintain hygene, with almost no water (all our Juan Pable Segundo children are extremely poor, not in school). Community & family participation are high.

Accomodation for international Vols:

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, children´s cooks and secretary, as well as maintaining the volunteer centre- also to promote the opening of other Children's Centres in Peru. This fee includes accommodation 7 days per week.

On line Application

To read more about Peru click HERE

Besides these activities, we welcome new ideas to make our project most effective for the children. Volunteering at Bruce Peru Lima 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 PeruVillan 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 at 'Juan Pable Segundo' 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:

More than 400 years ago, the Spanish conqueror ("conquistador") Francisco Pizarro named Lima the City of the Kings ("Ciudad de los Reyes"). Nowadays, that same city, which rose from the lands of the native chief Taulischusco, is a metropolis of over 7 million people who proudly preserve the colonial convents and mansions which are symbols of their ancient and noble traditions. Lima, capital of Peru, founded on January 18, 1535, is a modern city which, while constantly expanding, has also managed to maintain the elegance of its Historic Center. Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Center, due to the large number of artistic monuments found there, Historic Lima is an enchanting haven of a period long gone.

The Programme:

Bruce Peru Juan Pable Segundo, Lima - classes for children who cannot get into school: due to poverty, abandonment or abuse

The Children's Centre is located in a reed hut at the centre of a poor people's township. It has no water or electricity, but classes are in the mornings when there is always light, and we bring in buckets of water. Our international volunteers leave Miraflores at 8:AM and are in class teaching the children by 9:AM. Children attend the centre between 9 AM and 12:00 PM, (ending with lunch). Durting the morning volunteers and local teachers organise a range of classes, all designed to prepare the children for a future in the National Curriculum. Groups are divided up according to age or ability. None of these children go to school, so an important aspect of our program is teaching them group discipline and study habits. We regularly plan trips outside the centre, to play football and other games and activities..

The English Club:

In the evenings English-speaking volunteers give English convewrsation classes to adults in our Miraflores apartment in Lima (where also our international volunteers live). The small donation our language students make is a contribution to the work of the Satellite Children's Centres.. Our students know that their tuition goes towards our work with the children and enables us to open new Children's Centres.