I spent six weeks in a Peruvian orphanage for teenage moms and their kids and stayed in a local host family in Cusco.
The overall experience was just incredible and those weeks have significantly changed my life forever. Therefore, I gave the whole amount of stars for the overall review and can also recommend a program like this.
Our local country coordinator (Roger) in Cusco did an amazing job and there is nothing I can say but THANK YOU to him. He did not just continuously ask if we were fine and made everything to make us feel comfortable but also organized trips for us and even joined us on several trips so that he can ensure that we were save. Therefore, he even acted additionally as a little tour guide and became a good friend. Before coming to Cusco I did not expect to have such great coordination and to feel this welcome as I did during the whole time of the stay. Planning and joining us on our trips and taking making sure all the time that we were fine was nothing that I expected from him to do so that I was feeling even more welcome in this country.
The work in the orphanage was incredible as well. It differed a lot from helping in the kitchen to cleaning the playroom and changing diapers. It is completely up to the volunteer what he/she wants to do to support. The tutors do not tell you what to do as they are already very grateful that you are there so that they do not want to force you doing something that you may not like. It was for example not an obligation to change diapers or mopping the floor but something that was necessary and where I thought it might help them in their daily progress. There is lots of self initiative necessary as otherwise you may sometimes not know what to do.
My host family was amazing as well!! There was one other volunteer living with me for the whole time of stay. Three others have also been living there but arrived later and partly left earlier (one was there just for one week, the other one for two weeks) so that there was usually always someone in the house. Our host mother is such a lovely person. We all liked her very much, the food was great and there was nothing that I missed.
I can just recommend to go on such an experience as it will change your life forever. The only thing why I did not give all stars to "value" is that the registration/application fee being payed to RCDP is a little high in my eyes because I was not sure for what they have been using all that money.
