Permanent Staff
Bruce, founder
Ana Teresa, president
They live in Trujillo.
Local Staff
Project co-directors, Dennis and Jos
Secretary
Cook/cleaner
Teachers, Social Workers & Volunteers

Daily schedule
: 07.00 One of the volunteers goes out to get bread at the bakery.
07.15 He/she's back and helped by at least 2 others to make the sandwiches for the kids 07.30 Breakfast, if you want something else/more than bread you'll have to buy it yourself.
07.45 We head out for the schools, don't take money/valuables cause they may give people a reason to rob you.
13.30 Back from the schools, Lunch with all volunteers. Some time during the afternoon - twice per week, we offer Spanish lessons to volunteers who wish to learn or improve their Spanish.
18.00 First English class
19.00 Second English class
20.00 Third English class
21.00 Evening meal with all volunteers.
General advice and rules
Boarding - Up to 4 volunteers will be sharing a bedroom and everyone is responsible for cleaning their own area. Each volunteer is expected to wash his/her sheets. You will be given a key to the house. When you're the last one leaving. make sure the alarm is on (ask for demonstration) and lock both the outside door and the gate. Please respect people's sleep after 10 p.m. Kitchen All meals are provided from Monday through Friday. Meal times are: 07.30 Breakfast 13.30 Lunch 21.00 Dinner (available from 17.00 onwards) During the week-ends volunteers can cook their meals at the center or eat out. Please make sure the kitchen is kept clean and the table clear. Bathroom Please do not use the shower until given a demonstration (you'll need to switch the hot water on and off). Each volunteer needs to supply his/her own toilet paper, soap and towel. Please do not put toilet paper inside the toilet bowl. Laundry: Clothes can be washed by hand outside the kitchen. Volunteers need to buy their own soap or detergent. There's also a 'lavanderia' a few blocks away. Bring your clothes before 3 and they'll be done by 5 if you ask for it. General information For most projects, you will be able to take a break from after lunch till the evening classes. A notice board will inform you of any news you need to know. PLEASE CHECK IT REGULARLY. A weekly meeting for the volunteers will allow you to voice any of your concerns. If any problem occurs or you have any worries, please let the coordinator know. Internet is available close to Bruce Peru and a television is in the lounge. If you have a telephone card, you can use the center's telephone. Cards are available in most shops nearby. Purified water is available in the kitchen for you to use. If you are planning to stay away for a night during the week-end, please inform the coordinator. Any drunk behavior within the center will not be tolerated. No visitor or volunteers' friend will be allowed to stay in the center. As diarrhea is a frequent occurrence among volunteers here is some advice: - make sure you eat clean fruit and vegetables. Wash it with purified water. - avoid ceviches sold in public places, - avoid fish from markets, - avoid cheap food stalls, especially those in the open, - avoid tap water and ice unless previously boiled. We can make suggestions for treatment. When you leave us. Be sure to inform the coordinator of your departure ates at least one week before leaving. He/she can help you make travel plans or arrangements in Lima. Mission statement: We are here to give street children the gift of education. Our mission is to get school age children who are not attending school into the national or [private schools. To accomplish this we locate and recruit out-of-school children. To assure that the children we locate are destitute and unable to attend school without our assistance, we have Peruvian social workers qualify each child. We look for the poorest children in the poorest neighborhoods. When we are satisfied a neighborhood has enough out-of-school children, who want to get educated: we open a teaching center or shanty school in their barrio community. We do this with the cooperation and support of local officials, community members and parents. We teach only what our children need in order to get into a national school. Most of our children have had very or no education, and are two, three or four years behind children who have been attending school. No school would accept them at the grade level appropriate to their age, and iare unwilling to accept them into a grade much lower than their age level. Our job is to bring each child up to the level of education and learning skills adequate to pass an entrance examination for the class appropriate to their age (we normally succeed in achieving this within 6 to 9 moinths of attendance in our little school\s) The national schools have a two part system which means students with proper school behavior who show academic promise will get the education we want for them. Those without group discipline and educational promise will be placed in classrooms where they will have little chance of getting a real education. Although most of us fall in love with the children we are helping (become very attached to them), we need to keep in mind that our mission is to help poor children get an education. Thus we must be prepared to overcome the emotional stress involved when we must either see our children leave us for a national school, or when we are transferred to a school which needs us more. Although we give our children unconditional love, we must also discipline them for their own good. Our mission is to give children the gift of education. Working in our schools. You are about to start to work in one of our little schools. Before you start, you should understand something about the local environment and the needs of the children you're going to work with. While each site varies somewhat, in general the problems are pretty much the same. No matter where you work, the children come from a slum and extreme poverty. Most of the problems arise because the children live in such poverty. In their homes in barrios they live in a complete lack of sanitary conditions, little food, old clothes, and often unloving and irresponsible parents. Each day they see adult unemployment, gangs, alcohol abuse, drug consummation, and theft. Because most of the children live in poverty-stricken regions, violence exists in their neighborhoods even in their homes. The children have seen or experienced domestic violence and neglect. Very few come from homes with loving adults but extreme poverty makes stable family life difficult. The children are likely to have experienced many stresses that make them vulnerable to emotional problems, psychological disorders, and learning difficulties. Most of them have a low self-esteem and are likely to be undernourished. They face situations middle class people have never faced and have little understanding of. All this may lead to the following problems working with the children. - rebellious behavior - lack of interest in learning - very low attention spans - violent behaviors towards you and the other children. Their most common needs are likely to be: affection, tenderness, protection, food, medical care, recreation, and forgiveness for misbehaving. We hope to try and help them to recover from the abuses they have suffered through the fulfillment of their needs. If we are successful, the children will be admitted to school and will have gained the confidence and skill needed to adjust to the school environment. We hope to give them the tools to be successful in their education. While giving them a start to their academic training is important, for most, the best we can do is to teach them the behaviors and values they need to stay in school. If behavior problems continue once they are in school, they will be unable to get an education. Many are very bright, but if they cannot follow directions, stay in their seats waiting for instructions from the teacher or other skills needed to do well in a regular classroom, they will fail in school. And we will have failed in our mission. In the beginning of new projects we have to be flexible and accept our children's reality in our classroom. Love and praise are the best motivators. But, do not expect changes and improvements right away; they'll learn new values and attitudes gradually and you must have patience. Much of your success in classroom depends upon whether you've planned your lesson or not. If you want your lessons or instructions to be effective, a lesson plan is essential. It is best to have that planned before class starts and to have a specific set of objects each day. Games and songs are often an effective way of teaching children. Group games teach co-operation, one of the skills essential for being successful in school. Songs can be a fun way of learning to follow directions and learning to "work" as a group. Hearing stories helps them learn to sit quietly and may motivate them to want to learn to read. Craft or art projects also provide learning experiences. Check with the teachers about your ideas. Keeping notes or records each day is also a way to maintain consistency. An consistency is comforting to these children. Much of their lives might be chaotic, but routine in school can give some of them the stability they need to learn. Good luck. Many challenges await you! Language classes information English and occasionally French classes are taking place at the Center in the evening for adults and sometimes for children (in summer). Check timetables at the office. Teacher and student workbooks are available for most levels which are: - Intro A - Intro B - Basico A - Basico B - Intermediate - Conversation and Advanced When new students come to register they take an entrance exam which allows the coordinator to work out the level where they belong. Each session lasts one month, followed by an exam which each volunteer has to prepare and mark. Old exams and other materials are available to make this task easy. The volunteer must grade the exam with a 65% viewed as passing. teachers may mark the exams as they see fit. The test results must be given to the secretary by the day following the exam. they are then handed out to the students by the secretary, usually the next day. Inform the students of the exam date at the beginning of the course. Often students remain in the same level for the next session in order to improve their skills. There are standard Bruce Peru text books for each level and a volunteer can find the appropriate place in each class book for the current day in the class they are teaching. The material to be covered is printed in the front of each level. Each volunteer needs to be thorough in class preparation and to keep records of what is taught. Language books are sold to the students at roughly our cost of printing them. Volunteers need to clean the whiteboard at the end of each class. Classes end at 5 minutes before the hour. Please be courteous to the next class and end class on time. Meetings will be scheduled to discuss problems, concerns, and successes. When a volunteer takes over for someone else in the middle of a course, it is important not to repeat the material. For this reason volunteers MUST keep a record of what they have done. It is a good idea to keep notes after each class. At times two volunteers teach the same class and it is a good idea whenever possible to team teach for a few classes if one volunteer is leaving and another taking over. At the beginning of each session, volunteers need to get the students to write their name on a sheet for the secretary to check out payments. They also need to write down the names of any new students who turn up the following weeks. Check list and names with the secretary. We have had students come for several meetings who have not paid! Any inquiries regarding registration need to be referred to the secretary. However for your information, the classes at present cost: 90 soles for the first session and 85 soles for the following ones. Books are sold for 15 soles. Spanish classes are also organized for volunteers who are interested. Be sure to ask.