Short-Term Community Development Internship in Peru

As with all GVI programs, this was of an exceptionally high standard. From the comprehensive pre-departure support, to the amazing staff on project, to the great program making a tangible difference, there is no other volunteering organsiation I would recommend.

I have loved having the opportunity to volunteer with GVI, i feel the internship is very beneficial for young people before or after there degree as there is so much on offer and so much to add to your CV once you have done. You can get as little or as much out of the experience as possible depending on how much you put into it and the staff are always willing to help y9ou as best as they can and try to inspire you everyday to make a difference

As the first GVI volunteer in Peru I encountered a different experience opposed to a regular volunteer. There were definitely positives and negatives. I’ll start with the positives. Firstly, I signed up to a Community Development Internship in Peru. I signed up because I am genuinely interested in strengthening and empowering sustainable communities, to gain life- experience, to explore a different part of the world and to enhance my career opportunities. I can happily say that all of this was achieved and I feel I accomplished more than what I bargained for. Here are 5 achievements I took away from my GVI experience: 1. Independence – this was the first time where I was left alone to figure things out for myself in a foreign country. From always being in a group or a pair (I have an identical twin sister) was a challenge to set out on my own. With that, I took advantage of this and gained a strong independence personality- having to make decisions about transport, money, activities and projects etc it made me a stronger person. 2. Teaching – Now this is big positive for me. I’ve always thought teaching/being a kids person wasn’t really my thing. However, I loved teaching! I assisted in English classes at Pongobamba school and it was very rewarding and the children were great. 3. Project management- As the first volunteer I was part of a lot of negotiating/meetings in signing off the projects, which is something a regular volunteer would not experience. As more volunteers started to join, and with me being the first volunteer from day one I felt I had a responsibility to guide the others in the procedure of the projects. 4. Environmental Education- EE is one of the projects our team were developing and implementing in Pongobamba school. I am very interested in being sustainable and environmental friendly therefore this was a project I thoroughly enjoyed. 5. Patience- As stated, being the first volunteer meant there was a lot of waiting around and the process of the programme was quite slow therefore I had to be very patient and learn to go with the flow. Negatives: I have come up with the 3 negative factors that I experienced during my GVI experience. 1. Loneliness- I was extremely lonely for the first month of my programme. I was aware I was the first and only volunteer but I never thought I would be so lonely. Most activities I did by myself or I had to attend meetings in Spanish with the field staff, so I could not contribute. 2. Administration work – I was surprised as to how much ground work/administration work the volunteers had to do. It’s good experience but I would say majority of the work required from the field staff was to do GVI administration work e.g rewrite GVI field manual, write GVI English manual and write a volunteer welcome package. I expected all of this would of been prepared and finalised for when volunteers arrive. I found this a negative, as this work was not stimulating, it was boring and it was definitely something I did not sign for. I could do administration work at home and get paid for it. 3. Disorganised- As stated, this programme was new so the schedule for the week to week routine was always a bit vague. However, when the field staff would put together a weekly plan the activities always seemed to cancel or fail, therefore that left the volunteers with nothing to do but do more GVI administration work.