University Students Teach and Learn Great Lessons in Peru

Learn about our partnership with Sagrada Familia and your opportunity to help children in Peru here.

Global Volunteers’ service-learning programs offers an incredible volunteer experience for students. Peru Country Manager Daniel Salazar reports on the service of a recent group of student volunteers from St. John Fisher College. It was a wonderful life experience for both the students and the children they served.

The St. John Fisher College pharmacy and nursing students  came to use their skills and knowledge to teach a series of workshops to both children and staff. It was a great experience for everyone. The local doctor and the aides were glad to work improving their skills to have a safer environment for the children. The children loved the students because they came because they were there to teach them, and above all, because they were there to just be with them and play with them.

The students learned that simple projects can provide encouragement and boost confidence in primary girls’ lives.

True, no sized group can adequately handle the energy and curiosity of the children. No school or science can prepare you to deal with the antics of these children. But it is also true that you don’t quite understand how much these children crave for someone to pay attention to them until you come and see their faces when they realize you came just to be with them.

Volunteers teaching children how to properly wash their hands with soap and water.

We tried to tell the students how good the food was, how beautiful the Malecon right behind the hotel was, and how majestic Machu Picchu was. But they didn’t quite get it, until they were there. And of course, we told them how cute the children were, but we failed again. Probably our biggest failure was trying to explain how meaningful the relationships they would form with the children would be. There again, like every volunteer or group of volunteers that has come to serve, the one thing they take with them in their hearts and never forget is the friendship they make with these children. Once more, a group of volunteers came to serve, but they got way more back in return. They not only applied what they had learned in school, to the benefit of the children, but also left having learned more about humanity.

Volunteers with one of the aides and the children after teaching a hand-washing workshop.

We’ll all miss them. The children will never forget them. And we hope they return and that more groups like them can come, serve and experience what this group just experienced.

This is them: