Who we are
Our mission is to support development in Northern Peru by connecting dedicated volunteers with local community projects. Our vision is for equal opportunities in Peru for everyone to succeed and thrive.
At Otra Cosa Network we connect suitable community led projects with willing, capable volunteers in a way that benefits both parties. Together, we aim to offer life changing support to the children and adults at the community-led projects we partner, and also a life changing development opportunity for our selected volunteers.
Our history
Otra Cosa began in September 2004 as a small, low-cost volunteering
agency providing volunteers to a few, mainly local, projects. It was founded by
Peter de Hond and Janneke Smeulders and run from their vegetarian restaurant.
When the couple decided to return to the Netherlands in April 2007, Juany and
Peter Murphy, a British-Peruvian couple, who lived in Huanchaco and had already
been working with the organisation on a voluntary basis since August 2005,
agreed to take it over and became the directors.
2009 was a big year for the organisation. Firstly, it underwent a change
of name from Otra Cosa Volunteer Agency to Otra Cosa Network in order to
reflect the network of people and projects that we work with. This was also the
year that the organisation was officially registered as a Peruvian non-profit
NGO with the APCI (Peruvian Association for International Cooperation) and
other Peruvian bodies. In December of the same year, Juany and Peter decided to
return to England for the sake of their sons’ education. However, they have
continued to oversee OCN from the UK on a part-time basis – developing the
organisation, networking within the UK, Europe and elsewhere and providing
general guidance to staff in Peru. In parallel they appointed a full-time
Operations Manager in Peru.
In January 2010 Otra Cosa Network became a UK registered Charity. After
this we began to develop our own projects, to complement our partner projects,
with the aim of fulfilling unmet needs in the local community. In early 2011
our HELP (Huanchaco Education and Learning Programme) projects began in earnest
and although we had already been teaching English in the community since 2007,
our HELP English programme sought to strengthen and coordinate our many and
diverse English-language teaching projects. In a similar manner, although our
skate ramp was built in early 2010, the emergence of the HELP Youth project
(originally called HELP Community) sought to develop our existing skate ramp
project into a social development project and involved us undertaking social
impact research to uncover community needs and wants. At the end of 2011 we
started our HELP Women project, aimed at empowering local women through an
integral programme that provides them with legal, psychological and vocational
skills. Our HELP Literacy project began in February 2013 when we received
funding from LitWorld, a US-based non-profit organisation, to set up a reading
club for girls, known as a LitClub. This has been such a success that it has
since expanded to include several LitClubs both for girls and for boys. Most
recently, in January 2014 HELP Environment became the latest addition to the
HELP projects. This project was formed as a response to the many environmental
issues affecting Huanchaco, such as the beach contamination, and the need for
more environmental education and awareness within the local population.
Meanwhile, the Peru team has grown, currently including two Assistant Managers
supporting the Operations Manager to provide better support to the community,
to our partner projects and to our volunteers.
We are proud of how far Otra Cosa Network has evolved over the past
years and we are looking forward to what we can accomplish in the future.
Where we work
The District of Huanchaco is part of the Trujillo province in La
Libertad region, Northern Peru. The district capital is Huanchaco town, a
quiet, easy-going place that still retains its fishing-village ambience. Over
the last three millennia, locals have stuck to traditional ways of fishing,
going out on their caballitos de totora (traditional reed fishing boats), and
using their nets to gather their catch for the day. The district is home to
Chan Chan, the largest pre-Columbian city in South America and Huanchaco town
is a known surf destination. The argument that surfing derived from the
pre-Incan caballito fishing traditions is so strong, that in 2013 Huanchaco was
designated as a World Surfing Reserve.
In recent decades the District of Huanchaco has expanded exponentially
due to migration from the highlands and the jungle by those looking for a
better standard of living or forced from their homes by natural disasters such
as the El Niño phenomenon in 1997/98. Many of these incomers live in the shanty
towns surrounding Huanchaco and their daily reality is very different from many
of those living just a ten minute walk away in the centre of the town. Unlike
the town centre, these communities lack infrastructure – there are no paved
roads, most households don’t have a sewage system and there is limited access
to running water. Furthermore, having migrated from even poorer parts of the
country, parents in these areas have often had limited access to education, and
poverty and social problems are rife. All of this means that children growing
up in these neighbourhoods are at a disadvantage from the outset and do not
have access to the same educational opportunities as their more privileged counterparts.
In addition to our work in the Huanchaco area, we also work with two
mountain village projects: one in Yanasara in the highlands of La Libertad
region and one in Sícchezpampa in the highlands of Piura region.
Why choose us?
No matter where you find yourself in life, volunteering is a great
opportunity to be a part of long-term contribution to the community, while at
the same time gaining invaluable experience and knowledge of the local culture.
Volunteering with Otra Cosa Network you will work in projects answering to the
local needs, side by side other people driven by the same passion and interests
as you!