HELP English Coordinator

Huanchaco Education and Learning Programme (HELP) is dedicated to advancing the education possibilities and resources for the lower-income children and adults in Huanchaco and its surrounding towns.  In Peru it is widely recognised that speaking English is very important in the today's world to get a scholarship to study abroad, to work in tourism, or to work abroad. At expensive private schools children are already made familiar with English at a young age. Unfortunately, the government does not have enough money or skilled teachers to offer the same thing in their state and public schools. So that’s where HELP English steps in providing skilled volunteers to teach English in schools and within the community.  Our volunteers have become a valuable resource for the schools and the community, because they provide a service that would not normally fit into their tight budgets.

All of our HELP (Huanchaco Education and Learning Program) Coordinator positions are higher-level volunteer positions for volunteers with strong leadership skills, who are looking to coordinate and manage one of our own Otra Cosa Network (OCN) HELP projects. In this position, you will receive supervision from the operations manager or the assistant manager and you will be responsible for overseeing and supervising all of our HELP English volunteers, and for coordinating with all of our partner schools and projects where our volunteers are teaching English. In this position, you will be expected to plan weekly meetings with all of our HELP English volunteers, to visit all of our partner schools and projects regularly, and to keep all of our HELP English resources including materials, books, curriculums and activities updated and organized. In addition, we do expect that you will continue to create new materials and resources for the project, based on what is needed to support our volunteers and to help this program continue to improve and be as successful as possible.

 

The HELP English Coordinator position is a very challenging position, although it can also be incredibly rewarding. This is our only HELP project where you will not only be coordinating with and supporting all of our other HELP English volunteers, but where you will be liaising with all of the schools and projects where those volunteers are teaching English. Therefore, you will be working with many different schools, directors, coordinators, teachers, and volunteers who all have their own schedules, plans, personalities and ways of doing things. Meanwhile, the school setting in Peru has proven to be difficult for many of our volunteers because student behaviors can be more difficult than what most of our volunteers are accustomed to at home, while there is often no plan or consistency for discipline or ways to support teachers with student behaviors in the schools. However, many past volunteers have developed their own systems of positive reinforcement and discipline, and we often use a lot of stickers to reinforce good work and good behavior, which has been quite effective in many of our classrooms.

 

Our schools here in Peru are usually not as organized as what we might expect, and many of our classes often get canceled at the last minute due to unexpected holidays, celebrations, testing and an array of other reasons. Meanwhile, our schools almost never take holidays at the same time. Thus, we work diligently to get holiday and vacation days written down in advance for each school so that our volunteers know their schedules and when they can plan vacations, and we will need your support in continuing this work. However, despite some of our best efforts, our schools often change their holidays at the last minute or end up celebrating something like Fiestas Patrias (Peru’s Independence Day) for an entire week so that even while the schools are still open, they may cancel all of the classes so that the kids can practice marching in the community parade instead of sticking to their planned schedules. This may sound completely disorganized and even crazy to many of us foreigners, and yet it is quite normal here in Peru, so please be prepared for the unexpected.

Only volunteers with a great deal of patience, leadership, flexibility and organization skills should apply for this position. You will not be receiving a great deal of supervision or structure in this position, because as the project coordinator, you will be managing the project and supervising the other volunteers. However, the OCN staff is always available to support you, and it is also your responsibility to reach out to us and to set up regular meetings with us so that we can help you and the project truly succeed.