Teaching English in the Amazon
Highlights
- Learn about the customs and traditions of our Amazon communities while you teach English!
- Discover the benefits of Ayahuasca, the medicine of the soul!
- Enjoy one of the greatest biodiversity in the world!
- Visit indigenous communities, caves, streams of crystalline waters, a boiling river and more!
- Grab your tent and let´s explore the jungle!
Overview
We provide free English classes for children, teenagers and adults. Therefore, everybody can participate in our community. We believe that English lessons will provide a valuable opportunity to help local people gain the skills they need to communicate with tourists that we will be bringing as part of our project to create new job opportunities to these rural communities. The English language will also help the younger generations to have better life opportunities. TEFL Certificate is not a requirement but, it is a plus. We are looking for volunteers that are fluent in English and also have creative teaching ideas such as playing games, singing, storytelling, acting other activities. The focus should be on developing curiosity about other cultures and to experience language as a communication tool and part of a culture.
Volunteers can also design workshops for kids or adults such as football matches, arts and crafts, environmental education, drama and so on. The idea is to connect the new language abilities with positive emotions.
Volunteers could build teaching materials such as posters, cards and games with vocabularies to subject or writing down songs, rhymes and so on for other volunteers.
There are many ways our volunteers can benefit from this cultural exchange:-
1. We are able to offer volunteers up to 4 hours per week of Spanish language coaching. Our Spanish professor is committed to helping volunteers improve their grammar, vocabulary and speaking skills in a real-life environment.
2. Volunteers will be welcomed into the community where they can witness and take part in the region’s customs and traditions, where people live happily despite their limitations and lack of modern-world facilities. You can develop new friendships and learn how to talk and interact with people from another culture, whilst learning how to adapt to a new environment and different way of living. Our vision is to build relationships, promoting a mutual understanding of respect and values.
3. We are happy to organize trips to local attractions and, of course, into the rainforest, where we can introduce our volunteers to the incredible flora and fauna of our beautiful Peruvian Amazon and also share some fascinating jungle legend stories! We organize weekend camps and explore the jungle.
4. And if you like food, you will have the opportunity to learn how to cook some of the amazing Peruvian dishes with the help of our project chef!! Buen provecho!
Important Information
Who we are:
We are a growing project working for the economic and social development of the less privileged communities in the Peruvian Amazon (Puerto Inca, Huanuco, Peru). Approximately 90% of the population in Puerto Inca lives without access to basic needs such as, running water, sewage and paved roads. However, Puerto Inca, has the potential to be an ecotouristic province. We believe that creating an infrastructure for sustainable ecotourism can help to develop these communities. For this reason, we started this project in June 2018, putting a lot of our hearts and energy into it.
What we do? – Mission & Vision
We focus on education, environment, ecotourism and cultural exchange. We believe that working together with these communities in developing different skills for its people and creating new job opportunities, not only will help to reduce poverty but to reduce activities that are damaging the environment such as, logging and gold mining with strong contaminating chemicals. We want to give opportunities to the community to change and care for their environment like having other ways to earn money instead of destroying the Amazon rainforest.
Protecting the Amazon should be a global commitment because of its incalculable biological and ecological value.
Where we work?
We are situated in Puerto Inca, Huanuco, Peru. Puerto Inca is the largest of eleven provinces of the Huánuco Region. It is a Province as well as a district. It is located in the central Amazon of Peru at an altitude of 330 meters above sea level. It is one of the most biodiverse places in the world. This province is also home of different indigenous communities such as, the ethnicities Ashaninka, Yanesha and Shipibo-Cacataibo. An Austrian-German Community can also be found in Puerto Inca.
Puerto Inca is a very peaceful place. Visitors can walk around the village at any time without any problem.
Goals:
One of our mid-term goals is to make a difference in the lives of disadvantaged children by creating a safe environment for healthy physical, social, and emotional development. We want to encourage a passion and respect for the natural world to help transition eager young minds into caring, socially-conscious global citizens. Through a connection with nature, we can nurture a better understanding of the environment whilst improving their interpersonal skills with one another and other adults.
Who are we looking for?
We are looking for motivated people who are not only eager to teach others but who are willing together with the students to look at different perspectives, finding solutions, trying new things and developing ideas in a team. Especially for “our Kids Explorer” and “Teaching English” programs we would like volunteers to independently run short workshops. Therefore we are looking for volunteers who have an interest in different topics such as arts and crafts, music and drama, environment protection, DIY and repair workshops, animals, plants or taking photos and making videos and enthusiastically pass on their personal passion. All volunteers are role models for their home culture, their behavior and their way of problem solutions. We would like volunteers to keep this in mind and also to not judge other ways of thinking and acting, instead using open and critical discussions.