Volunteering at San Nicolas Urraca - Elise

Hi, I am Elise from the Netherlands, and in January and February 2010 I volunteered for 4 weeks at the San Nicolas Urraca project in Cusco. This was a great experience for me! I really didn’t know what to expect, since I had heard lots of different stories about projects and the way the people there respond to foreign volunteers… Lucky for me, from the first day on I felt so much happiness and gratefulness from Luísa and the children towards me, being there and helping them! However, for me it was intelligible to volunteer, being a rich girl from Europe with enough money to go on a holiday to the other side of the world, where most of the people don’t even have the means to go on a weekend trip or something!

Luísa, the directress, is a person with a big heart, who cares about all of the children of the project as if they were her own. The children too gave me a hug or a kiss every day I went there, which really felt great for me, like being a part of the ‘family’. And although they don’t have a lot to wear, to eat or to play with, I never saw any sad face in those 4 weeks.

I loved to play with the children: to puzzle or make rompecabezas, to play volleyball outside, to make calendars with all their birthdays on it or to paint their faces (see pictures). We cooked for them almost every Wednesday and also went to a playground once and helped them shower. They really liked it and I loved it when all the children shouted ‘GRACIAS!’, all at the same time and really loud! That and their happy faces is enough for me!

At my weblog I asked my friends and family for some small donations to help buying stuff for the project, but I got a lot more than I expected! Because I was there at the time of the big floods and heavy rainfall, I spent a part of the money to let the roof get fixed and to buy new tiles (see pictures). I hope it all works again, because I think that a stable and strong building is one of the most important things for the project!

I would like to share some more pictures with all of you and hope to come back there once.

Gracias Luísa!

Resumen en Español:

Hola, soy Elise de los Países Bajos, y durante 4 semanas en enero y febrero de 2010, estuve voluntario en el proyecto San Nicolas Urraca en Cuzco. Era una experiencia grande para mi! Me gustó la alegría y la gratitud de Luísa y los niños, aunque sentí como si fuera inteligible para ayudarlos. Luísa, la directora, tiene una corazón grande para el proyecto y para los niños. No ví ninguna cara triste de los niños tampoco en todas las 4 semanas, a pesar de su mala situación de vida!

Me gustó jugar con los chicos: rompecabezas, volley, hacer calendarios con la fecha de nacimiento de todos, ir al parque de juegos, pintar sus caras… También cocinamos unas veces. Con una parte de las donaciones de mi familia y de mis amigos arreglé tejas y dos hombres para reparar el techo, porque creo que es muy importante para el edificio del proyecto estar en una condición buena y estable. Estuve en Cuzco en el periodo de las inundaciones y lluvia fuerte, entonces el techo tenía prioridad.

Luísa, gracias por todo y mucha suerte con el proyecto! Espero que vaya a visitar Cuzco y San Nicolas Urraca otra vez en el futuro! Añadí unas fotos.

Saludos, Elise

Raising money for San Nicolas

I volunteered at San Nicolas in 2008 and when I saw the recent devastation wanted to help raise some money for the centre. In the UK a quick way to raise money is by doing a 'car boot sale' where you sell unwanted items from the 'boot' of your car. In November my friends and I did this in Edinburgh, Scotland. Friends donated unwanted items and also helped me on the 2 'sale' days. We were happy to able to send San Nicolas $470 and I am posting this blog so that the people who bought from us can see that Luisa has now received the money and can watch the progress of the renovations.

I promised in 2008 that the children at San Nicolas would always be in my heart and they always will be. The kindness, hard work and love evident at San Nicolas is inspiring to us all!

- Gill from Scotland

Participate in San Nicolas Urraca new projet from home!

With a lot of motivation, the moms from San Nicolas have started a new project "San Nicolas Urraca Tejidos" in order to gather some money and to rebuild the local! You can help them out even from home!!


Indeed, Luisa, Ana and all the others are knitting scarves and chalinas made out of 100% Alpaca (see the pictures)! If you are interested in buying one or several for yourself or for a gift (Christmas is just around the corner!) or if you have any contacts that could commercialize them outside of Cusco or even Peru, do not hesitate to get in contact with Luisa (sannico44@hotmail.com) or with the blog crew for English speakers (sannicolasurraca@gmail.com).

If you wish, you can even make a special request (in terms of colors, model etc...) and Luisa will try to accomodate it as best as she can!

Many thanks in advance from Luisa, the kids and everyone involved to support this project and the association!

San Nicolas' new challenge

As mentionned by Susann in the previous post, San Nicolas is facing a new unexpected challenge as part of the local has unfortunately collapsed due to near-by construction... As a result, Luisa and the kids are left without a the storage room and the bathrooms that had been constructed thanks to a fundraising organized by volunteers back home. The back, the only place where kids could play outside, with games bought by past volunteers have also been partly destroyed and are unaccessible since it is too dangerous.

Even in such a hard time, San Nicolas doesn't give up and is ready to overcome this new challenge. Luisa, Ana and the mothers of the kids have thus decided to start a new project in order to find funds for reconstruction! Since August, they are knitting scarves that they are selling in order to collect some money for future works.

Here are some pictures of the situation, and if you want to help out, read the article "Participate in San Nicolas Urraca new projet from home!".

Times changed

I came back from Cusco the last weeks ago and I had a really great experience at San Nicolas Urraca. But I'm really sad to tell, that something terrible had happen. The new bathrooms that you can see working on the other volunteers chrashed down. There was a building site behind the project and one night the ground slided down including the bathrooms, the half of the teaching room and 3 other houses from the neibourhood. The building company left, left the chaos and the costs for the other people.




Luisa and the other women feel really sorry and miserable about the situation and it's hard because they can't show her sadness to the children. They are really strong and the project has to go on. So we need help, because they don't have the money to rebuild everything.




The women are weaving a special kind of scarfs and when I saw it I had an idea and I helped them to find a person with a shop who can pay the wool, buy the scarfs and sell it in there own shop. I hope this business is running soon and they have a little but stabil source of income soon.

The children are still as adorable and awesome as they are descriped in the other posts, but they still need help and at the moment there are not a lot of volunteers. I'm looking forward to come back one day. - Susann from Germany

A life changing experience

I have just come back from Volunteering at San Nicolas during September 2008 and can definitely say that it has been a life changing experience.

Since it was the first time I had ever volunteered I didn't know what to expect and wondered if the children would be a little hesitant at first with new volunteers. How wrong I was....and what a wonderful experience my first day was (and ever subsequent day!) Every single child came up to hug, kiss and greet us when we arrived and every single child did the same when we left. Then some of them simply took me by the hand and led me to choose a puzzle with them... and from then on it was like being one of the family.

With every new activity that was planned they were enthusiastic and grateful -we made masks, finger puppets and also tried our hand at cooking. My lifelong memories will be of how loving and patient the children are towards each other and to the volunteers. I will also always remember also how they painstakingly pack away every puzzle or game that they use and take it back to it's correct place in the cupboard.

How lucky I have been to spend time with them, Luisa and all the volunteers!

When I left they told me I would always be in their hearts -they will all definitely always be in mine!

See-Saw - Suba-Baja

Finally I can now post the pictures I took of the new see-saw that Manon, Avalon and I gave to the children. Unfortunately, Manon and Avalon didn't get to see the finished product so hopefully they will be pleased. I'm now back in Scotland and I'm missing the kids so much!

¡Por fin, puedo cargar las fotos que saqué de la nuevo suba-baja que Manon, Avalon y yo compramos para los niños!. Desfortunatamente, Manon y Avalon se fueron antes de ver la suba-baja completa entonces con suerte la se gustarán. ¡Ya he vuelto a Escocia y echo de menos los niños muchisimo!