User:Sean.leiper/Otra Cosa Network

Otra Cosa Network
Founded	September 2004
Type	Non-governmental organization
Focus	Charity, Volunteering
Location	Huanchaco, Peru, South America;
Area served	Peru
Members	300
Key people	Peter Murphy, Juany Murphy, Jenny Kehoe, Amy Christensen, Beata Gullberg
Website	www.otracosa.org

The Otra Cosa Network is a low cost volunteering, non-governmental organization, that provides support linking volunteers from other areas around the world with various charity projects mainly in Northern Peru, South America.

The head office is located in Huanchaco, Peru, with several project being undertaken in the local community. The other areas of Peru where projects are conducted are; Trujillo, Iquitos, Siches, Yanasara, Leymebamba and Nazca.

This area of Latin America is becoming a tourist hot spot due to the stable climate and the abundance of surfable beaches. The growing tourism in this region is providing an improved economy for the local population in this area, giving them a greater opportunity to start their own businesses.

History

Otra Cosa was started in September 2004 by the Dutch couple Peter den Hond and Janneke Smeulders. It started out as a restaurant, tourist agency or massage practice with the goal of initiating research projects, voluntary work and spontaneous events for the community.

The primary goal was offering (Peruvian and foreign) visitors original tourist services while being conscious of our function for and influence on the surrounding environment and village inhabitants.

In 2007 Peter and Janneke moved back to Holland. The restaurant part of the organisation was handed over to new Dutch and Spanish owners and the volunteer part of the organisation was taken over by Peter and Juany Murphy, English and Peruvian. Otra Cosa remained the name of the restaurant and the volunteer organisation became the Otra Cosa Network, working purely on projects and all areas related to the volunteers.

At the end of 2009, Peter and Juany Murphy returned to England and the day-to-day running of the organisation in Peru was handed over to Najin Kim, South Korean, and Miguel Fernandez, Peruvian.

Projects

Teaching English

Library Project

Huanchaco is one of the few small towns in Peru with a municipal library, due to the effort of an American volunteer. The library allows for a venue where volunteers teach children, from the poorer state schools in Huanchaco, basic English to help further their development with the language at a latter age.

Volunteer Language School

The language school offers free classes to the poorer children and adults in Trujillo. These lessons provide an opportunity for those that would not be able to pay the costly price of lessons in normal language centres. Learning English is a highly valued skill required more and more by the tourism industry in Peru and without the option of free lessons the already disadvantaged leaves them even further behind the rest of society.

CANATURA Environmental Education Project

CANATURA translates in English as "Friends of the Environment Club" and is a Peruvian non-profit organisation specialising in environmental education and awareness. It was established in the city of Iquitos, in the Amazon Rainforest in North Eastern Peru, in March 2006. The Otra Cosa Network provided volunteers to teach English to guides to help improve there tourism capabilities.

Mountain Village - Yanasara

Yanasara is a small village community located around various hot springs. Being a small community in the mountains it is generally difficult to find, or afford, teachers in this area so the Otra Cosa Network places volunteers in the schools to help with English lessons, as well as helping teach other subjects. They also teach English to the locals involved with tourism to help them communicate better with passing travellers.

Mountain Village - Leymebamba

Leymebamba is a small mountain village, in Northern Peru, based in a cloud forest. The forest provides opportunities for eco-tourism and the Otra Cosa Network helped establish a volunteer language school and teaches guides and children, from state school and a local children's home.

Working with Children

LitClub

This project is linked with LitWorld, an international organisation which promotes literacy skills and builds self-confidence in young girls from more disadvantaged backgrounds. Volunteers work with a local teacher to encourage creativity and freedom of expression using LitWorld's curriculum, whilst at the same time contributing with their own ideas. LitClub in Cerrito de la Virgen is LitWorld's first Peruvian project and so far has been a fantastic success.

Mundo de Niños

Mundo de Niños is a home for ex-street kids, where the children come from disadvantaged situations that lead them to working at very young ages as well as venturing into drug and alcohol abuse. These children are brought into a loving, secure home lifestyle where they can develop as children natural should.

C.E.P. Shanty Town School

The "Corporation de Education Popular" is a school located in a shanty town, Ramon Castilla (near Huanchaco) and was born out of necessity by the community that wished a better education and lifestyle for their children than what they got when they were young. C.E.P. aims at giving an integrated humanistic, ecological and free education for the children from kindergarden level until they go to the university.

A.C.J. Educational Day Centre

A.C.J. is a Peruvian version of the YMCA and this centre is located in a shanty town just North of Trujillo. The shanty town is called "El Miragro" (The Miracle) and the poorest area in this town is located on and around a big garbage dump. The local children work in the dump collecting things that they can sell, often during the day when they should be at school. A.C.J. tries to firstly stimulate these children to go to school and secondly to keep them on learning and developing themselves to give them some hope of a better future. This includes practical help with homework and providing fun learning activities, sports etc.

Santo Toribio - School for Children with Special Needs

Children who are mentally or physically disadvantaged are frequently left at home, rendered a lost cause educationally or a source of shame upon the family. Schools fail those who are offered an education through a lack of support and resources, and many drop out or don’t make it through

Santo Toribio is an educational institute created in 1986 by the Misión de Padres Irlandeses. Now supported by the Archbishop of Trujillo, Santo Toribio is a special needs school for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, based in a poor area of Trujillo. Adopting a unique approach to the children’s education, it offers them the chance to learn valuable practical skills through hands-on workshops in baking, shoe and jewellery-making and woodcraft, as well as basic numerical skills and reading and writing.

Tulio Herrera Leon - School for the Blind and Disabled

Tulio Herrera Leon is a school for the blind and disabled. It is the only school in the department of La Libertad to cater to blind and visually impaired students. The school offers primary school education, assistance with Secondary and University school work for those students that have moved on to higher levels.

FairMail

FairMail is a fair trade postcard company set up by Janneke Smeulders and Peter den Hond, the original founders of Otra Cosa Volunteer Agency and has grown rapidly since it was a prize winner at the Dutch Business in Development Challenge in 2006.

FairMail works with teenagers who were once living on the street exploited as child labour working on a rubbish tip. Fairmail’s initiative is to take them out of these damaging situations and give them a chance at a safer, happier future. They are given photography lessons and their photographs are used as postcards that are sold through Europe and Peru.

Alternative Socially Responsible Projects

HELP Women - Women's Empowerment Project

In July 2012 OCN initiated a new program that sets out to empower women in a shanty town called Cerrito de la Virgen, as well as in other low income communities in and around Huanchaco. Cerrito is located in the hills on the outskirts of Huanchaco town, in an area not visible from Huanchaco itself. Most of its inhabitants come from the ENSO phenomenon (El Niño Southern Oscillation), a natural climatic occurrence that caused excessive rainfalls in 1997-1998 and resulted in US$ 3.5 billion economic losses in Peru. The Peruvian government didn't have the capacity to cope with the resulting housing crisis that left millions of Peruvian families homeless. In La Libertad region, authorities located some of the ENSO victims on the very arid land of Cerrito de la Virgen. These people had no choice and were made no promises by the government, there was not even any electricity or water available for the new inhabitants.

The HELP Women program tries to aid women in a variety of aspects of their lives, which includes offering different skills classes. This gives them the opportunity to sell their products, receive an income and put food on the table. OCN also offers classes in basic business and marketing, as well as workshops and training to support their educational, personal and professional development. The women in Peru are often unaware of their rights, live with domestic violence and many girls get pregnant at a very young age. This means that sexual education, family planning and support for their basic rights is also needed.

Un Lugar Surf School

"Un Lugar - Academia de Tabla y bodyboard" is a local surf acadamy set up by local ex-surf champion Juan-Carlo. Apart from being a commercial surfing school Juan-Carlo also offers free surfing and skateboarding lessons and materials to local youth who can't afford these things. He also gives them the chance to particpate in local and national competitions, giving them the perspective of being sport champions in the future.

The Skate Ramp

The children living in Cerrito did not have access to a particularly stimulating environment, or much to amuse themselves with and as a result tended towards misbehaving and acting up. However, volunteers saw a lot of potential and realised that with a little attention and some activities, these children could really flourish. With some land donated from the local surf school, the volunteers mobilised and built the skate ramp to offer a fun and stimulating environment for the children to play in.

Abandoned Dogs' Home

In Huanchaco and Trujillo many animals get abandoned and are left on the streets to survive or die. A small group of people are trying to do something to help them with a small Animal Refuge Centre, founded in November 2003, caring for sick and abandoned dogs. Unfortunately, the local council is planning to shut down the centre. Currently they care for about 60 dogs.

Sustainable Tourism Agency

Located in Chachapoyas, a growing tourism destination in Northern Peru, they are starting its first and only sustainable tourism agency named ‘NUEVOS CAMINOS’. This is a start-up project with a clear alternative philosophy of promoting environmentally sound tourism, for example as well as minimizing any environmental damage while tourists are here in Peru they are exploring incorporating 'carbon offset' projects for tourists to support the offset of CO2 produced by their travels.

Sicches Organic Farm

Located in Sicches, a cloud forest in the Northern Part of Peru, is a group of family farmers who cultivate organic coffee and sugar.

The farmers who cultivate the organic coffee and sugar are organized in an asociation called CEPICAFE. They work together on each others fields.

Nazca Lines Projects

The Nazca Lines are located in the desert just outside of the town of Nazca, in Southern Peru. A German researcher, Maria Reiche, studied the lines up until her death. The Maria Reiche Centre was initially created by her and her assistant, Viktoria Nikitzki. After her death, Viktoria decided to continue working in the centre and protecting all what her master has done

In Maria Reiche centre in Nazca you can get information about her life and work. There are lectures about the lines with a scale model, current research and the different theories of the lines. There you can get literature, photographs and maps.