Otra Cosa Network is a registered Peruvian non-profit NGO and Registered UK Charity (Registration number: 1133680) that offers a wide variety of affordable and satisfying volunteering opportunities to well-motivated volunteers from around the world, in order that they can support the needs of our community-run partner projects. We are based in Huanchaco, Trujillo on the coast of Northern Peru. Many of our projects are local to us, but we now also offer projects in various locations around Northern Peru.
What we do is carefully select well motivated volunteers with the right skills and experience for appropriate projects and offer them support from arrival to departure. We do expect self-reliant volunteers to be capable of taking initiatives and managing their time themselves.
We are dedicated to providing interesting, stimulating and rewarding placements to our volunteers, each of whom contribute something new to our many projects. Our, ultimate objective, however, is to support our wide range of projects with suitable volunteers to help them improve the quality of people's lives in their local area. We work with a number of partners included in our Projects page.
Otra Cosa Network doesn't believe in charging excessive amounts to enthusiastic people just wanting to help out by volunteering at worthwhile projects in Peru. We do however have to charge a minimum donation to cover the expenses that make our work possible (see current minimum donation in the All About Money section). You can also see Where the Money Goes?
We try to keep our web-site up to date. However, even if we did a perfect job of this, which we certainly don't, then by the time you arrive and start working, the day to day reality of life in Peru would have changed anyway. So, don't expect western style certainties here (or stay at home and volunteer there instead!) However, if you can work through the uncertainties and be flexible then you can contribute a lot to some very worthwhile projects and have a great time here with other volunteers and/or locals as well.
See our sections below on How we work/What we Offer , visit our Volunteering section to learn about Volunteering with us and Our Project section to learn about the wide variety of different projects we offer working with our 20+ local community led projects.
When you're ready you can Apply Now and send us an aplication form with your prefered projects/dates etc. And, if there are any points that are especially important to you or you can’t find answers to on our web-site, do check them out with us when you apply, or even before.
We look forward to hearing from you and hopefully seeing you in sunny Huanchaco!
