WHY CHOOSE THIS TRIP 

Making A Difference In Peru
The Problem
The Solution
Past Achievements 
Location

Making A Difference In Peru
All Quest development projects have been carefully selected to provide the maximum positive impact on the communities where we work. Long-term partnerships with grassroots organisations, built to create short, medium and long term goals for each project guarantees that every team makes a lasting difference.  

South America is well known for its classic models of rural migration. Millions of people over the years have gravitated to the cities in search of a better life or because they had become marginalized in their traditional areas of work and life. Peru is no exception; with a population of 25 million plus, over 8 million live in the capital Lima.

This influx is not easy for city authorities to control and the government is forced to grant property rights to all who set up in the desert outskirts of the city. Villa Maria was a district settled by migrants in the 1970s and is a mere half an hour from the centre of the city. Today Villa Maria has a population of over 700,000 people making it one of the largest shanty towns in the world.

Villa Maria is Quest’s longest running project established in 1998. During the school holidays the project offers children from some of the poorest neighbourhoods a much-needed programme of cultural and recreational activities. During term time it offers educational support to build bonds within communities whilst helping to prevent them from becoming victims of poverty and drug abuse.

The Problem
Life is hard in Villa Maria and people scrape a living by any means possible - be it endless hours of working in a factory for a pittance, driving taxis or selling stolen goods. This creates a social problem in the fact that children and young people are neglected and are often left to look after themselves. This leads to temptations of alcohol, substance abuse and violence. What they require is some attention and focus for their free time to guide them away from such dangers.

The Villa Maria project was instigated by a Peruvian anti-drugs Non Governmental Organisation called CEDRO (Centro de información y educación para la prevención del abuso de drogas), and was set up by Alejandro Menendez, who was CEDRO’s main contact for the Villa Maria district, in the early 1990s. Alejandro began his work with teenagers who had already become victims of drug abuse. The project was working to rehabilitate the teenagers and provide them with grants to study a trade. Although funding was focused towards teenagers in trouble, Alejandro began dedicating part of his time working with younger children on more of a preventative programme.

Alejandro saw the need for projects that worked with children before they became involved in drugs, or ended up on the streets, a project that could provide alternative activities for young, bored children. Unfortunately CEDRO simply did not have the funding to target this population. This is where Quest came in. A simple project was devised, to offer young children (5-12 years old) within various communities of Villa Maria, a basic programme of summer activities. Typically such activities cover sports, arts & crafts and, most popular of all, swimming. From the offset Quest recognised that fulfilling such a mandate would require both volunteers and funds, and so each volunteer makes a significant financial contribution to the Project (£680). It is this combination of volunteers and funds that has allowed what was a good idea to grow into a long term and sustainable and very worthwhile project.

The Solution
Villa Maria is the perfect home for Quest volunteers. The Peruvian summer holiday runs from December to April and this is the period when the children have the most amount of free time. Volunteers organise the children’s time into a wide range of activities from football and swimming to art and crafts, water fights and theatre. It’s exhausting work, but is well worth it when you see their beaming smiles.

The focus of the work will always be the children, but there will be times when you will be needed to redecorate the complex, repair playgrounds, equip and decorate stages or floats.

As well as your donating your time you will also bring a financial commitment to Villa Maria. The donation made by each of our volunteers, helps to fund short term resources (to buy flour for play-doh, potatoes for printing, paints for faces, sponges for throwing, footballs, hula hoops, skipping ropes - and anything else you can think of) as well as the funds for the year-round projects that make your and Quest’s involvement in Villa Maria a genuine long term commitment. Whilst in Villa Maria, you will be involved in much of the short term spending, and Alejandro, can give you a better idea of how him and his team use the funds for the rest of the year.

Past Achievements 
Summer Activities Programme
Quest has established a timetable over the summer holidays to invite various communities to send their children to take part in games, sports and swimming pool visits.

Dance Groups
Quest has been supporting a children’s dance group called Arcoiris del Amor made up of and run by children from Villa Maria. In return for costumes, sound systems and other props for performances, the group has agreed to put on a weekly show for the whole of Villa Maria every Sunday, known as Domingos Familiares. When your team are there you also take part in the shows.

Parades, Fetes and Fashion Shows
Teams of volunteers and Peruvian staff have put on dozens of events for the communities helping bring together different families from the surrounding communtities and offer a welcome days entertainment.

Construction Projects
Each year team is involved in a small scale infrastructure project. Past projects have included Villa Maria’s only cinema, a completely refurbished and secure playground and assault course in the complex, repainting, re-roofing and repaving parts of the complex, and repainting a number of kindergarten communities

Pre-school Quest Overseas
In March 2003, Quest Overseas opened a pre-school in one of the communities in Villa Maria for parents who cannot afford to send their children to regular pre-schools. Whilst the education system in Peru is meant to provide free government funded pre-school for all children, it is nowhere near big enough to accommodate all of them. As a result, there are many private pre-schools which, although not over-expensive, are beyond the reach of most in Villa Maria. We are proud to announce that in 2007 we bought the school for the community and now hope to offer schlorships to some of the most needy children.

Year Round Clubs
Football and volleyball clubs, dance classes, musical instrument classes, a break dance club and many others.

Constructing Homes
In 2007 Quest launched our Peru Community & Construction Project, this is an incredibly worthwhile project building homes for some of the shanty-towns poorest families. 

Location
You will live in the heart of Villa Maria, shopping in the local markets and experiencing the realities of life in a shanty town.