"If anybody is looking for a place to volunteer in South America, look no further than Proyecto!" - Kathryn, United States

My final day of volunteering has come to a close and I leave for the United States tomorrow night. But before I finish this journey, I wanted to write one more post about the amazing organization that I have been volunteering for. 

That organization is Proyecto Horizonte located in Ushpa-Ushpa. They focus on healthcare, education, and local development.  I have been working with the education aspect by teaching English classes at a local school to students between the ages of 11 and 17. What amazes me about Proyecto is their dedication to improving the lives of the people in the community.  They want everyone to be educated and not just on science and math but also on living a healthy lifestyle. I have enjoyed getting to know everyone that works in the physiological department, the youth club, and the educational department. 

Another aspect of Proyecto is the volunteers that work there. During my time here there have been volunteers from the United States, Cananda, Germany, England and Bolivia. Volunteers travel from all over the world to work with this organization. Some stay as long as a year, while others volunteer for the summer. Each person has a different story but also comes from a different culture. During one conversation I am likely to hear English, Spanish, and German. One of the things that I will also remember about Proyecto is the chance to meet people from all over the world. 

I loved Proyecto ever since reading about them online before I came and when I was talking to the volunteer coordinator.  Although my first two weeks in Bolivia were an adjustment, the people at Proyecto supported me every step of the way.  Because of this organization, I have been able to learn about and appreciate the culture of Bolivia. If anybody is looking for a place to volunteer in South America,  look no further than Proyecto. Just do me a favor and know more about Bolivia and the city of Cochabamba than I did to try and prevent culture shock. 
The link to their website is below if anybody is looking for more information about this amazing organization. The website has information about volunteering, donating, or buying products from the local women's group. Feel free to email me or let me know if you have any questions as well!
http://www.ushpa-ushpa.com/

- Kathryn, United States

A British volunteer , Michaela, looks back at her 3 months of living in Bolivia and working at Proyecto Horizonte

After being recommended Proyecto Horizonte by a family friend who volunteered for the organisation a couple of years ago and loved it, I decided that I was going to complete the next four months of my year abroad volunteering for the project. I started off staying in a homestay with a wonderful host mum, however I had planned to stay in a flat with other volunteers but unfortunately the flats owned by the project were not ready to move into straight away. Luckily there was a girl from Alaska staying in the same house who was also in the same situation so we decided to go searching in the city for a flat to rent out together. After just two days of looking we moved in, it was really easy to find somewhere.

Having traveled for almost 30 hours from London to Cochabamba at the beginning of March 2015, I headed straight into the project the next day.  On my first day I was shown around the whole place and was amazed to see for myself all the different ways in which they help the community, having read about it online.  I started working in the medical center for my first month and now work with the children aged 3-4 at the nursery in Inicial 2.  All of the children are so sweet and I love being greeted in the morning by the kids coming up and hugging me saying, ‘Hola profe Mica’ it really is the sweetest and the best way to start the day.

It is not all work and no play, I have been fortunate enough to visit the beach city of Iquique in Chile for five days, the beautiful city Sucre (another city in Bolivia) and Villa Tunari, which I can best describe as a tropical jungle.  I am also planning to take a trip to the Salt Flats (Salar de Uyuni) and hopefully La Paz and many other places.  I have now finished my third month here and cannot believe just how quickly the time has gone, with just one month left I know how quickly it will fly by and I am not ready to leave.  I have really enjoyed my time here, everyone who works at Proyecto Horizonte are so lovely and welcoming, I definitely want to come back. Cochabamba is one of my favourite places I have visited, there is so much culture and diversity here that I will never get bored of this amazing city. 

- Michaela, UK

Experience with Proyecto Horizonte

I arrived in Cochabamba in the end of September. During the first weeks I tried to find my place in
Proyecto Horizonte and practice my Spanish. I worked at the kindergarten with two-years olds children. In
the kindergarten the days went through in the same way one after the other. We played with kids and took
care of them. We also taught children the numbers, colours and names of animals, vegetables and fruits. It
was fun because I was also learning Spanish with the kids.
After couple of weeks I started to work in the youth centre, too. It was great because I really like to work
with little bit older children. In the mornings I took part in different groups with children 7 to 12 years old. We practiced circus, arts and dance. We also just played with children or red to them. It was also so much
easier to practice my Spanish with them, because they spoke a lot. In the afternoons we worked with some other voluntaries with the youths. We had a group of aerobic and dance for the youths and a special group of the girls. I also organized a group of culture for children and youth. The idea of this group was to share experiences from other cultures with children and youth together with other voluntaries. So we got to know different cultures through plays, music, arts, and videos.
In the Proyecto we also made several events and trips. One night I helped to organized “La noche de
talentos”, “The evening of talents” event. There were a lot of kids and youth who performed skills they have learned in the Proyecto. There were singing, dancing, theatre, circus, playing drums and guitar and lot of other things. With little children we had a trip to close river, where we ate and played with them. When
holiday started we also had a lot of celebrations in the kindergarten and in the youth centre.  We had some
kind of “school ending party” in kindergarten where the oldest class got their diplomas and other class had dance performers. In the youth centre we had performers of circus and last days we ate cake and fruit saladwith children and youth.
All in all, I have done lot of different things in Proyecto and it has been fun. There were also many other
voluntaries which make the whole thing much easier.  We had a great time with planning and instructing
the activities for the children and youth. We also spent a lot of time together in the free time, so it made
this experience even better.