Otra Cosa Network

Otra Cosa Network (OCN) is a registered Peruvian non-profit NGO and registered UK Charity (Registration number: 1133680) that offers a wide variety of affordable and sustainable volunteering opportunities to international volunteers. We are based in Huanchaco on the coast of Northern Peru. We carefully select volunteers with the right skills and experience for field based community development projects and provides support for their voluntary experience. Our projects aim to address basic community requirements & intersect with many of the Sustainable Development Goals. We run our own projects based in local schools & community centres serving populations living in low income areas and informal settlements around Huanchaco. As well as school based projects teaching English and environmental awareness, we offer structured after-school activities in a small community centre and skate park in Cerrito de la Virgen. We also run a project helping with literacy, literature appreciation and gender empowerment, facilitated by the US NGO Global GLOW and HerStory and we are re-initiating our Women's project with a range of new workshops providing livelihood skills and entrepreneurial support for local low-income women, as well as emotional and legal support for situations of domestic violence. Additionally we send volunteers with specific skills to support our partner projects in the community, at the local medical clinics, pre-schools, special needs school, children's home and animal rescue facilities. Otra Cosa Network's main objective is to sustain its wide-ranging projects with the aim of improving the quality of people's lives within and beyond the local area, empowering them through education and self-sustaining projects.