First Impressions

I arrived in Lima after a particularly long in-flight movie marathon on Monday and was greeted by CUSO-VSO in the airport. However, that did not end the whirlwind that I've been experiencing over the last few months! I was pulled directly into training where I spent the last four days learning about Lima and how the topics of Gender, HIV/AIDs, Child protection, Discrimination and Security apply in the Peruvian context. It was pretty awesome! We had guest speakers from other NGO's come in to talk to us and I got to learn a little bit about what's happening in the NGO community here.

One presenter told us about the Sierra Productivo which is an organisation that uses traditional methods of capacity building to improve farming techniques. The person who passes on technical information is called the Yachachiq. Farmers visit the Yachachiq to learn more about farming techniques in general and then they start implementing some of these ideas. Once they've had a chance to try out some of these ideas the Yachachiq visits their farm and helps them to fine-tune the process. What an awesome way to draw on local expertise and knowledge to produce sustainable results!

One theme that has come up over and over again the past few days from the Peruvian presenters is capacity building. The presenters were all really engaged with the idea of improving access to education opportunities and information for their specific topics. Perhaps the emphasis is due to the connection with CUSO-VSO values which are all about providing learning opportunities both for the volunteer and the organisation. However, I find this exciting because it means that there are local professionals who are engaged in the development process that I perhaps I can contact to solicit advise and expertise.

Seeing as I have spent my first days in the CUSO-VSO office I will save my first impressions of the city and culture for further posts! But let me just say that the food here is amazing and will need one or two entries of its own. Yum!

Check out the Sierra Productivo website (in Spanish) http://www.sierraproductiva.org/ or read the BBC profile on them (in English) http://www.theworldchallenge.co.uk/2010-finalists-project03.php