Top 5 volunteer qualities that will help make a difference to the Flora Tristan community

Being a volunteer can be one of the most rewarding experiences a person can have, but it also of course benefits local beneficiaries. Below are five volunteer qualities that that will help make a difference to the Flora Tristan community:

1. Great Motivation

If you are traveling abroad because of your strong desire to help and volunteer, then you will already have a great motivation for work. Your ethics and believes as a volunteer will probably be way stronger than of those who work a normal 9 to 5 job. And we all know that if the teacher is motivated, classes are more fun. HOOP volunteers are tutors, mentors, teachers, guides, coaches and supporters all at the same time, and the children will greatly benefit from a motivated teacher.

2. International Experience

Since most volunteers come from all over the globe to work as a teacher with HOOP, students can benefit a lot from these well-traveled and open-minded personalities. They learn to be more tolerant and broader-minded.

3. Enormous impact on the health and stabilisation of communities

Since the families living in Flora Tristan do not have very good access to health care and public education, it can be quite difficult for them to find out how to improve their own health and education without the help of authorities. HOOP volunteers therefore not just teach the students English, they also teach oral hygiene, nutrition and general higiene, in order to create a more healthy lifestyle for the community.

4. HOOP`s three values

Everyone beeing involved with HOOP is sharing the same values: 

Accountability: We are accountable to our beneficiaries, donors, partners and staff.
Integrity: We act consistently with HOOP`s mission, being honest and transparent in what we do and say, and accept responsibility for our collective and individual actions.
Commitment: We work together effectively to serve and empower the larger community with dignity and respect.

5. Critical minds

Most of the HOOP volunteers have already traveled a lot and are interested in foreign languages, cultures and politics. Consequently they are critically thinkers. So many different creative minds can bring a lot of imput to our organisation, along with great, sustainable ideas for HOOP as well.


HOOP wouldn`t be where it is today without the help of all those volunteers that kindly donate their time to us each year and us and the community in Flora Tristan is very grateful for that.

Written and photographed by Charlette Voss

Get your Exclusive HOOP T-Shirt

Would you like get involved with HOOP, but you are not able to volunteer directly in Perú right now? No, problem, because unil the 3rd of November 2014 you have the opportunity of getting an exclusive T-Shirt from HOOP. If you buy a shirt you can create an enormous impact for HOOP students and at the same time you can also help us spread the word about HOOP.

We are selling the T-Shirts in partnership with Teespring. The talented German artist René Siepman kindly designed a T-Shirt for HOOP that will be on sale until Monday the 3rd of November. He designed the guinea pig with a hula hoop as a tribute to HOOP and to Peru.

The shirts are available for men and women and we also have tank tops (international shipping is available!). They sell for $20 and all proceeds of the sale will help raise money to employ a psychologist to work with our community in Flora Tristan.

Please help us reach our target of 50 shirts!

Just click on the link below to choose your style, color and size, and you will receive your shirts 14 days after the campaign ends on November 3rd: teespring.com/hoopperu 

We need to sell 50 shirts by November 3rd for this campaign to happen. If we do not reach our goal, your credit card will not be charged, but sadly the shirts will not be printed either. So please spread the word about this sale by sharing via social media, word of mouth or email. 

So, if you haven`t got any Christmas presents yet, then why not buy this cute shirt for your friends and family?

Written by Tamara Lowe

Teaching kids how to think, instead of what to think

Teachers usually go to their classroom very well prepared, knowing that they have to get the students through standardized tests, and prepare them for the standardized systems of either universities or the working world. This often tends to include teaching the children what to think instead of encouraging them to think for themselves though. But in a world where not everything is always perfect, wouldn`t it be more beneficial for students to become more self aware and stimulate them to think for themselves and also challenge opinions?

Encouraging students to solve problems by themselves and not just say there is only one correct answer is very important in order to improve their creative and critical thinking. A lot of children just have to memorize facts, but then they don`t know how to apply their knowledge in real life. Teachers could assist their students to do exactly that though.

For HOOP teachers it is very important to not crush the genius within the child, but to tickle it out of them, because intelligence is not always about the ability to remember and repeat, but also about the ability to apply one`s knowledge on an every day basis. Most of us are wrong at times, including teachers, so sometimes it is important not take the word of authorities all the time, and challenge them when necessary as well.

Sometimes it may also be worth for teachers to listen to their students too, because a lot of the times when you listen to someone else`s perspective or experience, you learn something new as well, even it is is from a child.


Written by Charlette Voss

Classroom Chronicles: Our Teachers` Funniest Moments at HOOP

As a continuation of our monthly communications theme teaching, we would like to share with you the most fun experiences some of our current volunteers had as teachers so far.

Volunteering in an organization with a purpose can be a very rewarding task and leaves an impression of a lifetime. To get a great insight about the fun and joy a volunteer can experience in a non-governemental organization such as HOOP, we asked our volunteers about their most fun moments in the classroom or on the playground.

A big advantage for HOOP students is to have teachers from all over the world and learn about various nationalities. The HOOP students are therefore confronted with a lot of different cultures with many different appearances on a constant basis. Florian for example is a 22 year old volunteer from Belgium and teaches the Kangaroo class. Apparently he is a lot taller than normal Peruvian people. While their average height is at 5.4 ft. Florian is 6.3 ft. tall. For the students that is quite astounding and Florian`s funniest moment as a teacher with HOOP was when his students painted the below picture for him.

Thanks to so many diverse characters, classes at the HOOP school are never boring and even after school is over, kids have the chance to play at the Cancha - the playground near our school. HOOP volunteers are always involved in every game; sometimes even more than expected. Jakob, our volunteer from Germany for example was just resting for a bit when a little boy jumped on his back and screamed in his ear: VOLAR – which means fly. So Boeing 747 Jakob took off and flew with his little passenger over the Cancha. As soon as they landed there were already a lot more passengers waiting to take a ride in this comfortable aeroplane as well.

One of the daily tasks for the students at the HOOP school is to brush their teeth and learn about oral hygiene. But as you can see in the photo above, the toothpaste is not always going where it is supposed to go, so as you can see, there is never a dull moment at our school up in Flora Tristan. The children always keep the teachers on their feet, but that`s all part of the fun of course.

Written by Charlette Voss

Teacher Tips - Attention Please

On the 5th of October 2014 was the official World Teachers Day. So we decided to put our focus this month to the same topic and appreciate the art of teaching.

There are different ways in educating a child and students learn in very different ways. So as a teacher it is important to know different teaching techniques, in order to reach all students. All of our seven classes in Flora Tristan are in the afternoons, so the volunteers need to know how to get their students motivated that late in the day. The following five tips may help anybody who is considering starting a volunteer teaching position or who has already started one. 

1. SIMPLY EXERCISE

It helps to do a little bit of exercise before the classes start. A few jumping jacks or stretches will do and will aid to stimulate the brain effectively.

2. ROUTINE BREAKER

Do not have the same routines in your classroom every day, as students may loose their interest and get bored easily. Just changing seats every time, as well as changing the way of teaching will help. The main idea is to shift between lecturing, reading, audiovisuals, demonstration, discussion and teaching others, to create a different and exciting routine every single day.

3. PROFESORITA - COOPERATIVE ENVIRONMENT

Let the kids help and work with each other. This way the students can show their learned skills and memorize through collaboration. Instead of getting bored, really good students can show their leadership and perform skills as a little assisting teacher, a profesorita. 

4. MAKE ME A BETTER TEACHER

Everybody feels more appreciated if you play with open cards. So why not let the kids teach you and ask them directly for an evaluation on your teaching methods. They may have suggestions that you have not even considered. Getting feedback from students can be a great way to change your teaching to the best. 

5. RESPECT UNIQUE TALENTS AND DIFFERENT WAYS OF LEARNING

There are three different learning types: auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. Students most likely learn best through a combination of all three of them. But still, not everybody is the same. Consequently it is essential that teachers know different techniques and steps to reach every student. Teachers have to balance time wise and not tailor the students to the slowest and fastest kid. Slow students still have the opportunity to catch up through homework help or practice sheets. 

Written by Charlette Voss

Dental Week - All people smile in the same language

With the great help of Odontologos Sin Fronteras/ Dentist Without Borders, we had the opportunity to provide free dental aid to the community of Flora Tristan from the 15th until the 20th of September.

Dentist Without Borders is an organization with a multidisciplinary team of oral health professionals. They are providing social projects, tools and consulting services, as well as giving advice to companies, institutions, municipalities and regional governments in order to improve dental health and the quality of life of citizens around the world. 

Photos by Robert Els

During the dental week our classrooms were turned into a dental practise and with the help of Dentists Without Borders we were able to provide 329 treatments during 240 dental sessions. Almost 45% of the treatments were dental restorations and 17% were extractions. While the afternoons from Monday to Friday were used to provide treatment to our students and their family, on Saturday we opened up the free treatment to whole community of Flora Tristan as well. It was so exciting to see so many children and their families benefit from these dental outreaches, which was only made possible through the help of the 22 volunteer dentists from Dentist Without Borders.

Photo by Robert Els

The myth that dentists are scary were not confirmed by our children. The wonderful dentists just knew how to break the ice with the kids.

Photo by Robert Els

This little girl for example didn`t show any fear before or during the treatment. We are so proud of our students for being so brave and really excited to see the new, healthy smiles on their faces.

These are just some of the wonderful dentists who volunteered their time to help our community

We want to give a big thank you to all the volunteer dentists, coordinators and other participants for helping implement this extremely important project. And to keep our students` teeth healthy we implemented a daily teeth brushing routine into all of our classes as well.

 - Written by Charlette Voss