Volunteering

One of the strengths of FairMail is that the young Peruvian trainee photographers are trained by temporary international volunteers. As every volunteer has a different background and his/her own way of working, the teenagers keep on getting new inputs, insights and skills.

Former and current volunteers value their FairMail experience as enriching and useful for their further careers. Click on the links above for more about current volunteer vacancies, the application procedure and stories of former volunteers.


Vacancies Volunteerwork
Details about Volunteerwork
Experiences from former volunteers
Vacancies paid jobs

Vacancies Volunteerwork

FairMail has the following volunteer vacancies in Peru and India, all with a minimum period of 8 weeks:

a) Photography & Creativity trainer for the 10 Peruvian or Indian teenagers.
b) Trainer for social habilities- and personal development workshops for the teenagers.
c) Marketing trainer (teach the teenagers about working demand driven).
d) Marketing assistant to research and prepare FairMail for markets in Peru, India, Europe, USA and Canada.
e) Graphic designer to develop new products.

For all vacancies it’s important that you speak Spanish (for Peru) or English and some Hindi (for in India). Experience in mentioned fields is preferred.

For more details and application info read the section "details on volunteering" below.

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Details about Volunteerwork

Task description
Your task as a volunteer is to contribute to the mission of FairMail: guiding underprivileged teenagers in producing qualitative photos and in producing and selling fair trade greeting cards in Peru and Western countries, with as goal the personal development and income support for these teenagers.

The activities are, dependent on the vacancy and your abilities:
- preparing and giving photography, creativity, aocial habilities and/or marketing trainings to Peruvian or Indian teenagers.
- assisting in the PR and Marketing of FairMail (to find more distribution channels in Peru, India, Europe, USA and Canada)
- assisting in product development (graphic designing)

Working Location:
In Peru: Trujillo, La Libertad, (northern) Peru. Nearby Trujillo - where the FairMail office is- is its coastal village Huanchaco where it is very nice to live a sunny (surf &) beach life. (see www.otracosa.info, www.turismohuanchaco.com and www.huanchacovivo.com for more about Huanchaco).

In India: Nagwa, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India.

Benefits for you:

• Get to know about the lives of children who used to be living on the streets and/or live in relatively poor circumstances.
• Have a good time with really great kids!
• Learn about working with children with a difficult background.
• Get to know a local village from an inhabitant’s perspective instead of the short stay tourist perspective.
• Seeing photogenic Peru through the local eyes of the kids and learning about the dynamics of ´local photography´.
• Chance to leave behind your contribution to a beautiful product that will generate income for people that really need it.

Requirements:
• Spanish speaking (advanced!)and for India English speaking and prefferably some Hindi too.
• Flexible and open-minded
• Interest and some experience with working with teenagers (13-18 years old)
• Able to work independently and structured
• Creative and flexible in organizing activities
• Minimum commitment of 8 weeks
• That you will send us the necessary information we ask for below IN SPANISH (and for India in english).
Without this information we cannot take in your application. So please write us about:
a) Your personal motivation to volunteer at FairMail. Which of the vacancies mentioned suit you and why?
b) We wonder what your expectations are. Could you describe us how you imagine a day working for FairMail? Your expectations are important to avoid disappointments later on.
c) Your Resume (stating age, education and past work and volunteer experiences)IN SPANISH (or english for India).
d) Your availability: when exactly do you want to come and for how long do you want to stay?

What we offer you:
• Introduction in FairMail and guidance in your tasks by our local manager.
• A contact to find cheap long-term housing:
a) in Peru this contact is the volunteer agency Otra Cosa, see details on www.otracosa.info under: Long-term Volunteer Accommodation. By sending them an email at volunteer@otracosa.info you can reserve a room. Also, in the same building as the FairMail office in Trujillo, there are rooms that you can rent from our partner Mundo de Ninos: for more info email director Blanca Ganoza: bganoza@mundodeninos.org. Apart from these contacts, Huanchaco also has many hostels, hotels and a camping.
b) In India we can offer you cheap housing in one of our two FairMail volunteer rooms: they are attached to the office and have a shared kitchen, bathroom and computer facility with internet. This will cost you only 4200 Rs a month (= 2,30 euros a day, includes internet, gas, electricity and water filter) and by doing this you help us to pay the rent.

Working hours:
The schedule depends on the school hours of the teenagers. The minimum amount of hours is 20 hours a week. A minimum stay of 8 weeks is required, but more would be even better.

About the FairMail teenagers
The kids you will work come from different places: in Peru some of them live in a boys home for ex street children called Mundo de Ninos (www.mundodeninos.org). Others live in El Milagro, a poor part of Trujillo near a garbage dump. For more about the teenagers see The Photographers on the home page. In India the teenagers are from one of the lowest casts, living in a poor part of town.

Application Procedure
Once you have sent us the information we asked for above, we will email you as soon as possible to see if we can invite you at FairMail. If yes, we will send you a confirmation form with all the details of our agreements.
Send your application IN SPANISH (or in english for India) and/or questions to: volunteer@fairmail.info

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Experiences from former volunteers



Emily Tong, USA - volunteered in 2009
Working with Fairmail was one of the best experiences of my life. It gave me an opportunity to teach what I love (photography) and be introduced to an amazing culture and people. Although the climate and the streets of Varanasi took a while to get used to I began to feel comfortable in a place that was completely new. To be able to walk down the streets of a completely different place and have the teenagers say "hi" enthusiastically was a remarkable feeling and gave me a sense of belonging. The teenagers were all so welcoming and eager every day which made it incredibly rewarding to teach. Teaching with Fairmail allowed me to see the city of Varanasi through the students. Engagement parties and birthday parties were full of family and friends, again giving the wonderful sense of community and respect. Although there was a language barrier between me and the students, it didn't stop us from having a lot of fun (playing in the rain, making samosas, dancing) and learning a lot. I was able to teach them about several photography concepts, such as light, space, portraits, action, close-ups, etc. The students are very smart and are fast learners. I saw such improvement from all of the students just in the two months that I taught. I can't wait to see what other postcards they make. I am so proud of them! They became such great friends and I hope to go back again someday!


Erika Somogyi, USA -volunteered in 2009

"My experience with fairmail India has been truly fantastic. Working
with the teenagers was at times challenging but completely worth the
effort. At first many of the teens were very shy and afraid take
photos or even sketch a simple picture because they thought they
didn’t know ‘how’. However through positive encouragement and
different activities the teenagers have gained confidence and started
to love photography. The improvement in their attitudes and
self-esteem that I have witnessed has been very inspiring.
Additionally, spending an extended period of time really ‘living’
rather than traveling through Varanasi has allowed me to ‘experience’
India. The city is very lively, full of color, and thus serves as the
perfect location to teach photography. I really feel I have gotten to
know the teenagers. I have been invited to various Indian parties,
weddings, and into homes to drink chai. The whole experience has been
more thought provoking and rewarding than I could have ever imagined."

--Erika Somogyi, United States

Whitney Conti, USA
I worked with Fairmail Peru from August to December in 2006. Because of my
photography experience and background, I mostly worked in developing the
photographic skills of the teenagers and Fairmail's connection within the
community. Janneke created a warm, fun, and stimulating atmosphere to work
in. She not only listened to my ideas for the project, but she gave me a
lot of autonomy over decisions and communication within the project. The
Fairmail photographers were not only respective and enthusiastic, but they
were patient with my Spanish and cultural differences. Overall, I loved my
experience with Fairmail and could not have imagined a better experience
or project. I highly highly recommend Fairmail for anyone interested in
volunteering in an interesting, fun, and friendly environment that
presents a chance to make real change.

Sydelle Smith, South Africa
I spent 7 weeks in the Fairmail Volunteering Programme.
The first day I arrived I was nervous and excited to meet my fellow volunteers and the Fairmail crew. Within two days I already felt at home in the viby little town of Huanchaco. Off me and my fellow volunteer went to El Milagro the village where 4 of the teens live. Rosita, Cynthia, David and Mariluz all met us at ACJ . From day one within Fairmail I as a teacher felt I was learning more from the kids everyday. They were eager, talented and a lot of fun. The language barrier was a problem for myself at times, but with the help of other voluneers I got by. We taught the photographers about editing their images, different light situations and the manual functions on a digital camera. Time to time we went on excursions like a parade or the exciting markets in Trujillo. Sometimes when we did not travel to Milagro we would have Luis and Ivan over from Mundo de Niños, the Boys home in Huanchaco. Every day became a new adventure, fun filled, and educational. Unfortunately sometimes the kids just couldn’t make it to the lessons we had planned due to many reasons such as work and family, but all in all Fairmail was a fantastic experience that I will never forget, and I plan to return one day. Before that though I want to bring Fairmail to my home country, South Africa. To pass the knowledge and passion for Photography on.


Thomas van der Sluijs, Netherlands


Gerwin de Vries and Ruudje Kea, The Netherlands
We have been working with Fairmail in February and March 2007 and it was a very nice experience! The highlight was an excursion to the province of Piura where we made a lot of nature pictures. We made a movie of this excursion that can be used as promotion material for Fairmail (you can see this movie on the About Fairmail page). We also gave some lessons on perspective, color, movement and details and a very basic course on Photoshop.
What we saw after we got to know the kids better is that every kid has his or her own talent in a different way. For example, Luis is trying to experiments with perspectives and is good with Photoshop. David is a very concentrated and thinking type photographer. Cinthia takes 3 times as much photos of the same thing as the others and has some nice self-made settings. Etcetera. The group together is very nice to work with, we learned a lot ourselves too!


Laura Peka, Netherlands, 2007


Robert Nijhout, Holanda


Nick Tuck, London,UK

My name is Nick Tuck and I have just finished up my position at Fairmail as a marketing assistant. The past 8 weeks (february and march 2008) have been an amazing experience that I feel I will only truly appreciate the magnitude of when I touch back to old blighty and the bubble bursts. From living in Peru, to seeing the teenagers turn ideas into photos and meeting with there families it has offered me a great insight into local hearts and minds. In my time here I have enjoyed working on a ranging number of different tasks from marketing reports over to touching up the photograpthy on photo shop and back to working on their first UK sale. I feel this will be a shining star in my career that I will look back on for many years to come and in the meanwhile I will keep a look out for Fairmails cards thoughout the world.

Lora Reehling, Lancaster, USA

Fairmail is the perfect opportunity to reach out and use your creative skills to make a difference in the lives of young teenage photographers.I felt very lucky to find such a unique program that was asking for the exact skills I could contribute. If you are passionate about photography, creativity, teenagers and using your spanish everyday, it is perfect! Not to mention Fairmail´s inspiring and relaxed location in Huanchaco, really enjoyable. This volunteer experience has inspired me in many ways. It proves anything is possible. The relationships I developed with the kids, the things I learned from them and about myself are so valuable. It feels great to be part of something so genuine in how it promotes creativity and enables young people to carve their own path to a better future.

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Vacancies paid jobs

At the moment we have no paid vacancies... only a vacancy for a practical period for a sales student in Amsterdam..click on the Dutch above!

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For more volunteering options at organizations that support FairMail click on the links below:

Volunteer Work Opportunities Abroad

Volunteer South America

Independant Volunteer

South America Explorers

Otra Cosa Volunteer Agency