2005 to today
Otra Cosa began in 2005 as a small, low-cost volunteer agency in Huanchaco. Two decades later we're a UK charity and Peruvian NGO running our own programmes, built step by step with the families of Cerrito de la Virgen. Scroll on and watch the sun come up.
Timeline
The beginning
Otra Cosa begins in Huanchaco as a small, low-cost volunteer agency, placing volunteers with a handful of mainly local projects. The same year, Peter and Juany Murphy, a British-Peruvian couple, make Huanchaco their home.
After teaching English in the community, Juany and Peter begin running Otra Cosa together. English classes become a regular part of what we offer local children, years before HELP English had a name.
Otra Cosa Volunteer Agency becomes Otra Cosa Network, reflecting the network of people and projects we work with, and registers as a Peruvian non-profit NGO with APCI. In December, Juany and Peter return to England to raise their family, continuing to lead from the UK and appointing a full-time Operations Manager in Peru.
In January we become a UK registered charity (no. 1133680) and start designing our own projects to meet unmet needs. On land donated by a local surf school, volunteers build a skate ramp in Cerrito de la Virgen, giving children a safe, stimulating place to play.
The Huanchaco Education and Learning Programme launches in earnest. HELP English brings our many English classes together, and HELP Youth (first called HELP Community) grows the skate ramp into a social development project, informed by research into what families want. At the end of the year, HELP Women begins, offering local women legal, psychological and vocational support.
A grant from LitWorld, a US non-profit, lets us open a reading club for girls in Cerrito de la Virgen. HELP Literacy is so successful that it soon grows to several LitClubs, for girls and for boys.
In January, HELP Environment responds to the pollution affecting Huanchaco's beach and the need for environmental education. Its monthly Yo Cuido Mi Playa beach clean becomes a flagship event for the whole organisation.
Thanks to a huge fundraising effort by volunteers and supporters in Peru and abroad, we move two blocks and build an all-concrete skate park with a classroom alongside it, the heart of today's Recreational and Educational Centre.
Our volunteers design and build a community garden at the Rec Centre to teach sustainable agriculture hands-on. The long-term goal: a garden run by women from the community, who replicate it at home.
The Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation begins supporting HELP Swim, helping us teach more children to swim and stay safe in the water.
Today
We're proud of how far Otra Cosa has come, and we're looking forward to what we'll build next, together with the community, our volunteers and supporters like you.
Keep exploring
Every milestone on this page was made possible by volunteers and supporters. Yours could be next.
