Pisco Sin Fronteras

Completed August 2024

Working as a volunteer in Pisco as part of the Pisco Sin Fronteras organisation was a life-enhancing and mind-broadening experience for me. There were so many exciting new projects being thought up and worked on every day. I am sure I speak for the other volunteers when I say I treasured every day’s work no matter what scenario I was faced with. With the volunteer experience you truly get out what you put in, and the Fish Mural was an example of being pro-active and taking initiative, in and amongst an environment bursting with ideas.

In PSF it is inevitable to form really strong friendships with people, and the friends you make are special ones. I became really close to two girls of my age and we started a project at a school in the community near to Plaza de Armas. This school seemed full of resources and the children even had a uniform, but the building and the playground resembled a prison court yard, and we all wanted to provide the children with colour, happiness and laughter. So we thought we should make an exciting back-drop for the children’s education on a bare 13 meter long wall. We sketched up designs and chose an under-water ocean scene full of animals, and the children seemed enthusiastic and excited by our vision.

Working in the hot sun everyday was hard work and a lot of preparation and thought went into the mural. Many different volunteers helped from day to day; people wanted to get on board because they could see that improving the childrens’ environment in Pisco is a great thing to dedicate a day or even a week too. The volunteers not involved in the project were always interested to know how it was going. I think the team spirit is a special thing here at PSF, and when we came to the end of the project, we definitely felt like it was a job well done.

CONNIE FLINT