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Peru
Peru is the most ecologically diverse country on the planet, home to 87 of the world’s total 104 ecosystems. The Atacama Desert, the driest in the world, sprawls across much of Peru’s Pacific Coast. The Andes, snow-capped and covered with glaciers, rise above 22,000 feet to form the world’s second-highest mountain range. On the eastern slope of the Andes, mountains give way to the cloud and rain forests rain of the Amazon basin.

Peru’s cultures are as diverse as its geography. Peru’s first organized city states worshipped at stepped adobe platforms on the coast 5,000 years ago, even before the Egyptians were building their pyramids at Giza. And as the Roman Empire spread across modern-day Europe, Peru's first empire states were moving like wildfire across the Andes. The Chavín and Tiahuanaco cultures established patterns of religion, commerce, and architecture that culminated in the Inca Empire. When the Spaniards conquested Peru in the 1530s, the Inca Empire extended along much of the western coast of South America. The Inca legacy continues today in the lives and language of 8 million Quechua-speaking highlanders.

Peru’s coastal people are a complex blend of Peru’s indigenous peoples, which mixed with African slaves brought to Peru during colonial times, Japanese and Chinese workers that came to Peru in the 19th century, and waves of immigrants from Europe. In the Amazon there are 43 distinct ethnic groups, each with their own language.

Global Issues Background
Peru’s economy is based mainly on exports of raw materials from industries such as mining, oil, natural gas, agriculture and fishmeal, though tourism and other services have grown recently in importance. Peru was one of the most important holdings of the Spanish empire and Peru’s indigenous peoples were subjugated during Peru’s three centuries of colonial rule. Despite a land reform movement in the 1960s and an emerging middle class, much of the country’s wealth remains concentrated in the hands of a few powerful families. This uneven distribution of wealth helped fuel the Shining Path terrorism movement from 1980 to the mid-1990s.

Peru built many rural schools in the 1990s, but the quality of education remains low. Schools are overcrowded and underfunded and teachers receive little training or support. Schools are regularly shut down due to national teacher strikes calling for higher wages. According to a recent survey by the World Economic Forum, Peru’s elementary schools are among the worst in the world. The lack of access to quality education has many associated consequences, among them higher levels of poverty, illiteracy and underemployment. In Peru, 50 percent of the population lives beneath the poverty line.

Peru also suffers from a range of environmental problems that are caused in large parts by the abuses of mines, fishmeal factories, oil and natural gas wells and pipelines and processing centers, illegal lumber operations and other extractive industries. These industries have operated with little oversight in Peru for decades as a result of a weak political system that is cash-starved and corrupt. Legislation governing extractive industries, and regulatory agencies, is improving in Peru but lags well behind other more developed nations.


Requirements
Students should have a satisfactory level of physical fitness in order to participate in manual labor and other physical activities, such as hiking and swimming.

Students and parents are required to complete all required World Leadership School forms, including the Application, Acknowledgment and Assumption of Risks, Indemnity Agreement, and the Medical Form. As part of the application, students must respond to a detailed questionnaire expressing their reasons for wanting to go on the trip.

Students should remain flexible to changing circumstances, delays and other hurdles that are common in Peru. The specifics of volunteer work will be decided according to the needs of the community or organization shortly.

Risk Management & Safety
We strive to responsibly manage risks. Our itineraries minimize highway travel and maximize immersion in rural communities that we know well. We update our risk management protocols, integrate feedback into program design, and invest in safety and communication equipment. Despite these efforts, World Leadership School cannot guarantee safety nor can it eliminate the inherent and other risks of international student travel. For information regarding program activities and associated risks, risk management, and student and parent responsibilities, please contact us (303) 679-3412.