Awamaki

Costs

As you plan your volunteer stay with us, please be aware of the costs involved. Volunteering is great for the volunteer, Awamaki, and the community. We want volunteering to be affordable for everyone. However, we do incur some costs in running the volunteer program, from the Internet bill to the need to hire extra staff. For this reason, we ask for a one-time donation of $500 from most volunteers, and a $600 from most health volunteers. This donation covers project materials and a donation to your placement. It also includes a donation to Awamaki to cover the expenses that our organization incurs in hosting volunteers and running the volunteer program. For health volunteers, the additional amount helps us offset the unique costs incurred in program transport and materials. You are responsible for the cost of your accommodations. The cost is of a homestay is S/. 750 (approximately $270-$280) per month.

Contributions to Awamaki are tax-deductible in the United States. You will receive a tax receipt for the donation portion of your volunteer payment.

Ok, so where does my money go?

$100 USD covers a project donation to your host organization or cause. For example, if you are a health volunteer, the donation may go to buy hand sanitizer that you have noticed the clinic has run out of, digital thermometers that they have requested of us, or if not used for these purposes, the donation will go into a fund for running our health programs. If you are an education volunteer, the donation may go to materials that you request for your class, books, or supplies for the community center where we teach, like printer toner. We make these donations because we recognize that it is a lot of work to host a volunteer. While the volunteer does give back to the organization, the organization puts a lot of work towards hosting them, and it helps further the organization’s mission, and makes the staff happy, to allocate a budget for the organization’s needs. For volunteers living in Patacancha, we recognize that it is in some ways a burden on the small, rural community to host a volunteer. It takes the time and patience of our weavers and other community members to show volunteers around and teach them their ways of life. We reserve the volunteer donation for extras such as the weavers' common fund, their educational expenses-scholarship fund, skills-building workshops and direct donations to community projects.

$400 USD is a donation to Awamaki to cover our expenses in hosting a volunteer. The volunteers, and the work that they do, are essential to our operations. The volunteer program is a wonderful way to promote community development in Ollantaytambo and bring an economic boost to local families. In a town that sees more tourists than it has residents on some days, it is also a great way to connect locals and foreigners to promote international exchange and make sure that local families are directly benefiting from the tourism they see. So why charge $400? The importance of the volunteer program doesn’t change the fact that the program takes up scarce time and resources. Answering emails and keeping the volunteer page and postings up to date, recruiting volunteers, the cost of internet, recruiting and training homestay families, making homestay/accommodations arrangements, arranging volunteer placements, supervising the donations, welcoming volunteers on community visits, workshops, etc., and just being available, showing volunteers around and answering questions is all very resource-consuming. Don’t get us wrong: we truly enjoy working with volunteers and we place an enormous value on the work that they do. However, we could not afford to run the program without this donation.

Please note that our operating costs are actually fairly low (under 12%). So, most of your $400 donation to Awamaki goes right back into our general fund for programs, and gets spent wherever it is needed most.

Cost reductions and waivers

Please be aware that long-term volunteers (6+ months) do not pay a volunteer donation and are responsible only for the costs of their accommodations.Please email volunteer@awamaki.org with any questions.