VEN Peru was founded in March of 2007 in Athens, Georgia. The founders Giovanna Ayesta and Kerry Steinberg met while working together as Social Workers for an agency serving the local immigrant Hispanic population.

Giovanna Ayesta is originally from Trujillo, Peru and came to the United States as a Fulbright Scholarship grantee to receive a Masters in Social Work from the University of Georgia. Kerry Steinberg, currently working towards a Masters in Sociolinguistics from the University of Georgia, developed her interest in the languages and cultures of Latin America during her two-year service in the Peace Corps in a rural area of Paraguay.

Through their experiences as Social Workers they also became concerned by the growing need for more teachers, medical professionals, and service providers able to understand the Spanish language and Hispanic culture.  Through these concerns VEN Peru was born.

In June of 2007 they organized the first volunteer trip to Trujillo, Peru. For a period of one-month, 15 volunteers offered their services in one of 5 volunteer posts: a boy’s orphanage, a school for blind and disabled children, a medical clinic, a rural elementary school, or an animal shelter. We hope to, in the future expand our program to other areas of Peru. We have no religious or political affiliation.

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We have no religious or political affiliation.

Our mission is to operate a volunteer program in which Peruvians and non-Peruvians work together to provide aid and assistance to those marginalized areas of Peru suffering from poverty and a lack of access to education. We want our program to foster cultural understanding while providing everyone involved with a valuable experience in a beneficial work environment.