2009 was a big year for the organisation. Firstly, it underwent a change of name from Otra Cosa Volunteer Agency to Otra Cosa Network in order to reflect the network of people and projects that we work with. This was also the year that the organisation was officially registered as a Peruvian non-profit NGO with the APCI (Peruvian Association for International Cooperation) and other Peruvian bodies. In December of the same year, Juany and Peter decided to return to England for the sake of their sons’ education. However, they have continued to oversee OCN from the UK on a part-time basis – developing the organisation, networking within the UK, Europe and elsewhere and providing general guidance to staff in Peru. In parallel they appointed a full-time Operations Manager in Peru.

In January 2010 Otra Cosa Network became a UK registered Charity. After this we began to develop our own projects, to complement our partner projects, with the aim of fulfilling unmet needs in the local community. In early 2011 our HELP (Huanchaco Education and Learning Programme) projects began in earnest and although we had already been teaching English in the community since 2007, our HELP English programme sought to strengthen and coordinate our many and diverse English-language teaching projects. In a similar manner, although our skate ramp was built in early 2010, the emergence of the HELP Youth project (originally called HELP Community) sought to develop our existing skate ramp project into a social development project and involved us undertaking social impact research to uncover community needs and wants. At the end of 2011 we started our HELP Women project, aimed at empowering local women through an integral programme that provides them with legal, psychological and vocational skills. Our HELP Literacy project began in February 2013 when we received funding from LitWorld, a US-based non-profit organisation, to set up a reading club for girls, known as a LitClub. This has been such a success that it has since expanded to include several LitClubs both for girls and for boys. Most recently, in January 2014 HELP Environment became the latest addition to the HELP projects. This project was formed as a response to the many environmental issues affecting Huanchaco, such as the beach contamination, and the need for more environmental education and awareness within the local population. Meanwhile, the Peru team has grown, currently including two Assistant Managers supporting the Operations Manager to provide better support to the community, to our partner projects and to our volunteers.

We are proud of how far Otra Cosa Network has evolved over the past years and we are looking forward to what we can accomplish in the future.