NYIT students traveled to Peru in March to perform various community services and provide health education to local residents.

A combination of altruism and adventure brought a team of 14 NYIT students and one staff member to the second Alternative Spring Break Project on March 17-25. The group traveled to South America to build on the foundation created by last year’s team in Independencia, Peru. This year, they conducted educational workshops on safe water storage and sterilization, cleaned up beaches in Los Leones, and worked with the local community to build the concrete foundation of a rural pharmacy. They also provided health education to dislocated children in the Arco Iris orphanage, where the team wrote and sang Spanish-language songs that explained proper hygiene and handwashing techniques.

“The children at the orphanage were so welcoming, so beautiful,” says psychology major Theresa Piccolo. “Now I really know that I want to go abroad to work with children who have disabilities.”

The project was part of an NYIT collaboration with the International YMCA and the YMCA of Peru to address health, environmental, and social issues facing the community of Independencia.

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