Bruce Peru
Although Bruce Peru is mostly in Peru now, and my page is mostly about Argentina, Bruce is trying to start a program here in Argentina, so that is one of the reasons I have added a review of Bruce Peru here. Also, for those interested in worknig in Peru or one of the other countries Bruce has centers, I want to inform potential volunteers of some of the things I have seen and heard.
When I went to visit the Bruce Peru office in Trujillo, I started talking to one of the secretaries there. She said that some of the volunteers were complaining to Bruce that they weren't happy with the program. They said, for example, that they had each paid several hundred dollars but he would tell them there wasn't enough money to buy things like paper and pencils for the schools they were teaching in. The group became so unhappy they decided to ask for a refund, but he refused to give it to them. From my visit I got the distinct feeling he wasn't really very interested in helping children. One thing that struck me was this: He had a sign in his office that said "No children allowed in the office"
Here are other things I have heard about the Bruce Peru program:
- He puts volunteers in charge of centers without giving them sufficient training.
- He often didn't not put enough money in the bank account to cover the week's expenses so the volunteer would have to pay for them out of his own pocket until the funds were deposited.
- His wife, who also runs the program with Bruce, treated one volunteer quite badly after she felt jealous of that volunteer.
- Bruce critized one volunteer for asking his wife when she was going to put money in the bank account, after she had promised to do so and hadn't.
- Bruce is expanding into other countries when he isn't even managing the Peru program well.
- He tried to pressure one volunteer into going up to Panama to run that center when the volunteer had just arrived in Peru.
- He doesn't have permanent staff working at the centers.
- He puts pressure on the volunteer directors to cut expenses when they are already very low.
- His wife once told a volunteer something like "I don't know how you can touch those children. They are so dirty!"
May 6 - A volunteer I just talked to said he would not recommend the program to someone else.
If you would like to verify any of this, write to me.
A website with a lot of comments about Bruce Peru
http://www.hobotraveler.com/vo_volunteerperu.php
I started reading the site about Bruce Peru in Argentina and I thought I was seeing the same thing I saw on the Peruvian pages. So I did a search on this sentence and found 11 results
"For more than 2 years we have been preparing for and fretting over our project to help pregnant"
http://volunteerbuenosaires.com/
http://volunteervenezuela.com/
http://bruceperu.org/bpomar05.html
http://bruceperu.org/home.html
http://bruceperu.com/malabrigo/index.html
http://volunteerlima.org/index26.06.05.html
This picture is found on the Puerto Malabrigo page with a caption that reads "Poor children everywhere"
Here is one link to the picture. http://www.bruceperu.com/malabrigo/ninosduermen.jpg
The same picture is also on these pages
http://www.sosperu.com/, http://volunteerchile.com/, http://volunteerbuenosaires.com/, http://brucebolivia.org/ and more. I think you get the idea.
