Victor wakes up before the village does. By the time Huaylas opens its eyes, the bread is already in the oven.

He is the mayor, the captain of the football team, and the baker. Not because no one else was available — because someone has to hold things together, and Victor decided that someone was him.

VolunTube sent four young Europeans to Peru and Colombia to learn how to tell stories. What some of them found, instead, was people who already knew exactly what their story was.

Funded by the Erasmus+ programme, VolunTube offers young people between 18 and 30 a two-week training in storytelling, photography and video-making, followed by two months with a partner organisation in the field. The topics: environment, human rights, gender equality. The actual education: considerably broader.

Below, the personal experience videos of the four volunteers I had the chance to follow closely — Charlotte and Elodie from France to Peru, Estrela and Diogo from Portugal to Colombia. All participant videos are available on the VolunTube page.

All the videos of the participants are available here. 

#YouCanBeNext

Thanks to Mario, Joe and Simone; to Tony and Jona; to the volunteers who made Peru and Colombia what they were. And to the organisations that made it possible: Kora, IDC, Quinta das Relvas, GREAT, Brigada de Voluntarios Bolivarianos, Fix in Art, Casa B, CYA.

It was a pleasure and a blast.