The GeoMundo core value is one of Social Responsibility - Our commitment is to the volunteer, the traveler and the local communities as well as the natural environment, culture, tradition and the local economy in South America.

GeoMundo comprises the following pillars:

• GeoMundo Social and Cultural Projects
• GeoMundo Volunteering
• GeoMundo Language School       

GeoMundo has been developed to benefit the host country. The aim of GeoMundo is to provide an exceptional service to all volunteers and travellers and to work in collaboration with our UK, German and South American partners to support social projects.

Why does GeoMundo work at private level and not as an NGO?

Business reasons
GeoMundo works with a sharp, strenuous and personally convicted eye to humanitarian aid. We have discovered that working independently and in a small team whilst operating transparently for our partners as well as for our own staff gives us a lot more flexibility to adapt to different situations and spontaneous changes that often require rapid decisions. Our position allows us to work without time consuming sign-off procedures or huge administrative expenses so often found within larger associations. This ultimately can only benefit the smaller institutions we aim to work with. However, we have also formed a close working relationship with international NGOs and partners and we are happy that we can exchange our knowledge with them. 

We are honest with our volunteers and transparently show where our expenses go. Our flexibility and the fact that we have managed to build up strong partnerships with both sponsors or donators as well as with local institutions allows us to offer low-fee volunteering positions without compromising on the quality of this once in a life-time experience we would like to invite you to. We believe that the more successfully and efficiently you run a company the more you can ultimately give back to those who need our help and support.
 

Political reasons
Also, due to the unfortunate situation of ongoing political corruptness, widely apparent in the universal mistrust in some “non-profit-just-for-help-organizations” which is accompanied by a deeply routed non- or misunderstanding of what foreign aid institutions do, we wisely decided to maneuver our well intended deeds outside this historical hemisphere of socio-political conflicts.

What we mean here, on the one hand, is a culturally explicable and socialy anchored mistrust in many large-scale charitable organisations shifting huge amounts of financial aid that -on top- can then sometimes even last years until it is eventually delivered to the right spot or people. Plus, what is left for them is often only a small part of what they were actually supposed to receive. Coruptness unfortunately operates like a local road block against the work of many private and public partnerships, private companies and large-sized NGOs.

Since we have many different projects operating at various locations scattered hundreds of miles across Peru and Bolivia such corruptness would only delay and impede our work. Hence, we decided to rather focus on already existing, small-sized NGOs, private institutions or even one-man operations where we can personally monitor and document what is going on and frequently report to our sponsors and donars where their money goes.

On the other hand, the past has shown that several local communities approached foreign NGOs and other organizations for having embezzled money even if evidently it turned out they had not. Ultimately, some of these organisations have had to close down or re-open under a different name. It is sometimes hard to comprehend that for financially challenged people, who have to work immensely hard just to survive, it is often incomprehensible that people from outside their situation would offer help for free.

In order to understand the current psychological friction and the communal way of thinking now so prevalent one must gain insight in and be sensitive to the historical construct of incidents that have occurred in the crossing of ancient Andean culture with the experience of colonial conquerism, the subsequent Hispaniziation and the following westernization of the South-American region.  

Due to the historical incidents and the reasons mentioned above we decided to be alert and careful when working with communities in South America. By working in small groups, independently and reporting frequently we believe we can make the most for both our sponsors and our recipients.