Social work isn’t just for social workers.

Kerry Steinberg, a 2002 University graduate from Lilburn with a degree in Spanish, knows the importance of volunteer work.

After working with a Peruvian colleague who had witnessed poverty in Peru, Steinberg said she wanted to take Americans there to help its people, and in return, teach the volunteers to serve others better.

An unofficial nonprofit group not affiliated with the University, Volunteer and Educational Network-Peru Inc. offers opportunities to travel to Peru for one month over the summer.

“This will be our second trip to Peru,” Steinberg said. “I led the first volunteer group myself last summer.”

The trip boasts numerous volunteer activities including posts at a school for the blind and disabled, a rural elementary school, medical clinic, animal shelter and boys orphanage.

Bobby Cool, a senior health promotion major from Alpharetta, was one of the 15 who went on the first trip last summer. He spent the duration of the trip living with a local family.

“Everyone was very friendly – it was probably one of my favorite parts about it,” Cool said. “I made tons of friends there and really looked forward to the travel opportunities that were available on the weekends.”

Cool spent his time working in a medical clinic, with responsibilities that included attending a group meeting with a psychiatrist who spoke to parents of children with emotional troubles.

“It wasn’t really hard to communicate, you could get your point across,” Cool said, of interacting with local residents.

Another volunteer who joined the group last summer is Rob Walsh, a math teacher and girls’ varsity soccer coach at Clarke Central High School.

“I had planned to go on a similar trip to Mexico, but plans fell through,” Walsh said. When I heard about Kerry’s trip to Peru through a listserv I was immediately interested.”

Utilizing his teaching experience, Walsh spent his time at a local school for the blind and developmentally disabled. To teach music to blind students, he arranged drum circles and had the children listen to the beats he played and repeat them back to him.

In order to talk about geometric relationships with a blind geometry teacher, Walsh cut out 3-D shapes for him to handle. The teacher then took what Walsh discussed with him and proceeded to teach his students the same lessons.

At the conclusion of his work at the school, the students put on a program featuring musical performances, poetry and dancing.

One student who was especially proficient in English aided some of the other students in their study of the language. Speaking about the

program, Walsh said the whole experience was “absolutely moving.”

“People (in America) take so much for granted, to them it was a whole different level of gratitude you just don’t see in America,” Walsh said.