In the 1990’s people started with offering tours for tourists or others interested in the life in the farvelas, to make people more aware about the living conditions and show and experience a whole different side of Rio de Janeiro. With the money derived from the tours, volunteer projects are set up and supported and used for the local development.

If you are interested in doing volunteer work in Brazil and in particular Rio, you came to the right spot! We offer projects adapted to your wishes and interests. During your volunteering you get in close contact with the locals and get acquainted with their culture. When you want to make yourself useful in helping nature, we offer a project where you help within a tropical forest in an urban area. With this project you could be helping planting trees, guided visits and reintegrating animal species. If you prefer working with people, we offer social projects in Rio. We have a great project which helps and supports children and youngsters from underprivileged families. Help them with their English, play sports or look after the little ones in the nursery!

Please be aware that Brazil, even though located in South America, is a country where Portuguese is spoken and no Spanish! For most projects it is advisable to learn some basic Portuguese. There we recommend our optional Portuguese Language Program in advance. Here you will learn the basics so that you will be able to communicate better with the locals and optimize your experience. Go volunteering in Rio de Janeiro; a place with countless opportunities!

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Choosing to work with children you can teach English, math or science or assist at the music school or arts at the cultural center. More manual work involves carpentry and building. There is also the possibility to work in the theatre and storytelling or sports.

Instead of directly working with kids you can also help out at the nature program. This involves helping to construct an ecological playground, renovation of rooms and gardens and taking care of horses.

To work at our projects we are looking for people that are enthusiast, willing to learn, dedicated, patient, friendly and love nature. Volunteers work 5 days a week for 5-7 hours a day. During your volunteer work, you will stay at a Volunteer House.

Spanish
For this project your Spanish doesn’t have to be fluent. Included in the program are up to 10 hours of Spanish group classes a week. The classes are meant to immerse in the Spanish language and focuses on conversational skills. The aim is to quickly enable volunteers to start practicing their Spanish skills while working in our volunteer programs and in contact with locals. The classes have between 2 and 6 participants.

Santa Elena
Santa Elena is located at an altitude of 900m  – 1000m with a nearly perfect climate (16°-28°C).  It is surrounded by breathtaking scenery and a wealth of nature. The region is the oldest geological site on the planet where prehistoric flat topped mountains are like ecological islands with endemic species such as carnivorous plants and lots of natural treasures.

If you are a nature lover, you can eat your heart out in Santa Elena and its surroundings. There are tropical forests, spectacular mountains, rivers and waterfalls. There are many
National Parks in the surrounding areas that you can visit and because the city borders
Brazil, you can also take a trip to the Amazon.

Hikes into the virgin rain forest can be an exciting adventure and there are trails which lead to a 360 degree sightseeing spot on top of a nearby mountain. You may also like to go horseback riding and discover the savannah or enjoy an excursion to a nearby indigenous village with refreshing rivers, amazing waterfalls or discover an ancient cave nearby. Mountain bikes are available and can be freely used by volunteers.

For more information about Volunteer options in Venezuela, visit our website.

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In my first week I really had to get used to a lot of things that came together with my work: to the circumstances where the people live in (way more basic than what I’m used to in the Netherlands), to speaking Spanish 24/7 (and to, because of that, not being able to express everything I want to say) and to the ‘abnormal’ behavior’ of the patients. But I got used to all of this so quickly, especially because the patients themselves are very happy and grateful to have the opportunity to be treated there. Also my ability to communicate in Spanish improved quickly, because I talked a lot to the patients and the employees.

Sometimes it was really annoying to notice that the work speed and work efficiency was remarkably lower compared to what I’m used to. Also, I had to wait for the psychologist very often, because the staff was preparing activities or working on the medical histories of the patients, in which I couldn’t participate most of the time. So I actually spent a lot of time waiting. After a few days with a lot of waiting, I started to think of activities I could do with the patients myself. I started to give English lessons to a patient that always wanted to learn English.

A few days later, I organized a tournament with games and I created a group dynamic-session. The psychologist didn’t give me assignments, but, he certainly welcomed all ideas! I think they don’t want to give the volunteers a lot of orders, because they think it’s very special that you are working there voluntarily. So to get the most out of this volunteer experience in Peru, it’s very important and I recommend you come up with your own ideas and let the employees know that you do want to participate in a very active way. Because of my pro-active attitude, I even had the opportunity to participate in test-diagnostics and individual interviews with the patients. For me, organizing some activities on my own prevented me for feeling dispensable and made my time at the clinic in Cusco very challenging.

It was very interesting to work with psychiatric patients and to talk with them about their lives. All the patients were very nice to me and accepted me and the fact that my Spanish wasn’t perfect did not seem to bother them at all. I learned so much about different psychiatric disorders and how those affect the life of the patient. Furthermore, I learned a lot about the organization of health care in Peru and how happy we have to be with our facilities in more ‘developed’ countries. I really liked that the psychologists gave me the trust to organize activities on my own.

Although this volunteer work Cusco sometimes made me feel a little insecure, it was a very valuable, interesting, fun , positive, and challenging life experience. I’m very glad I had the opportunity to do this. Thanks Volunteer Latin America!

Natasha Mathias, 23

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Now, I have been working for four weeks at an Hogar for girls between 10 and 20. It was very challenging work and I enjoyed it a lot. I would have liked to stay longer. Just when you feel that the girls are starting to trust you it is time to say goodbye. There are about 20 girls living at the hogar for various reasons. Some do not know their parents because they left them behind when they were little and some have parents that cannot or do not want to take care of them. Also, some were abused and some lived on the street before coming to the hogar. There are also some of them who are mentally disabled. A few girls had just arrived and others had been there for several years.

The first day was a bit difficult to be honest. Everything is new!Most of the girls were very quiet and suspicious. To see how the girls live and what problems they have had to face in their pasts is really moving. A tip: In Argentina you give everyone a kiss every time you come and every time you leave. I really like this custom because it helps to develop closeness from the beginning.

I had planned a few things to do with the girls – however it is very hard to motivate them. But I think that sometimes it is only important that somebody actually cares about them. I really liked them a lot! Of course there are cohabitants, psychologists and social workers working there but to give each girl sufficient attention is almost impossible and I think this is where volunteers can actually make a difference. Together with other volunteers we painted the walls in the courtyard with the girls and we made a little path in the garden.

We also did some shopping and I also played a lot of cards with them – UNO – some of them started to like it so much that they always wanted to play it. It was great to see that some girls that at first could not play the game without help really learned it well. I also painted with them, played memory, studied English, watched television, watched them dance, made a picnic, made friendship bracelets, ate ice cream, talked about boys and just spent time with them. All in all I really enjoyed the work with the girls and I hope you will too!

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