See below for a selection of sample placements in Guatemala.

Please note that volunteer students must use their initiative for all the below-mentioned jobs. There are set assignments that can be full-time, and others that last 3-4 hours per day. Therefore volunteers should be adaptable to the hours required.

General important information for all projects in Guatemala:

Please note that some organisations in Guatemala will ask you to fill in a further application form for their own records, and they may also require you to provide the following: 2 x passport-size photos, a photocopy of your passport, CV and 2 x reference letters (personal and professional). You can organise this on-site, or take it with you just in case.

Education :: Social/Healthcare :: Construction :: Nature

Creating New Hope - Helping Children in Need

Location: Guatemala City & San Pedro, La Antigua

Creating New Hope is a project of a non-profit organization founded in 1999. Its main goal is to provide hope and assistance to the children of families working in the Guatemala City Garbage Dump. Creating New Hope represents an effort to help the poorest of Guatemala’s children break out of poverty in a dignifying way through education.

San Pedro: There is an orphanage for 45 children, who stay there for two weeks and then return at the weekend with their parents. Children live in this orphanage during the week and have lessons every day.

Volunteers can assist teachers with reinforcement of the public school education that the children receive. Volunteers also help children with homework, teaching the importance of hygiene, and organizing educational and recreational activities. One of the most important things is to have a ot of love and patience for the children.

Requirement: 4 weeks minimum. Level of Spanish: High intermediate

Empowering the Children - Culture, Education & Milk

Location: Alotenango, Sacatepéquez

This school started a few years ago to provide educational support to children living in Alotenango. One of its main goals is that education should remain within the context of the people’s own culture to provide both education to escape poverty and to preserve the culture. Since it began, the school has grown quickly.

The project finances itself by selling second-hand clothes and the majority of the teaching is performed by international volunteers. The association also runs a milk-program in order to help the people of Alotenango to receive sufficient amounts of calcium in their daily diet. Apart from that, they also offer several annual scholarships to the best students, so that those students can go to a private college.

They provide medical care, education in reading and writing in Spanish and English, mathematics and hygiene. The goal is to break the chain of poverty through education and hard work. Now they not only have an after school programme, but a full time school which is directed first at children with ages 5 and 6, ages when a child would normally start school. Many of the children work in the fields in the afternoon to support their families, in this area where most survive off the land. The project has recently moved into a new school to give room to the almost 200 children.

Volunteers are needed to teach English, maths, assist teachers, hygiene, prepare curriculums for classes, help with homework. Organise recreational activities. Visit and talk with families about the importance of their children’s education, help with the Mil programme.

Requirements: 4 weeks minimum. Level of Spanish: Elementary

Building the Children's Future - Education, Care & Hope

Location: La Antigua

This project supports and educates needy children in a variety of areas. Nearly 2,600 children and their families benefit from this project. There is a free clinic, a full time psychologist, a Mothers Club which supports civic events, there are social workers that visit families, and there is a school and reinforcement or remedial work for children who are attending public school, a library, a dental clinic and a food distribution program. Building the Children’s Future intends to break the cycle of poverty by empowering children through education.

Volunteers are needed to organise events based on their special skills: sewing, music, art, or based on their previous work experience: leading discussions on family planning, Aids/HIV, drug and alcohol abuse, etc. (volunteers should come with material prepared in order to discuss topics). Volunteers will also help with newsletter mailing, they can work in the kitchen, and organise activities for the children. Some volunteers can be a teacher’s assistant or tutor the children in the afternoon. Being a tutor is one on one and therefore requires an advanced level of Spanish. Specialised volunteers are welcome too: Social Workers, Dentists, Nurses, Doctors, Carpenters, etc.

Requirements: 4 weeks minimum. Level of Spanish: High Intermediate.

Back to top ^

Living, Caring & Loving - Organisation for the elderly, disabled & orphaned

Location: La Antigua

Living, Caring & Loving is a place unlike any other – it is a multi-service facility providing a home and loving care for the elderly and orphaned, the mentally challenged and the chronically ill.

The project has approximately five hundred beds (including cribs) and routinely provides a permanent home to more than 250 people ranging in age from just a few days of life to over ninety years old. Most of the residents have chronic disorders such as cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, mental retardation, Alzheimer's, polio paralysis, deafness and blindness, and senile dementia.

This is a public hospital (privately funded) that caters to the mentally and physically handicapped, the elderly, the hearing impaired and the physically abused. Services include a nutrition programme and a school for handicapped children.

Volunteers are needed in helping with mentally handicapped children and adults, assisting in the nutrition programme, bi-lingual translators for medical teams who visit from the US or Europe (occasionally), tutors or English-speakers fro classes, spending time with patiens of all ages, medical students or doctors are greatly needed.

Requirements: Elementary level of Spanish. All volunteers must fill in an application at the hospital on the starting date.

A Home For Us - A shelter where volunteers assist terminally ill people

Location: San Lucas, Sacatepéquez

This project is one of the few Aids Hospices in Guatemala. It was founded in 1998, and the hospice provides housing, clothing, food, medical and humanitarian attention to people who have mostly been abandoned elsewhere. They try to do as much as they can with limited financial means.

There are children from 0 to 9 years and some adults living in the hospice. This project provides housing, clothing, food, medical and humanitarian attention to people who have mostly been abandoned elsewhere. They try to do as much as they can with their limited financial means.

Volunteers can assist and play with small children who do not yet go to school, assist with homework and organise activities after school hours for the older children (up to 9 years of age). Give attention to and have conversations with the adult patients. Organise activities for those willing and able to participate in some activities. There is also need for volunteers with medical background, doctors and nurses.

Requirements: 21 years of age. 4 weeks minimum. This type of work is very demanding and as such, volunteers should be fully aware of what is involved. Interview (on site) of potential volunteers required before beginning work. Level of Spanish: Advanced level. This programme, if available, will only be offered to male volunteers due to involving a 4 km walk from the bus stop to the project (no other means of transport are available unfortunately).

Home For The Community - Taking care of children and giving them a place to play and grow

Location: La Antigua & surrounding villages

This is an organization that receives funds from the Guatemalan government. The project functions as a daycare center for children of single mothers. These children are between the ages of 3 months and 7 years. While being at the day care center, the children are overseen by a “Madre Cuidadora” who lives at the center. Each center has also a social worker, who visits each location once or twice a week, and a teacher that works every day with the children from 8.00 to 15:30 hrs.

Volunteers will be assigned to various Hogares in Sacatepequez, can live in Antigua and travel by bus to the site. Volunteers are needed as teacher’s aide, organizing activities for the children, teach hygiene, play with the children and help the Madre Cuidadora when needed.

Requirements: 4 weeks minimum. Level of Spanish: High beginner.

The Children's House - Helping single parents out with day care

Location: La Antigua

The Children’s House is a day care centre for single parent families. It has been open for 10 years and it began as a daycare center or mothers who worked in the market. Since then it has grown a lot and these days there are about 50 + children between 9 months and 6 years old. This is a very organized daycare, which begins its tasks at 7am with personal care for every child. After that, children are taught in the day care centre by teachers. For the youngest children who do not attend school yet, there is a play-program as well as potty training and learning how to walk.

Volunteers are needed to help children with their daily care, this includes: bathing, feeding and playing with them. Volunteers can also help organise recreational and educational activities and support the staff in maintaining childcare.

Requirements: 4 weeks minimum. Level of Spanish: High beginner.

Back to top ^

A Roof For Everyone - Building a home for Guatemalan people

Location: Surrounding villages of La Antigua

The main goal of this project is to offer simple houses to poor families, so that their health and living conditions will be improved. The project offers families a possibility to obtain a newly constructed house for a small amount of money. The house is constructed of concrete blocks, with a corrugated iron roof and a concrete floor. Families can choose between different types of houses and the construction of each house takes about two to three weeks. Depending on which type of house the families choose, they pay a contribution. The construction of the house takes about two to three weeks.

Areas Needed Volunteering: The houses are built by two or three construction workers with their assistants. The family helps constructing the house. Next to this volunteers can help with the construction of the houses. The assistant helps the construction workers with their work. The volunteers and family help with the assistant with his work and this way they work directly together with the construction workers. The work for the volunteer consists mostly of digging ground, carrying materials, mixing cement, laying blocks and making preparations for the construction workers.

Activities vary each day, so it is important to have a flexible attitude. During a longer period the volunteer works independently, alone with the construction workers, for this reason a responsible attitude is a must.

This project expects volunteers to treat the construction workers and the family with respect. The construction workers make the decisions on how to construct, the use of materials and they solve the problems. They are in contact with the supervisor for making decisions. To start with the volunteer observes how the construction workers work and assists the assistant. This work can be physically heavy. It is the responsibility of the volunteer to take his or own decision on what he or she can do and wants to do. The construction workers will respect the choices of the volunteer.

Requirements: 4 weeks minimum. Level of Spanish: High beginner. Working days: 7 am till 5pm, including the time spent travelling. Volunteers must pay the costs for travel to the construction site and their own food. Wednesday is the general day off.

Back to top ^

Jungle Wildlife Rescue Centre - Taking care of and rehabilitating wild animals

Location: Petén

The established project of the Wildlife Rescue Centre is situated on 45 hectares of forested land on Lake Petén – Itza near the town of Flores in the northern Petén region of Guatemala and 45 kilometers (27.96 miles) from the worldwide famous Mayan archaeological site of Tikal. Volunteers at the Rescue Centre help feeding and caring for animals like parrots, macaws, spiders and howler monkeys that are sheltered in the center.

* See notes in placement details below

Beach Wildlife Rescue Centre - Breeding program for turtles, caimans & mangroves

Location: Monterrico

This volunteer program is a sea turtle, caiman and mangrove conservation project near the town of Hawaii on the Pacific coast of Guatemala. Volunteers assist in conducting nightly patrols in area beaches in search of nesting sea turtles; they also help with the collection and burial of eggs in the hatchery and with the collection of research data. Volunteers can also take part in the caiman captive breeding program, mangrove reforestations, educational activities in schools and other community projects.

Please note the turtle placement runs from July to Jan- very nocturnal, other times is working with caiman conservation projects.

* Notes: The above two Nature projects (Animal rescue and Conservation Society) are run by the same organizations but in different locations. The first one near Flores in the Petén, the second one is near the town of Hawaii at Monterrico Beach on the Pacific coast.

The Petén center rescues and cares for wild animals, before releasing them back into the jungle. The Hawaii Center is a sea turtle and caiman conservation project.

Areas Needed for Volunteering: Volunteers help in feeding and caring for the animals at the animal rescue and rehabilitation center in the Petén. There are also opportunities to take part in veterinary medical treatment and operations, construction of new facilities and cages, and animal releases.

At Hawaii, volunteers assist in caring for the animals, construction and upkeep of facilities, educational activities, and collecting and reburying of turtle eggs.

There are certain responsabilities that volunteers at the Rescue Center have and everyone is expected to pull their own weight. Work begins at 7am with the cleaning of cages and feeding the animals. The animals do not work on our schedule; rather they follow their own internal clock, which insists that they eat early in the day. The time for your rest and relaxation is later in the day when the temperature and humidity usually demands that you take a rest.

Volunteers will often be asked to perform extra duties in addition to the care and feeding of animals. Special projects include cage and quarantine improvement. Cage improvements can be made by assessing the animal’s life history (i.e nocturnal/diunal, arboreal/terrestrial, solitary or gregarious).

In addition to the regular daily feeding and care of the animals, there are special ongoing activities in which volunteers are expected to participate as needed. These activities include:

• Construction of cages or extra buildings.
• Trail maintenance
• Gathering of wild foods for the animals
• Research into the wild diets of the animals
• Giving environmental tours in the Education Center
• Other environmental education opportunities.

Requirements: 4 weeks minimum. Level of Spanish: High beginner

Important Information: This project does not include room and board: $100 per week in Petén; $50 per week in (Hawaii- room only) depends on programme. Food is about $8 per day, cooked by volunteers (taking turns). Transport to the location is not included either. To Peten it is around 35 minutes by plane or 10 hours by bus.

Back to top ^