Hi,
Ill hopefully be travelling to Boliva and taking a spanish course in the summer, and id also like to do osme volunteer work. I'm not prepared to spend thousands on a commercial trip, and was wondering if you knew of any NGO's that needed volunteers for a short amount fo time, doing anything really. Also I heard it was possible to just turn up and sort it all out there as there are so many NGO's working....
any thoughts?
Thanks very much =)
Reply to this My experience is based on my travels to Guatemala - but yes - turning up and volunteering is possible. In my opinion it is the best way - you get to checkout the charities before comitting yourself to anything. Discovering things like - do they really need you? is it something that you can actually do? is it a con? (some do exist)
The language schools in Guatemala had strong links with the charities and volunteer organistaions - so that would be my first point of call when looking.
I hope someone with Bolivian experience responds - maybe gives you some recommendations.
Reply to this thanks, i think thats what im going to do. im definately planning to take a language course, but do you think i should go for 1 or 2 weeks? i have a beginners level of spanish already, and would be in a homestay, so how much do you think i would learn? my time limit is 4/5 weeks, so 2 weeks of a course in one place would be quite a lot of the trip.....
Reply to this If you only have 5 weeks then 1 week would be my suggestion. If you're travelling in the off season - which it sounds like you are - then everything is more flexible - including deciding to stay a second week in the school, volunteering at different charities or taking last minute excursions. Hope it all goes well 😊
Reply to this I live in Cochabamba at the moment and there is a volunteer place which has spanish courses as well. If you just turn up there you pay a lot less but you can also pay more and stay with a family. Check out there website: www.volunteerbolivia.org I found my volunteer position through them. Also I started a charity for where I work: Charity Bolivia. Might be interesting for you to check out this website: www.charity-bolivia.org. I hope you realise 5 weeks is a very short time for Bolivia. Bolivia is like the whole of South America in one country.
Good luck with your travels
Reply to this I also live in Cochabamba at the moment and am also a volunteer in Bolivia. Unlike Chabo I did not have a good experience with Volunteer Bolivia and to my complete frustration was forced to seek out other options. Luckily I found Sustainable Bolivia www.sustainablebolivia.org. The people were extremely helpful and friendly and found me a nice room and place to volunteer. If you are looking to save some money I would suggest Sustainable Bolivia since they are about a third of the price of Volunteer Bolivia and actually look to do good work and provide support for their volunteers. I do agree with Chabo that 5 weeks isn´t much time - I have been here 6 months and finally feel like I am starting to "get it". Hope this helps
J.
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http://www.intiwarayassi.org/home.shtml
This is a link for inti yara wassi. It looks amazing. It is a link for a grassroots organization that rehabilitates wild animals, like pumas, monkeys, toucans etc. It looks like hard work, but also absolutely AMAZING.
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