The Amazon Animal Orphanage & Pilpintuwasi Butterfly Farm is near the largest city in the Peruvian Amazon – Iquitos. It’s a rescue and temporary orphanage for wildlife which houses animals in a semi-captive environment.

Here are some of the volunteer tasks:

Volunteers help with guiding tours of the facility, in English and any other languages you may speak. There are many varied tasks to do for the animals everyday- feeding the monkeys every morning, making monkey toys and designing enrichment activities for the animals, walking the coatis and ocelot, just to name a few. Volunteers may also help with the butterflies- collecting eggs and maintaining the plants in our mariposario. You may end up gardening or helping to maintain enclosures.

Volunteers generally work six days a week and should stay for at least three weeks. Spanish, construction or animal-related skills would be useful. Volunteers can stay in the village with a host family or in a hostel for approximately S/10-S/30 ($4-12 USD) per day.

Application information.

Hang out with some monkeys by volunteering at this animal orphanage. (Monkeys may not be as shown.)

Sudan Volunteer Programme

Based in London, this charity connects undergraduates and graduates with Sudanese universities, secondary schools and groups of adults. University semesters are from September to January and January to April. Volunteers are asked to commit to at least one semester, but preferably at least six months.

Volunteers must be older than 22 and also must be:

1. People whose native or mother tongue and first daily language is English AND who have studied at a university or similar institution i.e. who are graduates or undergraduates or,

2. Non native English speakers but with established qualifications or experience of teaching English.

Volunteers must pay for airfare and GBP 60 (almost $100 US/CDN) for the first three months of insurance. Accommodations and a small stipend is provided. Teachers work a maximum of 30 hours a week.

I Love Chile offers internships in their English language media groups (including radio, television, online newspaper and a monthly newspaper).

Looking for interns in the following:

http://www.tramatextiles.org/

An association of loomweavers that offers high quality products and fair wages to the craftspeople.

They are looking for volunteers in: program management, store management, web and graphic design, fundraising, marketing, sales and translation.

Learn about international development, fair trade, and traditional Mayan weaving while practicing your Spanish and living in Guatemala.

Volunteer Preferred Qualifications

• Highly motivated and flexible
• Ability to work independently and in a team
• Time commitment of at least 3 weeks and 10 hours per week. (If you would like to volunteer for less time, you have to also sign up for one of Trama’s weaving courses.)

Contact them to learn more. 

http://www.morethanenglish.com/anglos/index.asp

Now this sounds more like a vacation than a free volunteer trip! Spend a week in the Spanish countryside, drinking wine, eating great meals and talking English. That’s it!

Volunteers are provided with hotel-like accommodations (some with swimming pools!) and three meals a day. “All lunches and dinners are three courses with red wine and water. For starters and mains there is always a choice between two dishes,” states the website.

Participants in the program are generally business people who want to improve their English in a natural, intensive way.

Here’s what you’ll be doing –

Talking, talking and talking!!! Your job on the program will not be so much as to “teach” English, but to expose the students to the English language in its natural form through conversations, presentations, and fun, light-hearted activities like group work and theatre sketches. So there will be no need to brush up on your grammar and vocabulary!

Your days will be made up of activities like one-to-one sessions where you get to chat to a different Spaniard each hour about…well, about anything you fancy really! The idea is to chat to them as you would your friends and colleagues, so they can improve both their listening and conversation skills.

Sound amazing? They are looking for volunteers 22 years of age and older, but there is another program for teenagers aged 13 to 17. There are four venues in Spain as well as one in Germany.

Read this great account on Matador Change about one volunteer’s experiences and how much fun she had.

www.mayapedal.org

Originally posted on Volunteer South America.

This looks like a really cool opportunity for those that like to work with their hands and fix things. Maya Pedal is an NGO that repairs used bicycles and builds bicimáquina — pedal-powered machines that make economic sense. Examples of bicimáquinas include a grinding mill/corn thresher, blender, water pump, nut sheller, trailers and more.

Maya Pedal works with regional projects and helps make their work more efficient, while strengthening the local economy. One example is a local woman’s collective that produces organic aloe shampoo using a bicycle blender.

Volunteer positions include: workshop engineers, cycle mechanics, sales and marketing, producing PDF instructions, and translation.

They are looking for volunteers with specific skills to contribute and teach and reasonable Spanish skills.

In the best interest of Maya Pedal´s sustainability, we strongly favour volunteers who can commit to a longer term stay (ex. 4 months).  If there is space available, we will accept volunteers for shorter periods.  You will be expected to be self motivated, work hard and contribute in any way you can.  Since you will often be working without direction or direct supervision, we also favour experienced volunteers. We work from 9am until 5pm (mas o menos) Monday to Friday.

Maya Pedal has volunteer accommodations. There is a 35 Quetzales ($4.50 US) weekly fee to cover water, electricity and internet.

http://www.mkombozi.org/

Education, research, advocacy, outreach and housing support for neglected children and youth. The general aim is to get children off the streets and educate, empower and care for them.

What they’re looking for:

In particular, we are currently seeking assistance in the following areas…

• Mental health / Social workers: Trained and experienced professionals are always needed in these areas to work with the boys at Mkombozi’s residential centre.
• Teaching: Qualified and experienced teachers and TEFL instructors are always welcome to work with Mkombozi’s children, designing and delivering curriculum.
• Fundraising: We need volunteers to help us prepare and launch annual campaigns to raise funds for our residential centre. We also need volunteers to organise fundraising events.
• Information technology: We need volunteers to help set up and maintain computer networks in Tanzanian schools and to provide support at ACTT (Affordable Computers and Technology for Tanzania). ACTT is Mkombozi’s independent, IT (products, access and training) initiative dedicated to youth empowerment; to learn more, go to http://www.actt.co.tz
• Art: Drama is an important advocacy tool at Mkombozi. We need volunteers to help set up and support art programs in drawing, painting, music and drama.

They would like volunteers to stay for at least six months and must have at least a bachelor’s degree. Volunteers must add value in terms of skills and experiences (such as the above). No food or accommodation is provided, but they can help find housing. Willingness to learn Kiswahili is required. Immigration permit requirements include $120 US.

Their volunteer program (and the whole organization) seems very well developed, which could be an advantage in having your skills specifically applied and a more structured volunteer experience.

http://recogh.webs.com/

From their website:

Rescue Centre for Orphans -Ghana is a non-governmental organization that works for the rescue, rehabilitation and empowerment of Children working in Cocoa Farms, Fishing Communities and   sexually exploited women and children. We run a residential school for the children of the sex workers and the children rescued from the trafficking networks. We endeavor to provide a decent and dignified childhood to these marginalized children.

The centre also provides care and education for deaf children. The centre houses 60 children and has 10 staff members that care for them 24/7. The program seems quite flexible about length of volunteering term. No accommodation is provided.

There is no organized program, or set routine, for volunteers – you may choose to do whatever work you find fit. There have been many great volunteers, who only come and spend time with the children on weekends. Having patience, a sense of humour, a willing smile, being enthusiastic and being a resourceful self-starter are essential elements for all volunteers to possess.

http://www.katitawa.blogspot.com/

Originally posted on Volunteer South America.

Volunteer at a rural school with an indigenous community in Salasaca, Ecuador. Their website is a blog on the school going back to 2007 with tons of photos and stories. There’s also many links to accounts from people who have volunteered, for example here, here and here.

The school is run by the Sumak Kawsay Yachay foundation that also runs a library. The school is 3km, up into the hills, from Salasaca, in what looks like a beautiful area. They call the school an experimental or alternative school because it offers more one-on-one learning and teaches a variety of subjects that the public schools may not. The school also has a garden, farm and forest area.

They have a variety of volunteer positions and ways to help, including: Librarian, Administration, Construction, Hostel Management, Teaching, Garden Management, and Maintenance. They are open to new ideas as well.

There’s no minimum time commitment. Housing, breakfast and lunch are offered for a $10 donation per week. Communal dinners are cooked at the hostel. So it sounds like a great way to meet people from around the world and a good opportunity if you’re volunteering alone.

http://khmerchild.org/

Provides education and health care to impoverished children aged zero to 20. Resident children have been orphaned or abandoned for a variety of reasons and non-resident children generally come from poor rural areas. “Many of the children in our program come from backgrounds where they have had limited or no access to education,” says the website.

Always looking for volunteers to teach English, Japanese, computer skills and Khmer mathematics. Also looking for: sports teams coaches, fine arts teachers and administrative help.

• short and long term placements available
• no housing or meals available
• transportation from Siem Riep arranged by volunteer (tuk tuks are $2-3 each way or bicycles can be rented for $1 a day)
• volunteers can work either the morning (7:30 – 11am) or afternoon (2-6pm) shift