So you want to volunteer overseas?
Excellent!
There are plenty of places you can find volunteer opportunities. This list will give you a place to start, at at the bottom some of our personal favourites for low cost volunteering in Latin America. If you have any questions, just pop them in the comments below 🙂
Overseas volunteering organisations
Red Cross
Directory of Australian focused voluntere organisations
Volunteering For New ZealandersÂ
Free web directories
Idealist
Directory of free and cheap volunteering in South America
Other peoples experiences
Who do you know that has been volunteering? Sit down for coffee and pick their brains on their experiences.
Contacting project websites directly
Love the idea of working with a certain charity? Visit their website directly.
Community forums
See the volunteering group on Couch Surfing groups (requires login).
Our recommendations!
Here are some of the fantastic low cost volunteer projects that we have visited personally and think the world of:
Volunteer in Ecuador – Merazonia
Merazonia is a fantastic wildlife rescue project based in the Amazon jungle in Ecuador. An super cool project that will have you look after the needs of a variety of exciting wild animals including many types of exotic monkeys, birds and wild cats and if you are lucky, you could help hand rear a baby monkey!
Volunteer in Colombia – Fundacion Mariposas Amarillas (yellow butterflies)
Mariposas Amarillas is two little schools built in the slums 15 minutes out of Santa Marta in northern Colombia. There is a morning school and an afternoon school that gives a basic education to kids who would have little access to school otherwise. It is a high energy project that relies heavily on volunteers as teachers and teachers aids. The kids are gorgeous and you will fall in love!
Volunteer in Costa Rica – Pacuare Reserve
Pacuare Reserve is a turtle conservation project that focuses on an important stretch of beach where leatherback turtles, green turtles and some hawkesbill turtles lay their eggs. Duties will include night patrol, nest excavation and depending on the season you will see plenty of nesting turtles and hatchlings – incredible!
Volunteer in Guatemala – Casa Guatemala
Casa Guatemala is a jungle orphanage and school on a river in Guatemala. They house, school and feed over 300 kids, some are orphans, some come by day and others stay for longer spells. For these kids the orphanage and school are the only chance they will get at a decent education and regular meals. There are a number of great roles for people who would like a life changing experience.
This beginning of this post is an excerpt from our awesome free eBook – Volunteering Overseas – Get Yourself A Life Changing Adventure! Get your copy of this comprehensive guide in the side column.
As well as capturing stories of inspiring people who are making a difference to their communities, her passion is to help people find a way to do the things they love for a living.
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