Youth, Care and Community
Under-resourced and under-staffed community projects are waiting for enthusiastic volunteers to bring their own ideas for projects and help out with already-established projects.
we offer various youth care & Community activities
Please check the boxes to the right and find out if
you have a preference for one or the other project.
Whether your skills lie in music, sports, drama, art or handwork
- We can offer you a unique chance to implement your own ideas, while giving you valuable experience and realizing personal ambitions and goals.
You are welcome to combine different activities and sign up for several programs!
Enhance the lives of children and teenagers
We cannot pretend to remedy serious social and economic conditions but our volunteers in Santa Elena have plenty of opportunities to make a difference to young people who would otherwise lack educational and creative opportunities.
If this entry makes its way on the net and you are considering volunteering here, if you can give a time commitment of 5 plus months the benefit to both you and the organization will be really worth while.
∼ Janet Kenealy / Kilkenny, Ireland
Teach children at our Mobile School
Ecological Building & Carpentry
Environmental Conservation
Horse Riding for children
Volunteer with Aldeas de Paz
Choose your Involvement Level
Specialize or Diversify
Every volunteer has the opportunity to be involved in as many or as few of our programs and they would like. We encourage volunteers to form schedules which work for them, and to work in any combination of programs. Volunteers decide how many hours they want to work. We recommend a minimum 3 days a week. You may work as much as 5 days and as many hours you wish. We emphasize that we focus on excellence and not on quantity.
Why we need volunteers
Volunteers - The driving Force
Volunteers and interns are the driving force of Aldeas de Paz' work, both through their volunteering and through their financial contributions. Volunteering with us is a great opportunity to work side by side with locals, learn new skills, study Spanish, and immerse oneself in the Latin and indigenous culture. Learn Spanish
Family Volunteering
Why Volunteer As a Family?
Volunteering as a family is a wonderful way to connect with each other in a unique way, while giving something back to a community. Families can volunteer in a variety of programs which are suitable to various ages. Watch family volunteering video.
Each member can discover his or her strengths and share them dynamically. A child learns the value and joy of truly helping a community. Parents can marvel at their child’s self-discovery, creativity and interaction with others. The kids gain a sense of autonomy and self-esteem doing activities that are traditionally reserved for adults. It is also a perfect way for children to absorb Spanish.
- The Youth, Care & Community program is particularly suited because children can meet and share their favorite activities with children from other cultures — an ideal cultural exchange.
- Living with Pemón Aboriginals is also a perfect way for families to offer their help.
- Younger volunteers really appreciate the Horse Riding program. They feel very useful taking care of the horses and can interact with the local children as well.
Families can choose independent, host-family, or community living accommodation. From past experiences, we strongly recommend the community living on the Aldeas de Paz campus. There is a strong extended family feeling and we all enjoyy meals and much laughter together. There is an apartment that is specially suited to families, providing for space and privacy.
What do past volunteers say??
For me and for my children, aged 11 and 7, the foundation has offered a fantastic experience for us as a family, and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to travel to Venezuela with children. We were here nearly three months, the children had opportunities to swim in the pool here, play with local children, visit waterfalls, walk through the rainforest to the nearby river, hear howler monkeys and cicadas and see hummingbirds, bright green lizards, the stunning rolling mountains of the Gran Sabana and lots of really BIG insects.
Both benefited from their experience of collective living, carrying out a lot more chores then they do at home and acquiring, I hope, a greater sense of personal responsibility. They learned some Spanish and got a real sense of how children in another country live, especially in the poorer communities.
∼ Carolyn Alison Wiener / London, UK