Activities Counselor in shelter for young boys

This project is located in a village about 1,5 hours outside of Cochabamba. It’s a shelter for up to 60 boys that have been pulled from different, mostly (sexually) violent, environments. The project provides children aged 5 to 18 years with shelter, psychological support, homework guidance, spiritual support and a variety of activities. The organization wants to support the children and teenagers in processing trauma and provides a safe place for them where they can relax and learn new norms and values and develop perspectives beyond the cycle of violence. It’s a loud and hurly-burly place, with a lot of energy. A lively and lovely atmosphere. These boys, as sad as their histories are, are full of energy and a volunteer or intern working as Activities Counselor will be welcomed here with open arms. Coming up with activities such as soccer, painting, coloring, board games, other sports, dance activities and so on, would be perfect for this place.

Possible tasks:     

• homework support
•  teaching English
•  offer all kinds of activities from sport to dance, games and arts
•  painting buildings and murals
• starting a circus or theater project

You might take Spanish classes from 8:30 - 12:30. You have to take a trufi - you will learn about that - to get to the school.  After that you need to hurry, because it takes you 1,5 hours to get to the project and that means you miss lunch with the boys, as long as you take classes. Lucky you, it's your last week of Spanish lessons and starting next week, you will get there earlier.

The kitchen lady left some Lunch for you and before you start working with the boys, you have a little chat in the kitchen.

The boys are welcoming you and asking if you play some football with them. Alright. They are fast and loud and it's a lively place. You have to leave the game, because you meet with the director of the shelter, asking if there is some money you can spend on your theater project. With a group of the older boys you developed a play, and they came up with amazing ideas and characters and now you want to keep the project going.

Time passes by and you promised Antonio to help him out with his Math homework. So the two of you sit down in a quiet corner and you try to explain how multiplication works. It's getting dark and you have to head back to the city.

In the evening, you leave with some fellow volunteers from your house to have dinner in the center of the city and visit on of the many concerts that take place in whole Cochabamba.

In Cochabamba you can find hospitals and western doctors, supermarkets,  good mobile signal and a vast cultural life. There are National Parks nearby, sportstudios, museums, music-schools and yoga studios. Hiking-trails in the nearby mountains and trips to Villa Tunari and other Bolivian Hotspots.