Community Development Placement

The program

This wonderful community development program currently works on three key projects;

Ciudad Oculta - Around 45 minutes away from central Buenos Aires by car, Ciudad Oculta (The hidden city) houses around 100,000 people within just five square kilometres, a slum area of epic proportions. Urban poverty has resulted in children having no green spaces to play, crime rates are high and the streets are dangerous. This project, which supports approximately 750 children, offers school supplies and volunteer tutors.

Happy Birthday! - The objective of this very special program is to strengthen the children’s sense of self-worth and adaptability to their social environment by establishing emotional bonds that will stimulate their development. The project provides a monthly birthday party celebration for each community centre to celebrate these wonderful children and acknowledge the birthdays of those in that month.

Water for Peruti - Perutí is an indigenous village located in the middle of the Misiones jungle in the Northeast of Argentina, more than 1,500 kilometres from the city of Buenos Aires. The community is made up of 85 families who live in a state of abject poverty as a result of the commercial deforestation and exploitation of their lands. Over 75% of the children in Peruti suffer from malnourishment. Originally established to set up clean water for this community (now accomplished) a long term Humanitarian Assistance project now operates.

Goals of this Project:

• Provide educational support for the impoverished and at-risk children of Ciudad Oculta
• Celebrate the children of impoverished communities and build their sense of worth by hosting birthday parties for those who would otherwise go without
• Improve the health and long term wellbeing of the marginalized indigenous community of Perutí
• Provide an opportunity for cross cultural exchange between volunteers and locals

How you can help

This volunteer program provides essential support to a huge number of children and families in Argentina. From hosting birthday parties for impoverished children to build their confidence and self-worth to tutoring vulnerable children living at risk in slum conditions and providing health services to an indigenous community, international volunteers on this program are delivering support to those in need. Volunteers will find this an extremely eye-opening and rewarding program, where they will gain a huge amount of knowledge and experience in delivering programs that empower others. No two days will be the same, as volunteers work around the larger Buenos Aires metropolis, or even travel on the monthly trip to Perutí to support team members on humanitarian programs. Regardless of the task, volunteers will be helping those who desperately need additional support.

• Deliver resources to schools in impoverished areas and help with extra-curricular activities
• Deliver humanitarian assistance programs
• Tutor impoverished children aged 3 – 12 in a class room setting in math, Spanish, and English
• Organize and host birthday parties for marginalized children
• Assist program staff with organization and other task as required

A volunteer’s work day on this project will generally last between 4 and 6 hours and while we ask all volunteers to be flexible in this regard, a typical daily schedule is likely to go something like this:

7:00am Breakfast at the hostel

7:30am Walk or bus to project site

8:00am Pre-start meeting with project supervisor

8:15am VOLUNTEERING DUTIES START

A tea break and lunch break will be fitted in during the day, but often the timing of breaks will change based on the needs of the local staff and number of volunteers on hand.

2:00pm VOLUNTEERING DUTIES END

2:15pm Debrief with project supervisor

2:30pm Walk or bus back to hostel

Evenings Free time to relax and grab some dinner or explore the sights and sounds of central BA!