Work with Disabled Children

In Costa Rica, institutions and schools for disabled children are dedicated to helping children with physical and/or emotional disabilities that cannot attend a normal school. These spezialized schools help children with different disabilities, such as autism, hearing and vision problems, or Down Syndrome. Autism is a psychiatric disorder characterized by deficits in communication and social interaction, preoccupation with fantasy, language impairment, and abnormal behavior, which can include excessive attachment and repetitive acts. Autism is usually associated with an intellectual impairment. 

These schools often lack professional staff and equipment to properly help these children. For this reason, the schools rely on volunteers to assist with teaching and taking care of the children. 

There are two different schools where we place volunteers, which are attended by between 250 and 560 children. The children range from babies to teenagers, and there are also young adults between the ages of 18-21 that are taken care of.

On a day-to-day basis, you will be expected to help teachers during classes by assisting the students and preparing teaching materials for the classes. Since English is becoming an increasingly important language in Costa Rica, you will be expected to teach the children English on a regular basis.

Here is a small overview of what your tasks may include:

• Helping the teachers during classes
• Teaching English
• Preparing lessons
• Organizing games and activities
• Playing sports and games
• Helping out with day-to-day operations
• Providing caring attention to the children
• Assisting the teachers
• Help with feeding and bathing the youngest children
• Monitoring naptime for the small children
• Supervising the children while they play, eat, sleep, or study

At work, you will be surrounded by other people (be it volunteers or teachers) who are all passionate about helping children. This creates a welcoming, safe atmosphere for both children and volunteers alike.

Note: The tasks may vary. They depend on factors such as number of volunteers, weather, season, current needs of the project, as well as self-motivation. Not every volunteer may be fully involved in all these tasks.

Being in the vibrant city of San Jose, there are many activities to do in your spare time. There are regular concerts, and a wide range of sports to participate in. Weekends are the perfect time to enjoy an exciting hike through Costa Rican nature since the main attractions of Costa Rica is its system of national parks and protected areas, which cover around 25% of the national territory, in order to protect the rich variety of flora and fauna, which is estimated to contain 5% of the world's biodiversity in less than 0.1% of the planet's land mass. In addition, Costa Rica has countless amazing beaches on both the Pacific and the Caribbean Ocean.

Costa Rica is the perfect place to combine volunteer work with tourism, enjoy activities like:

- Adventure sport
- Dream beaches
- Ecotourism
- Local culture
- Bird / wildlife watching
- Visits to unique National Parks
- Rural tourism
- Sightseeing and history in San José