DARE Guatemala Project 2009:
Casa Guatemala

Overview

Guatemala is one of the most beautiful and culturally-rich countries in Central America. It is home to volcanoes, rich tropical forests and outstanding Mayan ruins, but also some of the worst poverty levels in the hemisphere, with a huge gulf between the nations rich and poor.

D.A.R.E.s Guatemala project takes place in Casa Guatemala, an independently-funded orphanage situated on the banks of the Rio Dulce. See www.casa-guatemala.org for a wealth of information on the organisation.

Around 200 abandoned, abused, or poverty-stricken children live at the orphanage, while another 50 from the surrounding villages go to school at Casa Guatemala. The children range in age from 3 to 16.

Activities

There are lots of tasks to assist with at Casa Guatemala:
   Teaching: English, P.E, or Crafts are most useful to the children.
   Construction or painting work: This will depend on what Casa Guatemala needs help with and what D.A.R.E. can provide.
   Orientador: This job involves you getting the children up, washed, fed and ready for school. You rest while they are at school and then make sure the children have lunch. You are then responsible for them doing their chores, having dinner and going to bed.
   Playing with the children! The children have free time at lunch, after school and at the weekends. The volunteers plan activities for the children to do but they enjoy swimming in the river and playing football the most!

Dates

This D.A.R.E. project runs for around 4-6 weeks and takes place during the summer vacation. Dates will be provided by D.A.R.E. after consulting Casa Guatemala to see when they foresee they will be most in need of volunteers.

Cost

Each volunteer pays Casa Guatemala $180. This includes your food and accommodation whilst at Casa Guatemala, regardless of how long you stay.

Volunteer Qualities

This project is good for people who would like teaching experience and for anyone who likes children. The kids at Casa Guatemala are amazing and, as most of the work you are doing will be with them, volunteers must be happy to spend time with children. There are many different things to do at the orphanage community and it is up to the group to be pro-active and work with other volunteers at Casa Guatemala to get involved.

Guatemala is a Spanish-speaking country, and we would highly recommend learning some basic Spanish before you go, although the children are very good at helping you with the language! D.A.R.E. hopes to provide a basic Spanish course to all the volunteers. The course would be compulsory, with dates being arranged with the successful applicants.

e-mail daredundee@googlemail.com with any questions