Youth, Community and Nature
Location
Venezuela: Santa Elena de Uiaren
Description
Youth, Community and Nature
Enhance and improve the lives of children by signing up as a volunteer. Whether your skills lie in music, sports, riding, drama, art or hands-on work we can offer you a unique chance to implement your own ideas, while giving you valuable experience and realizing personal ambitions and goals. Within this program there are four different areas: teaching and tutoring, mobile school, green building and carpentry and conservation. We are constantly adapting our activities to weather conditions, children's needs and volunteer numbers and capacities. If you wish to specialize in a particular activity we will do our best to accommodate your personal preferences however, you can be asked to be involved in a combination of activities which requires working directly in contact with our beneficiaries.
Teaching And Tutoring
A unique chance to implement your own ideas and skills enhancing the lives of children.
Aldeas de Paz after school program is a program developed by the foundation to help improve the education of children in Venezuela. The idea is to supplement their regular learning with classes that differ from their regular schooling. As a volunteer you can let your creativity run wild with songs, games and other learning activities in groups of about 6-12 children.
Special Initiatives (this has to be booked in advanced)
The Casa de la Cultura and Fundacion del Nino are some of the organizations, which are open to the input of volunteers with their own projects. In the past, volunteers have formed teams working on community projects such as the maintenance and improvement of playgrounds and community centers, the organization of recycling programs, environmental education activities in local schools and the planning of cultural events in conjunctions with the town council. In addition to established community activities and programs, motivated volunteers who bring ideas for projects and have the language skills have the chance to set up their own volunteer opportunities with the financial and organizational support of our charity. The foundations established relationships and contacts with various schools and social organizations in the town and the help of the Volunteer Coordinator enable volunteers to create their own exciting work placements
Possible Activities
* Teaching and tutoring English, math or science classes?
* Organizing occasional special educational events?
* Assist teaching music or arts, craft, theater, body expression and ceramics?
* Participate in visits to the local pediatric ward for recreational activities like story telling, theater and play sessions?
* Make and decorate wooden didactic toys and giveaways' for local daycare centers
* Assist with play sessions at local day care centers providing extra early childhood stimulation and joy to disadvantaged children
The Mobile School (this has to be booked in advanced)
The perfect opportunity for energetic, creative and outgoing people to share their talents!
In the mobile school you will work with children, educating them in different areas such as literacy, mathematics, creative therapy, health care and human rights. We aim to make the teaching lively and fun while still being educational. One of the most important parts of the teaching is raising self-esteem, by teaching the children that they are a valuable part of their community.
Aldeas de Paz's Mobile School Program focuses on children who need help with the traditional educational system, the local indigenous communities and children who live in poorer settlements on the outskirts of Santa Elena.
Possible Activities
* Helping to plan and prepare the classes, and regular maintenance of the Mobile School
* Helping to teach literacy, math, creative therapy, healthcare education, children's rights and other topics
* Assist with supervising sport, recreational and development activities, organizing special events
* Helping with logistics, supervising and the administration of the mobile school
Green Building And Carpentry (this has to be booked at least a month in advance)
The perfect program for creative, innovative and pioneer-spirited people!
You will take part in one of the most important aspects, which is the expansion of our multi-faceted Community Center facilities for at risk local children and young people with special needs. The aim is to help young kids gain alternative recreational options. This is a great opportunity to share your skills and make a sustainable difference to a community that really needs it. On the ecological building project you can also hone your Spanish skills as you work side by side with our local grounds-maintenance workers. Assist with painting and restoring work, help with landscaping, redecorating and maintenance.
Possible Activities
* Help construct wooden infrastructures on the Aldeas de Paz campus: an ecological horse stable and children playground and completing our small school building
* Doing all sorts of jobs in our fully stocked workshop
* Renovation & maintenance of rooms, gardens, recreational facilities and workshops
* Wood/stone work, including improvement & maintenance of the Horse Riding facilities
* Assist with maintenance and improvement of existing infrastructure, paths and fences
* Help restore and maintain children’s playgrounds and school facilities
* Assistance with day-to-day tasks, collaboration on projects using local ecological materials
Conservation
Venezuelan biodiversity is among the richest in the world. Help preserve, and teach others to preserve, the beautiful landscape of the Gran Sabana.
If you enjoy the outdoors, we encourage you to try your hand at tropical conservation. It is a wonderful way to make friends, get some fresh air, exercise, and help preserve Venezuela’s natural beauty. Carry out environmental conservation to protect the fragile savannah ecosystem by helping us with maintaining our tree nursery and organic farming project on the Aldeas de Paz grounds. You are working in a stunning location surrounded by monkeys, toucans, parrots, butterflies and many other incredible animals.
Special Initiatives
Along with our ongoing projects, special initiatives can be arranged according to your interests and knowledge. Twice every year, depending on how many volunteers we are able to mobilize, we can clean natural beauty spots in the Gran Sabana national park and help preserve flora and fauna in this unique and fragile savannah ecosystem. There is also potential for work in the indigenous community of Chirikayen.
Possible Activities
* Teaching or assisting in programs for environmental education and organic gardening for local school children
* Nurturing plant seedlings and maintain tree nursery on foundations grounds
* Help maintaining Foundations grounds and its small organic fruit and vegetable gardens
* Photographing, recording and cataloguing native species of flora and fauna
* Assisting to maintain an educational trail for schoolchildren in nearby tropical forest
* Develop a comprehensive species list of the existing wildlife in the savannah park and biological reserve
Highlights
Spanish Language immersion classes: Volunteers or Interns receive up to 10 Spanish language lessons every week. Classes focus on developing communication skills so that students are able to put their knowledge to practical use as soon as they step outside the classroom. Our teaching method enables students to develop four basic skills: listening comprehension, speaking, reading and writing. The idea is to learn Spanish in a natural and spontaneous way, just as students have learned their mother tongue. Our students speak Spanish right from the very first day, using it in typical real-life situations: the basic syllabus is supplemented by special exercises, such as role-play, situational dialogues and work projects. Outside the classroom the learning process continues as you are immersed in Spanish language and culture.
Adventure and pure nature Highlights:
The town of Santa Elena de Uairen is the headquarters of the Peace Villages Foundation in Venezuela and the heart of La Gran Sabana National Park. The town has about 15.000 inhabitants and is at an altitude of 900m - 1000m (3000f - 3250f) with a nearly perfect climate (16°C / 45°F - 28°C / 79°F all year round). The town was founded in 1922 as a Capuchin mission, and grew in the 1930s with the establishment of gold and diamond mines in the region. Santa Elena is surrounded by breathtaking scenery, and a wealth of nature. The region is one of the oldest geological sites on the planet where prehistoric flat topped mountains are like ecological islands with endemic species such as carnivorous plants and lots of other natural treasures. You will find good shopping opportunities, restaurants, internet cafes, postal and telephone services, clubs, pool halls and nightlife opportunities, as well as a wide variety of tourist travel destinations. Santa Elena is also a good place to arrange adventure tours into La Gran Sabana and Mount Roraima in particular. The area known as La Gran Sabana, "the Great Savannah" is located in the south-eastern corner of Venezuela, at the border with Brazil and Guyana. It is a high plateau, a land of wide open spaces (75,000 square kilometers), tropical forest, spectacular tepuys (flat-topped mountains), rivers and gorgeous waterfalls. It is also home to the Pemon aboriginals. It is unknown when La Gran Sabana was first occupied, but there are artifacts that demonstrate that indigenous peoples were occupying the Orinoco Delta at least 2 to 3 thousand years ago. At the time of the arrival of the first Europeans. La Gran Sabana was inhabited primarily by Pemon aboriginals. The Guayana shield, located in La Gran Sabana, is the earth's oldest surface. It is estimated to be 2 billion years old, and was formed when South America and Africa were still part of the super continent Gondwana. Besides flat plains, La Gran Sabana also features tropical regions, jungle and cloud forests, rich in palm trees, fern trees, orchids, bromelias and also animals including tapirs, jaguars, pumas, deer, anteaters, snakes, are all native to the different ecosystems of La Gran Sabana.
Treks & Tours
While Peace Villages is a volunteer based NGO, we recognize the importance of seeing other parts of La Gran Sabana and having a well rounded experience while you are here. Some trips can be done on weekends, otherwise we will help you to schedule tours so that you can see everything you want to in Venezuela, while still achieving your volunteer commitments with us. It is always best to plan to be here for a longer period of time so you can fit in a tour and still feel satisfied with the impact of your volunteer work. Peace Villages Foundation is not a tour operator but a volunteer charity! The Adventure Tours are organized and offered by local tour operators. If interested, we will help you to make contact with companies which use ecological criteria for enjoyable nature-based Adventure Tours throughout the beautiful and diverse Gran Sabana region, here in south-eastern Venezuela. Peace Villages also assists volunteers to self-organize their trip. A cheaper method than booking organized tours is to organize a trip yourself. When volunteers are interested in this option, we can assist them to make the necessary arrangements. Volunteers then share the direct costs of a guide, porter, food and transport, instead of buying a complete package. Costs depend on the number of group participants to share with. Hiring indigenous guides, drivers, boat operators, and hosts directly benefits local economies and, at the same time, adds an intimate and connected feeling to your adventure. Indigenous guides will enrich your Gran Sabana adventure tour experience with their knowledge, their kindness and their dedication and enthusiasm for these places.