Volunteering in Guatemala
1. Social Work/Education/Health Care
About 75% of all volunteer opportunities in Guatemala are social, educational and medical projects, e.g. schools, orphanages, child day-care centers, health centers and
posts, clinics and hospitals, mostly with very basic facilities and out-of-date resources. Available work opportunities are:
- Caring for abused, poor, orphans, street children and physically and/or mentally disabled children, adults and elderly;
- Assist a local preschool or primary school teacher with tutoring, in-class activities, skill-learning and sports;
- Assist a social worker;
- Work side-by-side with Guatemalan health workers in family clinics and hospitals and public health institutions.
2. Animal & Wildlife Rescue/Environmental Protection
ARCAS: Environmental education is one of the keys to conserving Guatemala's wildlife. Volunteers can participate in reforestations with school children, beach clean-ups, hatchling releases and eco-tours of underprivileged children to ARCAS Hawaii or ARCAS PetÚn, which will hopefully lead to a greater awareness among Guatemalans and visiting tourists about the need to conserve endangered species and their habitat, or assist ARCAS with its newest project, Senderos de Alux Ecological Park in Cerro Alux, a cloud forest reserve in between Guatemala City and Antigua, in the development of exhibits, painting of signs and the development of bilingual educational materials and have the opportunity to accompany members of the ARCAS Education Department on their visits to local schools and conducting field trips with local students. One of the goals is to rescue, rehabilitate and reintroduce into their natural habitat wild animals seized from illegal traffickers. Volunteers are needed to help caring for those animals, feed the animals, and assist with veterinary medical treatments and construction of new facilities and cages.
AWARE Rescue and rehabilitation of domestic animals
Possible duties include: Dogs: bathing, brushing, obedience training, medicating, cleaning cages, walking, and socializing; Cats: brushing, medicating, cleaning the cages, and socializing; Educational programs in local schools - must be fluent in Spanish; Helping in spay/neuter clinics by going to villages and helping with the rabies programs; any knowledge of carpentry, electricity, plumbing, computers, horticulture would be a big help. We are always making new living areas for the animals or improving or repairing the existing ones. There are also improvements to be made to the volunteer facilities. There is always need for qualified veterinarians wanting to help us for however much time you are willing to give us. There is a well-equipped on-site clinic with facilities for operating (spay/neutering), and laboratory equipment for basic general diagnoses.
Please contact email@example.com for availability and any further questions.