Know our projects

The children of Colombia are the reason why many of our volunteers extend their stay.  The kids greet you with big smiles, hugs and an overwhelming curiosity for information from our volunteers.  Our childcare projects take place both in poor neighborhoods, where volunteers are required to fill the gap with the available staff, or through work in an orphanage or child protection houses, where children are estranged from their family.  Childcare is about providing love and support to these children while encouraging them to develop their skills in sports, arts, music and any other subject you wish to help them with. Children in childcare range from small toddlers through to teenagers. These kids are in desperate need of love and attention and volunteers are the perfect people to get this job done.

For this job, you may be assisting the children with gardening, helping feed the babies, tutoring the teenagers, or entertaining the children from kindergarten by singing and playing with them in English.

This project is a chance for volunteers to break a sweat and get their hands a little dirty.  Some families, schools, and even some hospitals in Bogotá cannot afford professional people, tools, and supplies to build or renovate homes, classrooms and hospital wards, bursting at the seams, due to the increasing number of children and patients.  They desperately need assistance.  Volunteers do not need extensive building or renovation experience to help here.  All you need is a reasonable level of energy and fitness and of course dedication and determination.    You may find yourself knocking down walls, installing kitchens, fixing chairs, painting walls, or renovating roofs.  Our construction projects concentrate mainly on schools in poor areas.  This is your chance to leave an amazing long lasting and permanent mark of your own.

In the large majority of western countries, the elderly have home centers and care workers readily available for them. In Colombia, however, there is very little financial aid from the government to help their own elderly.  The combination of war neglect, poverty and disease have left many families living in overcrowded homes.  These homes cannot afford to feed every senior and with many suffering with one or more forms of long-term illnesses, the families simply cannot afford the needed medication.  This unfortunately leads to more and more of the elderly being left to fend for themselves on the streets of Bogotá, a situation made even more dire to those suffering from certain illnesses such as dementia and pneumonia. The volunteers can help with everything from medication to feeding.  The elders suffer from a wide range of problems such as blindness, deafness, speech deficiencies, arthritis, dementia, and general day-to-day illnesses, such as the flu and colds.  There is never a dull moment while volunteering here.

The volunteer’s main job will be to keep the elderly company and to keep them entertained.  There are rarely any activities arranged for the elderly to do, hence the need for volunteers.  Volunteers can arrange a wide variety of games, such as bingo and board games, while also arranging drawing and painting activities.  The elders really love to dance which is a great form of exercise for them.  The volunteers can bring their own music if they wish, but they prefer the traditional Colombian music of course!  They need to exercise at least once a day, and dancing is by far the most effective method of doing this as they genuinely enjoy it.  Some of the elderly are in wheelchairs and thus are unable to dance but they need exercise too. The staff needs as much assistance as possible from the volunteers. The volunteers help take all the elders upstairs to the dining area where they will serve food and drink.  Once finished, the volunteers can help wash and help the dishes. There is also the necessary maintenance of painting, cleaning and sweeping… anything to help ease the workload for the staff.

We consider that communities are one of the most important in society and in their construction, therefore, this project was born when we identified the need to generate empowerment in the most vulnerable populations in the country.

But how can we contribute to the improvement of these communities? From the role of volunteer, you will support different activities that generate a sense of belonging for the place where they live, sustainability and business ideas that allow economic development, among them are crafts for the creation of products and participation in vegetable gardens for the food harvest.