Teach
| country: | Costa Rica |
| departures: | Start dates are the first and third Saturday of each month, all year round. You can start on any other weekend, but will be responsible for making your own way to Cahuita on these weekends. Minimum stay 4 weeks - recommend at least 5 weeks if taking Spanish |
| price: | From £1245 (4 weeks) - £1815 (16 weeks) excluding flights & insurance (or from £960 - £1560 without Spanish lessons). We can offer advice on flights from the UK. Price includes accomodation & food, 40 hours of Spanish lessons (if applicable), donations, transfers, excursions & 24 hour support |
| vouchers: | Gift vouchers can be used with this holiday |
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introduction to Teach
Learn Spanish, teach children, and explore one of the last remaining indigenous areas in Costa Rica and arguably one of the most beautiful. Living with local families in Cahuita, a typically laid back Caribbean village, lined with pristine beaches and palm trees, allows volunteers to learn or improve their Spanish, while traveling each day by bus to nearby, rural communities for their project teaching work.
With leaders and teachers of the communities, we are developing educational reinforcement programs or 'aulas abiertas' to assist children and adults who otherwise may not have the opportunity of a full formal education or who need educational reinforcement.
We will also be helping the understaffed schools in the region, where often just 2 teachers have to teach 7 grades worth of children, including Kinder, at the same time.
Volunteers will teach in the schools in the mornings, helping children who need more attention with literacy, maths and also giving English lessons. Other teaching activities will include sports, geography and arts. Work in the 'aulas abiertas' will take place in the afternoon and will concentrate on literacy (child and adult), reinforcement and English.
Forty hours of Spanish classes (based on skill level) are included in the price and are highly. At weekends, included in the programme fee, are three excursions, which will include a guided tour of the Cahuita National Park and maybe horse-riding, hiking, snorkelling: you can choose once you are there!
No formal teacher-training is required as each Volunteer will be supported by your project manager, existing volunteers, as well as a formal local teacher. Volunteers should be enthusiastic, happy to work with children, prepared to travel daily and to work in basic conditions.
A day in the life of a volunteer
Spanish classes: Classes are conducted with two students and one teacher and continue for 40 hours. We recommend that you spend the first week just studying four hours a day in the mornings, allowing time in the afternoon for homework and practice. Then over the next two weeks you would study 2 hours in the afternoon after working in the communities. This gives you three weeks in total of Spanish classes and allows ample time to ask you teacher about words and phrases you have encountered in the communities and invaluable practice with your teacher.
The work: Once the classes are completed, or if you are not taking the Spanish classes, you will work in the chosen community from Monday to Friday. Days start with eating breakfast with the host family before meeting at the Spanish School at 7am and driving to the designated communities to work in the schools from 8am to 12 noon. The 'aulas abiertas' will then start at 1pm and run for 2 hours, with breaks, whereupon you will catch the bus back to Cahuita, arriving at around 4pm.
Adventure activities: Cahuita's geographical position on the Caribbean coast allows for some amazing weekend excursions. Included in the program fee are three excursions to give you an idea of the treks and activities which abound in the area, including hiking, biking, snorkeling, fishing etc. One of the trips will be a guided tour in the Cahuita National Park and you can choose which two activities you want to do once in Cahuita. With Cahuita so close to the Panama border, you can spend a weekend or two in Bocas del Toro, in Panama.
With leaders and teachers of the communities, we are developing educational reinforcement programs or 'aulas abiertas' to assist children and adults who otherwise may not have the opportunity of a full formal education or who need educational reinforcement.
We will also be helping the understaffed schools in the region, where often just 2 teachers have to teach 7 grades worth of children, including Kinder, at the same time.
Volunteers will teach in the schools in the mornings, helping children who need more attention with literacy, maths and also giving English lessons. Other teaching activities will include sports, geography and arts. Work in the 'aulas abiertas' will take place in the afternoon and will concentrate on literacy (child and adult), reinforcement and English.
Forty hours of Spanish classes (based on skill level) are included in the price and are highly. At weekends, included in the programme fee, are three excursions, which will include a guided tour of the Cahuita National Park and maybe horse-riding, hiking, snorkelling: you can choose once you are there!
No formal teacher-training is required as each Volunteer will be supported by your project manager, existing volunteers, as well as a formal local teacher. Volunteers should be enthusiastic, happy to work with children, prepared to travel daily and to work in basic conditions.
A day in the life of a volunteer
Spanish classes: Classes are conducted with two students and one teacher and continue for 40 hours. We recommend that you spend the first week just studying four hours a day in the mornings, allowing time in the afternoon for homework and practice. Then over the next two weeks you would study 2 hours in the afternoon after working in the communities. This gives you three weeks in total of Spanish classes and allows ample time to ask you teacher about words and phrases you have encountered in the communities and invaluable practice with your teacher.
The work: Once the classes are completed, or if you are not taking the Spanish classes, you will work in the chosen community from Monday to Friday. Days start with eating breakfast with the host family before meeting at the Spanish School at 7am and driving to the designated communities to work in the schools from 8am to 12 noon. The 'aulas abiertas' will then start at 1pm and run for 2 hours, with breaks, whereupon you will catch the bus back to Cahuita, arriving at around 4pm.
Adventure activities: Cahuita's geographical position on the Caribbean coast allows for some amazing weekend excursions. Included in the program fee are three excursions to give you an idea of the treks and activities which abound in the area, including hiking, biking, snorkeling, fishing etc. One of the trips will be a guided tour in the Cahuita National Park and you can choose which two activities you want to do once in Cahuita. With Cahuita so close to the Panama border, you can spend a weekend or two in Bocas del Toro, in Panama.
volunteer travel - what's it all about?
Are you looking for an adventurous trip with a purpose, or on a gap year or career break? If you want to make a difference in some of the world’s most important conservation areas - and in community projects - then volunteer trips are for you! Volunteers tend to have a sense of adventure, and come from a range of different backgrounds and from all over the world. Edward Abbey said 'sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul'.
how this holiday makes a difference
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A substantial part of the fee goes towards the day-to-day running costs of the projects themselves throughout the year, including daily transport, food subsidies for the school meals and fruit for the children (sometimes their only meal of the day), educational materials for classes, monthly birthday celebrations, painting and maintenance.
 On top of this, each volunteer has a US $100 donation; you decide where it should be spent. All class-related materials for day to day teaching are also included. Education is free in Costa Rica though the parents still have to buy the basic materials for the child to attend, which they often cannot do. We are endeavoring to cover these costs and included in your fee is a utensils scholarship for one child for one year. |
Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people. We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel. 'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left). We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays. We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism. This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards. |
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