Teach and travel in Central America
| country: | Guatemala, Honduras |
| departures: | Departs every Saturday throughout the year |
| price: | From £2450 (12 weeks) - £8350 (12 months) excluding flights. Including Spanish lessons, activities, accommodation & meals |
| vouchers: | Gift vouchers can be used with this holiday |
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introduction to Teach and travel in Central America
Explore Central America while assisting various volunteer teaching projects including literacy and numeracy, and learn Spanish.
Travel and teach on three of our most popular community projects in the beautiful bustling colonial towns of Antigua, Guatemala, and Copán in Honduras. The children you will be teaching in Guatemala and Honduras have little or no access to education and the local communities have requested we provide help.
Along with leaders of the indigenous communities we have built schools and started "open classrooms" that are free to attend. Spanish lessons are included as you will be teaching the children basic literacy and numeracy in Spanish. Volunteers will spend 7 weeks in Guatemala and 5 weeks in Honduras and enjoy side trips and visits to the ‘must’ see places in each location.
Volunteers will live with local families in Guatemala and Honduras in comfortable but basic accommodation allowing for an enriching cultural experience and the valuable opportunity to practice Spanish! All accommodation provided is private, has washing facilities and includes three meals a day; lunch is eaten in the communities with a local family during the week.
Guatemala - two day adventure activity to Lake Atitlan. Honduras - Copán ruins tour, hot springs, horse-riding and trekking.
Guatemala: Volunteers work full-time on their project from Monday to Friday, once the Spanish classes have been completed, during which time you will work half-days. Days start early with eating breakfast with the host family before meeting up with the other volunteers (usually up to 6 per community) at around 7.15am to catch the bus to the relevant project site. Help with homework is then available for the children before classes start at 9am. There is a break mid-morning for a fruit snack for the children; classes then continue to 12.30pm, when the volunteers will eat with a local family in the community, plan lessons and relax. Classes then restart with new children at 2pm with the fruit break mid-afternoon and finish at around 4pm, when the volunteers all return to Antigua a little after 5pm.
Honduras: On a typical day you will wake early and have breakfast with your host family, before meeting with the other volunteers at 6.30am to take the pick-up, which passes over asphalt roads and rough terrain, to the rural Chortí community. Arriving at the school, lessons begin at 7.30am and everyday is begun with saying the national oath of allegiance. You will then be involved in helping a grade of children with their literacy, maths and other subjects, depending on the curriculum and necessity. Lessons continue until about 9.30am when the children have a 45 minute break for food. Lessons then continue until 12.30pm, when you will break for lunch and rest. The “aulas abiertas” will then commence at 1.15pm finishing at 3pm when the pickup will arrive to take you back to Copán. In the afternoons, we will be supplying fruit to the children in the midway break. At present, these afternoon classes take place three days a week. The other two days you will return to Copán in time for lunch at 1pm.
Travel and teach on three of our most popular community projects in the beautiful bustling colonial towns of Antigua, Guatemala, and Copán in Honduras. The children you will be teaching in Guatemala and Honduras have little or no access to education and the local communities have requested we provide help.
Along with leaders of the indigenous communities we have built schools and started "open classrooms" that are free to attend. Spanish lessons are included as you will be teaching the children basic literacy and numeracy in Spanish. Volunteers will spend 7 weeks in Guatemala and 5 weeks in Honduras and enjoy side trips and visits to the ‘must’ see places in each location. Volunteers will live with local families in Guatemala and Honduras in comfortable but basic accommodation allowing for an enriching cultural experience and the valuable opportunity to practice Spanish! All accommodation provided is private, has washing facilities and includes three meals a day; lunch is eaten in the communities with a local family during the week.
activities
a day in the life of a volunteer
Guatemala: Volunteers work full-time on their project from Monday to Friday, once the Spanish classes have been completed, during which time you will work half-days. Days start early with eating breakfast with the host family before meeting up with the other volunteers (usually up to 6 per community) at around 7.15am to catch the bus to the relevant project site. Help with homework is then available for the children before classes start at 9am. There is a break mid-morning for a fruit snack for the children; classes then continue to 12.30pm, when the volunteers will eat with a local family in the community, plan lessons and relax. Classes then restart with new children at 2pm with the fruit break mid-afternoon and finish at around 4pm, when the volunteers all return to Antigua a little after 5pm. Honduras: On a typical day you will wake early and have breakfast with your host family, before meeting with the other volunteers at 6.30am to take the pick-up, which passes over asphalt roads and rough terrain, to the rural Chortí community. Arriving at the school, lessons begin at 7.30am and everyday is begun with saying the national oath of allegiance. You will then be involved in helping a grade of children with their literacy, maths and other subjects, depending on the curriculum and necessity. Lessons continue until about 9.30am when the children have a 45 minute break for food. Lessons then continue until 12.30pm, when you will break for lunch and rest. The “aulas abiertas” will then commence at 1.15pm finishing at 3pm when the pickup will arrive to take you back to Copán. In the afternoons, we will be supplying fruit to the children in the midway break. At present, these afternoon classes take place three days a week. The other two days you will return to Copán in time for lunch at 1pm.
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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Guatemala: The Indigenous Maya in Guatemala make up a huge percentage of the population, many living off just $1 a day. We have set up our own schools in two Indigenous communities, these being San Andrés Itzapa and Santa Maria de Jesus, both within a 45 minute bus ride from Antigua through lush mountain scenery and typical Guatemalan villages. Our aims are first and foremost in education with particular focus on literacy and educational reinforcement for the children of each community.
Honduras: We have committed ourselves to helping and assisting the Maya Chortí villages around Copan Ruinas. We work in the Maya Chortí community of San Rafael, with a populations of approximately 300 and whose family income is about 25 Lempiras (just over a dollar) a day. With this money, up to ten children must be fed, clothed and educated. Education is free in Honduras, the materials are not, so this can force children not to attend. Our organisation and volunteer contributions are removing this financial constraint by supplying the children with the school materials they require. It is hoped with the extra income the family will receive with this burden removed that those children who have dropped out will return. In addition a donation of US$100 will be made on behalf of the volunteer (you choose where it goes) to the volunteer project. Your money will also contribute towards building rent, electricity, water, local salaries, food programs, all learning utensils for the children, birthday celebrations for the children each month, construction / general repairs and one scholarship for a child to attend school for one year in both Guatemala and Honduras. |
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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