BootsnAll Travel Community

Is it better to make volunteer arrangements upon arrival in South America, or go through an organization based in the US? My Spanish is not great. I am afraid this may hinder me in making arrangements there. I am looking at going to Ecuador.

Thanks for any advice : )

Hey Onyx.... that sounds great! You should check out Volunteer Abroad..(www.volunteerabroad.ca) they give you relevant Spanish Language training upon arrival into the country, and they have a lot of different programs to choose from in Ecuador!

Regardless of what you decide to do, I hope you have a great time!

Cheers!

Hi Onyx,
I'm in a similar situation (want to volunteer in South America, can't speak spanish yet). After talking to a few friends, i've got the impression that it isn't difficult to find volunteer work in South America if you just go there and look. All those programs where you pay thousands before you go see to be a rip off, most of the money goes to 'administration'.
Two sources of information i've heard of being useful or found useful are
1. South America Explorers - some sort of organization based in Peru, USA and Ecuador, the word is that if you join their club (hahaha) then they can help you find volunteer opportunities with a database of organizations etc...
2. http://www.volunteersouthamerica.net/
Has lots of places in that have web sites and contact e-mails.

Hope that helped you, good luck in Ecuador, might see you there.
emm

Volunteer Latin America is a good source of opportunities.Volunteer Latin America