Learn Spanish and teach on a long term placement in Nicaragua

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Make a Difference in These Students Lives

Program Overview
Life on the Program
Program Details
Volunteer Testimonials

Program Overview

Travel to Esteli in rural Nicaragua, an area surrounded by beautiful valleys and waterfalls, and teach both children and adults a range of subjects in Spanish, focusing on basic literacy and numeracy.

As a long term volunteer, you will provide much needed continuity and support to your class, which will greatly aid in their development. Through your funding and long term assistance, you can ensure that we continue to provide an education that would otherwise not be possible.

This project is run by our in-country partners, Phoenix. Phoenix has been working with impoverished communities in Latin America since 2003 and in Nicaragua since 2009, achieving recognition from the Nicaraguan Ministry of Education for our education programs.

Life on the Program

We work in partnership with the two rural communities of La Thompson and Chiriza where you will spend Monday to Friday teaching a range of subjects to both the children of the community in your regular classes, and to adults in open literacy classes.

Although working with children over a long term period will be a hugely rewarding experience as you watch them develop, you will be expected to lesson plan effectively in order to successfully lead and teach your class during this time.

Away from the community, you will spend your time in the base town of Esteli where you will live with a local host family, in basic but comfortable surroundings, and getting to know your fellow volunteers.

Program Details

In our communities, a lack of teachers and educational materials severely restricts the children’s development, a problem that this program aims to address.

In an area where schooling is a low priority due to economic constraints, the provision of a structured school curriculum and adult literacy classes looks to address the extremely low literacy rates that persist.

It is the belief of Phoenix that standards of living can be improved through education and so this project works on a 25 year cycle with the goal for the youngest child to eventually be able to afford education for their children in the future.

Volunteer Testimonials

Living and working in a different culture taught me a lot. The fact that my family involved me in activities that I would never have been able to do as a tourist gave me an amazing insight into...

Karen Davies, United Kingdom

Living and working in a different culture taught me a lot. The fact that my family involved me in activities that I would never have been able to do as a tourist gave me an amazing insight into Nicaraguan culture. It taught me to value what I have in my life in the UK, - friends, families, commodities and facilities available to me. The children I was teaching had hardly anything, but were so happy and full of life and ambition and worked so hard to help support their families and communities when they weren’t in school. I also learnt to be more laid back in my attitude to life in general! I think also it made me realise how much I love teaching and working with children and that I have a natural skill in that area and so I am looking into options of changing my career in the UK.

James Harrison, United Kingdom

I have returned from the project with a completely different outlook – in comparison to Esteli, or the whole of Nicaragua, London feels very cold and unwelcoming and every morning I wake up wishing I was back in Esteli! I gained skills in lesson planning and teaching that, with no prior experience, I would never have imagined I could pick up so quickly and the love and gratitude of the community towards us, as well as the bonds I made with my students are sentiments that will stay with me forever.