Project Life
Volunteer in Bolivia

The First Weekend

Volunteers need to fly into La Paz on the first or third Saturday of each month, where they will be met by the GVI project manager. There will be two transport pickup times from the airport on the Saturday to cater for the different arrival times of the flights – one in the afternoon and one late at night, yet it is preferable that you arrive in the afternoon. From the airport you will be transferred to the hotel in La Paz. If you arrive earlier than Saturday or decide to travel overland from Peru, we can arrange to meet you at the hotel in La Paz on the Saturday. After breakfast on Sunday you will go on the Moon Valley Tour before you are transported down to Coroico, introduced to your host family and shown around the important areas of the town to see the location of the internet cafes, banks and other necessities, before being left to explore. That night, we will all meet up for a welcome supper.

The Work

Once the Spanish classes are completed, or if you are not taking them, you will work in the chosen community from Monday to Friday. Your days will begin early, eating breakfast with your host family before you walk to the school to start classes at 7am. Morning lessons are interspersed with breaks and lunch, provided at the school, between which you will continue classes until mid-afternoon when the ‘aulas abiertas’ will be run. You teach a range of subjects, which include literacy, numeracy, English, art, geography and sport. Full curriculums, class subjects and help from the local teachers are provided. GVI’s aim is to allow the teachers to teach single groups of children more attentively, rather than hopping from one class to another and leaving work for the children to do. You will do most of the teaching aided for the first few days by the formal teacher, existing volunteers and the GVI project manager.

The ‘aulas abiertas’ will be dedicated to those children who have never been to school or have had to leave school prematurely due to financial constraints or work-related reasons. Our aim is to reinforce education and help them to read, write, learn English and more. A further aim of the ‘aulas abierta’ is to offer education to adults in the communities who wish to learn to read, write and further their own education.

No formal teacher-training is required as each volunteer will be supported by the GVI project manager, existing volunteers and the local teacher for the first few days. A TEFL course is recommended before coming out, though is not a requirement. Resource books, the relevant materials and a curriculum will be available for the volunteer’s use. A weekly meeting is also held to discuss structure, swap ideas and to work on the following week’s classes, although the GVI project manager will be around all week to offer advice and help.