We hope to improve the general welfare and position of women and children living in poverty and neglect in Las Rosas, Quetzaltenango.
Volunteering Activities
What We Need
1. Afterschool program assistant
We offer a free after-school program for children in Las Rosas between 5 and 14 years old. The program runs from 2 - 4:30 pm, Monday to Thursday. The afterschool activities include arts and crafts, dance, sports, and emotional intelligence and personal safety workshops. We learn by doing and playing! Once a month we do a week-long workshop, and at the end of every month, we celebrate birthdays with cake and presents. We are always looking for people to help with the afterschool program – playing with and supervising the children, organizing games or crafts, and helping with set-up and clean-up. You are welcome to bring your own ideas for activities and workshops, and be prepared to get right into the games and crafts with our kids!
2. Development Assistant
The development assistant will help out our Development Director in various aspects of fundraising, including grant writing, event planning, communication with donors, report writing, etc. We need a development assistant who is fluent in English and holds an intermediate or advanced level of Spanish so that they can communicate with the office staff and local donors. The volunteer should have good communication skills. It would be great if you have experience with grant and report writing, research based on qualitative and quantitative data, graphic design, and social media management.
3. Office Assistant
Your work in the office may include, among other things, maintaining our website, Facebook, and Instagram page; communicating with external organizations to solicit volunteers and/or donations; keeping our profiles up-to-date on various volunteering websites we are on and posting new information as necessary; creating new media such as brochures, videos, posters, etc.; helping write our newsletter; and various other tasks as required or that believe may benefit Caras Alegres.
4. Manual Work
Past jobs have included: painting walls and stairs; fixing leaks on the roof, reorganizing and cleaning our storage areas, decorating classrooms and walls with murals, and other tasks as they’ve come up. If you’re comfortable with the city, you can also run errands and various other tasks around the city.
Requirements:
- Age: 18 years and up
- Availability: 3-week minimum time commitment
- Qualities: We are looking for someone who is responsible, committed to our mission and vision, open-minded, a good team member, able to follow direction well, and is ready to have a lot of fun and maybe get a little messy!
What is truly important is your passion for the project; so, if you do not meet all the criteria above but you can see yourself making a big impact in our organization, contact us!
Past experience is not required, but that could be useful (e.g. working with children in leadership roles, working in diverse settings, marketing, administration, social media, business experience, coaching or mentoring roles)
Spanish Level: We only require a basic level of Spanish for participating in our afterschool program but you will benefit from an intermediate or advanced level. If you wish to work as a development assistant, you should have fluent English and intermediate to advanced Spanish.
When & Who
Our Fees
We ask our volunteers for a one-time donation of $20/Q150. The money is used to support our afterschool program; we buy materials for handicrafts and replace/repair outside games (bike tires, footballs, etc.).
Contact Person
Other Ways to Help
We always welcome donations that help in our afterschool program, e.g. material for crafts (glue, construction paper, wobbly eyes, stickers, pipe cleaners etc), board games, card games, puzzles, and Spanish children´s books.
Additional Info about Us
Caras Alegres is comprised of a team of local knowledge and expertise as well as foreign experts and volunteers. On our staff, we have our Guatemalan director, an assistant director/volunteer coordinator, two teachers, two daycare staff, an assistant teacher, a security guard, a cook, and a cleaner.
Volunteering with Caras Alegres can be a rich and very rewarding experience.
OUR HISTORY
Caras Alegres began as a passion project for Dutch founders Judith Bank and Marcel van der Geest. Both had an interest in Guatemala and saw a great need. In 2004, they founded the NGO Caras Alegres. For their first year, they operated out of a small rented house in the neighborhood, moving in 2006 to a classroom rented from EDELAC (la Escuela de la Calle, another NGO in Las Rosas). Eventually, in 2010, the project moved to its own building next door to EDELAC. From small beginnings, the organization now houses and supports a variety of projects and people in the community.
3 Reviews
The kids and staff at Caras Alegres will always have a very special place in my heart and I would love to return one day."