Job Discussion Forums

[Giovanni85]

Has anyone ever participated in the Sue�os Compartidos Christmas Camp in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca or Southern Veracruz? The website describing the program makes it sound a little too good to be true, but I am interested in learning more about it. http://www.suenoscompartidos.org/index.html

Any and all comments welcome.

Gracias!

[Dragonlady]

deleted

out of date

[tomasdavis]

Hi, I�m Tomas, thanks for the comments. I will give a general overview of our results and what we are working on now. Our first program was Christmas in Mexico, new program as you mentioned. We ended up operating four camps, Cuaji Guerrero, Puerto Escondido Oaxaca, P�tzcuaro Michoac�n, and Yur�cuaro Michoac�n. 20 international volunteers worked with 230+ elementary school students. We are moving the program to a summer format and expanding to include a program for Mexican teachers as well.

I think the "too good to be true" comment relates to the fact that we don�t charge an adminstrative fee. Given the size of the program, it is managable with a three-man board of directors (we are a Texas-based nonprofit entity) and the help of our contacts in Mexico and Colombia in arranging local details (schools/students, host families, weekend trips). I personally handle volunteer recruiting.

We�re excited about the summer and if you are interested in more information you can visit our website at www.suenoscompartidos.org or email me at [email protected]

[whya]

Hi,

I am also interested in this programme and was wondering if anyone knows anything more about it how reliable it is or answers to the above questions since the last post? (its been a while since the first post so maybe there are some ex volunteers on here now?)

I'm looking for a short term teaching post in central or south America but don't want to pay the stupid prices of some agencies and most of the paid positions want someone to stay for a longer period of time (understandably). This seems ideal but I'm just slightly wary of scams.

hope someone has some info!

[tomasdavis]

Hi, I can answer for you -

The volunteers arrange the air travel, either to Mexico City to meet me on July 9 (for those who want to be paired up with other volunteers to travel together) or, at the volunteer's option, they can arrive early for personal travel at meet at their assigned location on July 10.

Same goes for land travel; those meeting at the airport generally arrange land travel together, while those arriving early travel independently. I provide information on getting from Mexico City airport to the bus terminals in Mexico City, and then to the camp location.

My connections with the camp locations are 1) secretar�a de migraci�n in Michoac�n, 2) Casa Apaseo de Grande in Guanajuato, 3) established school relationships in Guerrero and Oaxaca, 4) individual contacts with SEP (Mexican public school system) in several locations.

Homestay families provide services on a volunteer basis. The community contact (one of the organizations/relationships I mentioned above) communicates with the schools and community to arrange homestays and meals. To share the responsibility, lunch and dinner are sometimes with other families than the homestay family. Additionally, I would say that 2-4 times a week, volunteers pay for meals outside of the home due to schedule conflicts or other responsibilities of the host family. I have factored these expenses into the overall budget of $700 for non-airfare expenses.