Our projects

Our programs in Buenos Aires and Bariloche:

CW offers a very attractive and varied number of projects placed both in Buenos Aires and in Bariloche. They include medical internships, women’s empowerment, animal care, organic farming and the wonderful and unique Happy birthday project.

These projects are included in the following programs:

-Healthcare medical program and internships.

-Community development programs.

-Organic farming programs.

Most of these programs are run throughout the year, so volunteers can choose any starting date. But, when arranging your flights schedule, please take note that each project begins with an orientation that takes  place only on Mondays and that the airport pick up service included in the programs are available from 6:00 AM to 11:00 PM.

The duration of the projects can range from a minimum of one to a maximum of twentyfour weeks.

The minimum age to participate in these programs is 18 years old, except for the Organic farming program in Bariloche where younger volunteers may participate accompanied by their families or by responsible adults. A full travel insurance is mandatory.

BUENOS AIRES:

Healthcare medical program and internships:

This program basically consists on shadowing doctors and nurses during their daily rounds and to work under their close supervision, accordingly to the volunteer’s experience and expertise. The program is placed in one of the most prestigious public hospitals of the continent, located in the heart of Buenos Aires city. This renowned institution was pioneer in many medical practices such as insulin administration, cardiac catheterization,  kidney punctures. It was also the first hospital school to offer medical internships. Today it is world famous for its high level care and academic reputation.

Participating in this program offers the volunteer a unique opportunity to work side by side with a physician or nurse and under the close supervision of some of  the most qualified professionals in their fields.

Although most volunteers and interns will not intervene directly in patients’ treatments themselves, depending on their professional degrees, self confidence and experience, they may be allowed to interact more actively and to administer patients some level of treatment.

Accordingly to their expertise and to the hospital current needs at each time, volunteers can choose to work in a specific department and sometimes also spend some extra time on a second one.

Some departments available in this program are:

-Community Medicine.

-Emergency room.

-Family medicine.

-Nursing (shadowing nurses during their round).

-Orthopaedics.

-Paediatrics (OPD/Ward)

-Pharmacology.

-Rehabilitation.

-Surgery.

The days and hours a volunteer is required to work in the program will depend on the schedule of the doctor or nurse they’ll  be shadowing and the department where they’ll be placed on, so flexibility and patience are key attributes in a volunteer for this program and are highly valued.

This program runs from March to mid December and is available only to healthcare and medical professionals and medical students. Volunteers are required to provide a copy of their professional certificates to our local team on arrival and they must also have a full travel insurance. Intermediate to advanced level of Spanish language skills is required and our local staff can arrange for Spanish lessons on request and at an additional cost.

Community development program:

Ciudad Oculta education projects:

The hidden city is one of the largest and most overpopulated shantytowns of Buenos Aires. It is about a 45 minutes car drive from the center of the city and is one of the most forgotten and unsafe settlements in the suburban area.

Drug dealers have taken over the place and the crime rate there is very high. Most of the impoverished families living there are marginalized and trapped in a vicious cycle of alliteration and unemployment, which very often leaves them with no better choice than that of falling prey to the criminal organizations that exploit the to death.

This project is aimed to provide about 750 underprivileged children living in Ciudad Oculta with some of the educational opportunities that they so desperately need, as well as giving them some contention and instilling them with renewed hope for a brighter future. It is focused on children aged from three to twelve and offers them school materials and volunteer Maths, Spanish and English teachers. Although the teaching activities are important, the main goal of this project is to keep these vulnerable children out from the streets and to teach them values that will protect them from the many bad influences that surround them every day.

The project has also carried out very successful HIV prevention campaigns and painting workshops for children.

This is a very challenging project and volunteers will need to be highly sympathetic, proactive, creative and patient. But there are few so greatly rewarding experiences than that of changing a child’s life for the better and to help him or her to escape from the vicious cycle of poverty and criminality.

Happy birthday! Project

This is the foundational stone project of this program and a most original and popular one.

For an alienated society that is too overwhelmed with problems, pressure and haste, those less fortunate and in most urgent need often become invisible. And this social indifference is probably the most damaging and painful of the many consequences carried by poverty and marginalization.

The Happy birthday project started back in 2001 with a caring group of local volunteers who spontaneously started to organize birthday parties for the children living in the poorest slums in Buenos Aires, and four years later they were one of the leading self funded child welfare organizations in the country, run exclusively by volunteers.

The main goals of this wonderful project is to reinforce the marginalized children’s  self esteem and sense of worthiness, as well as to help them establish and strengthen emotional bonds and be able to adapt in a healthy and positive way to their social environment.

Our volunteers to this project will help provide a monthly birthday celebration party for each community center, and one or two additional  weekly ones. Tasks involved are helping with the decoration (balloon, garlands, banners, etc), organizing entertainment activities and games (clowns, dancing, contests, etc), providing snacks, birthday cakes with candles, drinks, birthday presents and a photograph souvenir for the birthday girl or boy.

Volunteers for this project need just beginners Spanish language skills, a proactive, creative and fun attitude, and big hearts.

This is a wonderful and deeply fulfilling project as well as a great fun one!

Animal shelter in José C. Paz

This project is placed in an animal refuge center in the provincial neighborhood of José C, Paz. It was founded sixty years ago by a group of people who are against animal euthanasia and decided to give all homeless dog and cat a loving home.

Due to their no-kill policy, today this shelter is the permanent or temporary home of 700 hundred dogs and 70 cats. It is provided with an in site veterinary clinic that takes care of injured, homeless and abandoned cats and dogs. Every animal that is brought to the center receives the appropriate medical care and loving attention, and is spayed or neutered, vaccinated, freed from parasites, socialized and trained; to be later offered for responsible adoption through the shelter  fanpage and in local adoption campaigns.

The shelter also organizes educational campaigns to promote responsible animal ownership and spaying and neutering campaigns for cats and dogs.

Among the many tasks that a volunteer may undertake in this project we can mention the following:

-Feeding cats and dogs, playing with them and brushing their fur.

-Cleaning and repairing cages and fences.

-Making videos and taking photos of the animals to show them in the shelter fanpage to promote their adoption.

-Assisting with medical care by changing bandages and dressings or applying injections and administering medicines.

-Bathing and exercising dogs.

-Helping with educational and fundraising campaigns.

-Volunteers with a veterinary background or expertise are very appreciated here.

The duration of this project can expand from one to twentyfour weeks. It is open all year round and volunteers must attend the shelter at least three times a week, including Saturdays.

A basic to intermediate level of Spanish skills is required but if you don’t have it, CW offers brief courses you can take before the trip.

As a volunteer for this project you must have a love for animals, be reliable and responsible, honest and hardworking.

This project offers a unique opportunity to interact with local Argentinean people in a suburban area away from the tourist crowds and to make new friends. Working with animals is also known to be a very therapeutic experience and a deeply rewarding one, too!

BARILOCHE:

Organic farming program:

This program is located in the Patagonian Nahuel Huapi National Park, 25 kilometers away from San Carlos de Bariloche city.

It is an ideal program to combine tourism and volunteer work and it offers volunteer families, young groups and adults a unique opportunity to experience the lifestyle of rural Argentinean people while learning to perform the many activities involved in an organic farm.

Accommodation and meals:

CW volunteers to this program will share a lovely and comfortable cabin with a magnificent view to the beautiful surrounding landscapes. This cabin is provided with running water, electricity, private modern bathrooms with hot water showers, a specious livingroom with a fireplace, a fully equipped kitchen and cozy bedrooms with beddings provided.

The program includes three daily meals prepared mostly with fresh organic products from the farm. Breakfast consists of mate tea, tea, coffee, fruit juice, milk, homemade bread, marmalades and bakery, organic butter and cheese, eggs, etc.

Lunch and dinner, also prepared mainly with the organic products from the farm, may consist of traditional dishes such as pollo al disco (chicken grilled on a big pan), milanesas (breaded fried steaks), curanto (traditional indigenous way of cooking meat), locro (beans and corn based stew), asado (typical Argentine barbecue), as well as some more European dishes like fresh pasta, pizza, polenta, soups, sausages, fresh fish and vegetables, rice, salads, fruit, etc.

The scope of this program is to promote organic and sustainable farming  while preserving the natural landscapes that make Patagonia so unique in the world.

While helping in this hands-on program, volunteers will be able to share the farm people’s lifestyle, gain a lot of knowledge on sustainability and  achieve many useful skills.

Some of the tasks that volunteers will be required to help with are:

-Milking cows and helping to produce organic dairy products like butter and cheese.

-Feeding farm animals, cleaning their shelters, collecting eggs.

-Sowing seeds, fertilizing, cleaning and watering orchards and plantations.

-Harvesting and helping to produce organic marmalades, conserved fruit and vegetables.

-Maintenance tasks such as building and repairing fences, irrigation systems, animal shelters, barns, etc.

Volunteers are required to work in the program five hours Mondays to Fridays and, depending on the dates of their stay at the farm, volunteers can also help with some educational activities with students groups and local schools. A basic to intermediate level of Spanish skills is required.

Weekends are free and there are many places to visit within walking distance from the farm, such as Playa Muñoz, Refuge Fray, Laguna Llum, Lakes Gutiérrez and Mascardi, etc. With public transports it is also possible to visit other tourists spots in the area, like Bariloche city, El Bolsón, Cerros Catedral and Tronador, among many other beautiful locations where they can even spend their weekend.

Other projects in Bariloche

CW has some other projects in San Carlos de Bariloche that deal with community social care for the most underprivileged and vulnerable people of the city and its surroundings. Some of these projects are:

-Women’s shelter center.

-Homeless people shelter center.

 Women’s shelter center project:

This project aims to provide a safe shelter to women (with or without children) who have been victims of domestic violence and have nowhere else to go. The center offers them protection, contention, accommodation and food, as well as some educational and occupational trainings to achieve economic independence and reinforce their sense of worth.

There is a professional team of medical and social workers who also assist these women and their children to recover from the physical and psychological abuses they have suffered and to overcome their traumas.

Volunteers to this project can help in many ways, by assisting the local staff in the daily household routines, providing contention to the women and children living in the shelter, offering them English classes, occupational workshops and entertainment activities.

Volunteers with a background on healthcare therapy and occupational therapy are very valued to assist the professional local staff working in the shelter. Yet any hard-working, compassionate, proactive and warmhearted person can volunteer in this beautiful projects that will make a huge difference in the lives of these vulnerable women and children that depend solely on these people’s help to stand back on their own feet and start anew.

Homeless people shelter center

This project main objective is to provide homeless people from the area with a safe and warm place where to spend the nights, facilities for hygiene routines and some meals. It also offers training workshops and health care attention.

The project was created by a joint initiative of the local government and the diocese and is open all year round. About forty people come to spend the night here and leave in the morning, while a smaller group stays in to receives the specific assistance and attention they require.

The project aims not only to provide these homeless people with shelter, food and care; but mainly to provide them with the necessary means to stand back on their own two feet. For this, the project includes a variety of workshops to teach them specific working skills such as cooking, baking, ceramics, carpentry, cloth mending, handcrafts, etc.

Volunteers for this project can help in many tasks that go from household daily routines (cleaning, cooking, serving meals, washing dishes, etc) to organizing and conducting workshops and recreational activities such as writing, music, English classes, PE classes, etc