Overview

Ticos (Costa Ricans) can claim to live in Paradise. Their relatively small country located in the tropic has ideal weather conditions and is gifted  with almost everything lovers of nature may dream of.

Its tropical jungles with magical waterfalls and inhabited by a reach wildlife, white-sand beaches and bewildering gardens, and a prosperous, polite and friendly population that has been blessed for decades with stable political and  economic conditions. Costa Rica is the most developed country of Central America and enjoys high quality life conditions and government services. The main economic activities are tourism, agriculture and manufacturing.

Volunteers can choose among a variety of programs and internships placed in the towns of San Ramón and Liberia, not too far from the capital city of San José.

Our programs and internships are:

•  Child day care.
• Teaching programs.
  
• After school programs.
  
• Women’s programs.
  
• Conservation programs.
  
• Health programs.
• Microfinance programs.
• Group trips.
  

To participate in most of this programs and internships,volunteers will need to have intermediate to advanced Spanish language skills and they can either take classes on site during the program they chose or take a one-week full immersion Spanish course on their first week in the country before starting to do the volunteer work. The local staff may instruct you on how to access these Spanish but fees are not included in the programs.

Most of the internships and programs in Costa Rica require a high level of commitment from the volunteers and their minimum duration is usually from three to four weeks.

On a request basis, our partners in Costa Rica can arrange for professional internships in areas such as micro-finances, recycling and physical therapy.

What’s included in our fair-cost policy?

 All our programs include a fixed price Registration Fee of US$289 and a Program Fee that varies according to the duration of the program and the services included.

The Registration Fee covers the costs of all that Connecting Worlds has to do in order to organise the experience in an efficient manner and offer each participant a quality program. These costs include marketing, staff salaries, travel costs of staff who visit and inspect each of the programs on offer and Connecting Worlds’ solidarity fund among others. We need this fee just to sustain the organization.

The Program Fee is the total cost of everything related to the services that the volunteer will be able to take advantage of upon arrival to the destination of their choice. For example, accommodation, meals, transfers, the donation made to the volunteer project, welcome orientation and constant 24/7 support. The payment for this fee goes directly to the country in which the volunteer will be stationed, directly benefiting the local community. It’s a fee which helps organisations that work in the country associated with the program at hand to move forwards with their projects and generate work opportunities for the local community.

Thanks to our fair-cost policy, the volunteer benefits from not having to pay high fees and our local partners benefit from being able to invest in their projects and keep things moving forwards. Connecting Worlds also benefits from keeping the costs of its programs as low as possible because we get the opportunity to support local communities and make a difference in our own small but important way.