Looking for work/ internship/ volunteering!

[abstalavista]

Hi,

I will be in BA for Christmas and New Year and am now planning on spending from Jan- April in Argentina. I was meant to be undertaking aid work in Lima, but it fell through.

Can anyone recommend either some good aid/ volunteer organisations (where I am not expected to pay to give my time and service) or is anyone looking for someone with a law/ communications background (qualified lawyer in Australia, worked in PR, major in print journalism) to do something interesting for a few months?!

In BA or anywhere in Argentina!

 

[Uncle Dermot]

Volunteering in BA? Sorry, but BA is a 1st world city (unlike Lima) so no volunteering opportunities are available!!!! Jokes apart I can't really understand how some "volunteering" organizations ask you to pay a fee to take part to their programmes, you are supposed to work, get no salary at the end of the month and, on top of that, you are even expected to pay for having an unpaid job??? Anyway I did a quick search online and came across the Buenos Aires Social Development Department web page (http://www.buenosaires.gov.ar/areas/des_social/voluntariado/areas/incorporacion.php?menu_id=13641), I am sure that you can send them an email (in English probably) asking them if they can find a position somewhere in one of their development projects/programmes. Not sure if you can speak Spanish, but to summarize what they say on this web page: you can enroll in their volunteering programmes in person the 2nd Thursday of each month, simply send them an email detailling your motivations/presentation/expectations, they should come back to you and invite you to visit them at their premises, they then tell you how the volunteering programmes work and eventually, if you are a suitable candidate, they take you to the place where you will work as a volunteer. They don't mention any joining fees anywhere, plus it is the official Volunteering Service of the BA Municipality, so I am pretty sure they don't want anything to take part to their volunteering programmes.
Another option would be to teach English in a non-profit organization, if you browse the net I am sure you can find some organizations looking for teachers...but then you might as well work for a private languages institute in Buenos Aires as their salaries are so low that sometimes I ask myself why I even bother asking them when I am going to get paid...
Best of luck

 

[Roxana]

How are your Spanish skills?