Volunteer Programs in Central America

This unique expedition takes you to learn scuba diving and earn yourself an internationally recognized PADI diving qualification in the Caribbean waters of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Here you can take part in important marine conservation work on the world’s second largest barrier reef with coral reef and fish monitoring, turtle nesting and crocodile surveys, as well as community education and sustainable tourism development on land. On top of the dive training, volunteers will have the chan...

Improve your scuba diving skills and learn marine conservation techniques by joining GVI’s marine conservation program situated north of the Mayan village of Mahahual. At this new center you will receive comprehensive training and increase your knowledge of marine habitats and conservation. Rescue Diver, Dive Master and PADI specialty courses are also available. Activities include coral and fish monitoring surveys and turtle nesting surveys, working with scientists at the field research center. ...

Taking part in this wildlife conservation expedition gives you the chance to be an active member of GVI’s research team in the Costa Rican rainforest and work on a variety of long-term terrestrial, marine conservation and community education projects. Activities you can be involved in include: conducting turtle population and jaguar predation surveys; jaguar and other mammal camera trapping and helping with mammal and bird studies around the beach, canals and rainforest of the area. Run in co...

This volunteer program in Guatemala offers you the chance to make an exceptional difference to the lives of Guatemalan children born into extreme poverty, as you learn Spanish, live with a local family, and truly experience Guatemalan culture living in the beautiful old Spanish colonial town of Antigua, Central America Volunteers joining this program will be working with children from kindergarten through initial primary school levels and will be typically working with children from the ages ...

This 6 month long diving internship starts with a 10 week expedition to develop your understanding of marine conservation and to further or establish your scuba diving skills. You will learn how to live and work with a research team in a remote environment and attain base skills essential for your subsequent 12 weeks work placement. During this placement you will be based at a PADI dive centre where you will undertake your PADI dive master courses, further advanced training courses, shadow Dive ...

Volunteers joining this program will be teaching English to indigenous children in communities situated near Antigua, Guatemala. With lessons from GVI volunteers and staff the children are more likely to learn English and pass their exams. Volunteers joining this project will receive an introduction to teaching in Guatemala, which will help prepare you to teach the indigenous children English. College credit may be available for those attending this project. Consult GVI’s View Project Details

This combination program gives volunteers the chance to teach and travel across three Central American countries: Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, spending equal time in each. The cost of education is often prohibitive, so GVI (with leaders of the indigenous communities) have built schools and started open classes that are free to attend. Living with local families in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua volunteers will take Spanish lessons and travel each day to teach the areas’ underprivileged ...

This volunteer tour gives volunteers the opportunity to work, live in and explore six Latin American countries for six months. you will spend time volunteering and travelling in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, before moving on to Ecuador, Peru and Brazil. Volunteers will teach on GVI-run projects, which are dedicated to teaching literacy and numeracy to underprivileged indigenous and impoverished communities. Volunteers also have plenty of opportunity to experience the gems these Latin Am...

Have you ever wished to volunteer overseas and help vital community development initiatives, yet feel you don’t have the time to join many of the volunteer programs on offer? Then this short-term Nicaraguan volunteering project is for you! This project is designed to enable its volunteers to have funded, worked on and completed an individual project within a week, which is aimed at improving the standard of living for underprivileged families. Volunteers joining this community development pro...

The program is set in the small village of San Francisco, located on the Caribbean Coast and at the edge of a tropical rainforest. Volunteers plan and run lessons and assist with basic education for under-privileged children and needy families from the Tortuguero region, famed for it's National Park and turtle nesting beach. Volunteers learn basic Spanish and work with children aged 5 to 13. The program will be as flexible as possible to benefit the local community and assist the Teachers in the...

This program provides volunteers with the unique opportunity to volunteer short-term with rural communities near Estelí, Nicaragua, in the midst of the beautiful Segovia Mountains. Surrounded by mountains, valleys and waterfalls, volunteers will live in this old Sandinista stronghold, learning or improve their Spanish, and traveling to nearby rural areas for their project work. GVI, along with leaders of the communities, have built and started a school in La Thompson and are funding and developi...

Volunteering with GVI on this short-term community project will help you to improve the standard of living for indigenous communities situated near Antigua, Guatemala. Volunteer to build energy-efficient stoves to help families below the poverty line improve their living conditions. Indoor air pollution is responsible for more deaths each year than either Malaria or AIDS, and a cleaner, more energy-efficient stove can add literally decades onto the life-expectancy of a house’s occupants. In j...

Join a short-term volunteer program in the ancient colonial town of Copán Ruinas in Honduras to work with nearby indigenous communities and help alleviate poverty by constructing energy-efficient stoves. Health problems relating to indoor air pollution from things like cooking stoves cause more deaths each year than either Malaria or AIDS, though doesn’t receive anywhere near the amount of international concern. An efficient stove of the manner installed here can add 10-15 years to the life expe...

Working in a National Park on the beautiful Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, Volunteers will conduct nest checks during the day and night-time turtle patrols with a GVI Patrol Leader along the tropical beach in Tortuguero National Park. Volunteers will look for nesting turtles and count tracks. If turtles are found during the patrol volunteers may assist in measuring the turtle, counting the eggs being laid, look for previous tags and distinctive markings and record the data. Volunteers may also b...

Volunteers will conduct surveys with a GVI Patrol Leader along the tropical beach and forest of Tortuguero National Park. You will be part of a team to set up remote camera traps to help identify individual jaguars and their prey species, as well as searching for and identifying signs, such as tracks. Volunteers receive continuous hands-on training on all aspects of the research and college credit may be available, please consult GVI’s college credit page for helpful tips and advice.

Plan and conduct English language lessons with under-privileged children and adults in the stunning area of Tortuguero, with its world famous turtle nesting beach and National Park. This volunteering program is set in the small village of San Francisco, located between the rainforest and the Caribbean Sea. Volunteers will have the opportunity to learn basic Spanish and work with children and adults while experiencing Costa Rican culture. Volunteers will also supply additional resources to an und...

Volunteers, in collaboration with the local community members, will engage in evening and morning surveys to record nesting activity, relocate eggs when needed and gather biological data on the nesting turtles. The daily patrols will also help protect turtle nests against inundation by sea water, predation by other animals and human poaching. Olive Ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) turtles are one of the 7 marine sea turtle species found on the planet. All 7 are listed on Appendix 1 of the CITES ...

This volunteer program is based in the small village of San Francisco, set in between the Caribbean Ocean and a tropical rainforest. Volunteers will plan and run sports lessons and assist with basic education for under-privileged children and poor families in the stunning area of Tortuguero, close to the world famous National Park and turtle nesting beach. Sport is a vital tool to attract children to the school and encourage participation in education and yet one which local schools do not have ...

During this project volunteers will be working with orphans and children aged between 4 and 6. The volunteers’ time will be divided between three afternoons a week in a local Copán orphanage and a school for indigenous children supported by GVI. Having never attended school before, these children will require help to master essential classroom basics like holding pencils, initial numbers, drawing lines and their ABCs. Although often challenging, working with young children is a rewarding experie...

Esteli, where volunteers will be based, is located 150km north of the capital Managua in the Segovia Mountains. Working alongside community leaders, GVI have built and started a school in La Thompson and are funding and developing education programs and ‘aulas abiertas’ (open classes) to assist children and adults who otherwise may not have the opportunity for any formal education or who need reinforcement. By assisting on these long-term placements volunteers provide continuity at the schools w...

Although education is free in Honduras, families in the areas surrounding Copán (where volunteers will be based) are often unable to buy the basic materials required for their children to attend school. Volunteers on this program will teach at GVI funded schools, where these materials are supplied, providing long term assistance (for 9 or 12 month placements) which greatly aids the children’s development. Volunteers will live with a local family in the old Spanish colonial town of Copán Ruinas a...

Volunteers on this program will teach for one year at GVIs schools in indigenous communities, providing the children with long-term assistance, greatly aiding their development. Volunteers will work alongside other GVI volunteers and local staff. Every three months volunteers will have two weeks holiday and therefore an opportunity to relax or explore other areas of Guatemala or Central America. Volunteers will stay with a local family in the stunning colonial town of Antigua, and commute to wor...

GVI offers the opportunity to complete a Level 3 BTEC Advanced Certificate, an internationally recognized qualification, to any ten week participants. Based In the turquoise Caribbean waters of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, expedition members take part in important marine conservation work on the world’s second largest barrier reef by helping with coral reef and fish monitoring, turtle nesting and conducting crocodile surveys. On land you will help community education and sustainable tourism devel...

Volunteers will join local biologists researching Jaguar, Puma and other cats and their prey at the privately owned research of El Eden on the northern Yucatan Peninsula. At the research center you will assist with camera trapping, habitat mapping and prey species research, and assist in the conservation of these species and their ecosystems. Jaguars are the largest cat in the Americas, and the 3rd largest in the world, but deforestation, land partitioning, poaching and illegal trade has convert...

During this internship you have the opportunity to gain an internally recognized qualification in Team leading, explore one of the most remote regions of the Costa Rican rainforest on the Caribbean Coast and play a vital role in the development and management of the long-term wildlife conservation of the Tortuguero National Park. You will work upon vital conservation projects, including conducting marine turtle monitoring and conservation, jaguar predation and abundance research, canal bird moni...

During this internship you will make a real difference to the lives of underprivileged children and local community leaders, and gain invaluable hands on practical experience in a variety of fields including project management and gain an internally recognized qualification in Team Leading. You will be typically working with children aged between 5 and 12 on basic education and literacy projects and will work alongside a dedicated staff supervisor to ensure you maximize your placement, cultural ...

This six month internship scheme allows participants to assist children’s education projects and learn Spanish. A dedicated staff supervisor will work alongside and train volunteers for 12 weeks, whilst participants also learn Spanish and teach children on the project. Once the first phase is complete, volunteers will engage on a teaching work placement in either Guatemala, Honduras or Nicaragua. You will have 60 hours of one-on-one Spanish classes, teach in the communities and shadow GVI fie...

The conservation programs carried out by GVI Costa Rica takes a holistic approach to the conservation of the area. GVI are helping to monitor every ecosystem of this incredibly diverse area - forest, canal, beach and sea. As with all conservation, trained personnel, resources and accurate information are essential to make and carry out informed decisions. This six month Internship has been designed by our award winning team for just this purpose.

During your time, you have opportun...

Torn between exploring the Mayan lands of Mexico's Yucutan peninsula and the volcanoes and mountain lakes of Antigua, Guatemala? A difficult decision to make for adventurous travelers. GVI have combined two of their most exciting programs in Mayan lands so you can experience both. Over the course of 11 weeks you will combine 2 different programs in Mexico and Guatemala. Learn to survey dive on our research expedition on the Caribbean coast for 5 weeks and then join our established projects focus...

This wildlife volunteer program takes volunteers to work on a variety of research projects in a number of locations and National Parks around Belize, Central America. As a volunteer, you will be involved in helping with the practical conservation of national parks and archaeological sites, as well as in research, education and helping with maintenance tasks such as conducting manatee surveys, assessing jaguar populations and running environmental field courses. The volunteer program starts w...

GVI’s leatherback turtle conservation volunteering program takes volunteers to live and work on the beautiful Caribbean coast, directly helping to conserve one of the world’s most endangered species. Located on the Bocas del Toro archipelago, this ambitious program is essential for the survival of turtle species in Panama’s first National Marine Park. Much of your time volunteering overseas will be spent patrolling the beaches for nesting turtles; tagging, measuring, monitoring and also reloc...

The Phoenix Guatemala Fundraiser Challenge: climbing four volcanoes in a week - Acatenango, San Pedro, Tajumulco (the highest volcano in Central America) and Pacaya. This fundraising event aims to top up the Phoenix fund for Guatemala. Since we started in Guatemala in 2003 our children numbers have risen considerably and the schemes we are implementing are growing. We are introducing this challenge, to be run annually in November, to help ensure success and sustainablity in the future. Funds rai...

Team Members who join this program have the unique opportunity of being immersed in one of several indigenous communities situated near our base town, Panajachel. It is a beautiful old town on the shores of Lake Atitlán, an awe-inspiring spectacle surrounded by volcanoes. Team Members are able to learn about and engage with Guatemala, its communities, environment and how WFM interacts with its in-country stake holders. Team Members typically learn about and engage with local micro-financing ...