Gandhi House is a project that aims at a comprehensive education for kids. In this space the children live and learn about planting in the garden, caring for farm animals, and alternative energy. The objective of this project is the awareness of children, parents and relatives about respecting Mother Earth and the generation of ideas and initiatives to encourage participation. This is an integral education project also teaching reading and writing workshops, languages, mathematics, recycling, crafts, painting and everything related to creative development of children.
Work:
Volunteers will help with; • Support workshops with children of all kinds • Support in the classes of languages, mathematics, painting, etc.. • Support the development of gardening skills • Preparation of compost • Seeding • Transplantation of vegetables and fruit trees.
Accommodation:
Volunteers will stay at a house in San Cristóbal de las Casas, sharing a room with up to 4 volunteers.
Location:
San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas.
Duration:
From 3 to 6 months.
Remarks:
Good level of Spanish.
Number of volunteers. 2 volunteers.
Starting time:
At any time.
Participation fee:
1500 Mexican pesos per month. Meals are not included.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION:
Founded in 2006, Natate –the House in the Tree in Tsotsil, one of the Mayan dialects, is an independent civil association which works in the promotion of the international volunteering, for the solidarity and the comprehensive education for everyone, without a profitable objective, nongovernmental and non-religious.
Aims:
»To develop the volunteering service and promote the international solidarity under an intercultural and peaceful spirit. »To promote and develop the comprehensive education for young people. »To promote programs for the development of sustainable lifestyles. »To back and support groups of marginalized people and vulnerable minorities. »To promote the respect to human rights and dignity
Programmes:
International Camping Training Courses and Seminars Information and Awareness Campaigns National and International Volunteering
Natate is a member of the Coordinating Committee for the International Volunteer Service (CCIVS) and this lets it have access to programs and collaboration with more than 200 organizations in more than 80 countries. For more information visit www.unesco.org/ccivs
Through projects organized jointly with civil organizations, municipalities, groups and international and local organizations, Natate encourages the participation of young people in the preservation of the cultural and natural heritage, the protection of the environment, the construction of houses for the poorest, the improvement of social-educational structures, the utilization of alternative techniques of construction and sustainable technologies in several communities of the region of Chiapas.
Volunteering:
Natate considers the volunteering as a mutual exchange between a person or a group that offers his/her time, work and energy for the benefit of a project of common interest and a community which offers to the volunteers a learning, experimentation, personal and collective development opportunity. The volunteering is also considered as a social tool which collaborates to the promotion of the inter-cultural dialogue to create Peace, and creates a relationship between the local action and the global reflection.
Volunteering is not an activity, is a way of life, a way of acting!
In all the projects proposed by Natate, the citizen participation and specially that one of the young people is really important.
M/LTV Programmes:
•Environmental activities: cleaning, construction, recycling, awareness raising, reforestation •Education: Work with children, artistic workshops, protection of the environment, recreational. •Health: Support on the creation of workshops and translation of documents on sexual and reproductive health. •Office work: Translation, promotion of volunteering, presentations, preparation of activities, camp leader, updating the web page, contact with international organizations. •World heritage: restoration, renovation, and preservation of cultural and natural heritage. •Construction: Support to low income families in the construction and improvement of their houses.
Depending on the project, volunteers work up to 35 hours per week.
The trip:
The volunteers are responsible for the organization of their trip, to look for the best prices, to deal with the visa, if it is necessary. These procedures can be done once you are accepted in a project. We suggest looking up the costs of the trip before the registration, to avoid the cancellation of your participation for economical reasons. We suggest to the volunteers coming from other continents, arriving one or several days before the beginning of the project, so they can adapt to their new schedules. To travel to Mexico, it is advisable to verify the prices of the flights, since it can be really expensive. A lot of airlines fly to Mexico, including: Aeromexico, Lufthansa, Air France, Air Canada, United Airlines, KLM, Alitalia, among others.
Cultural and recreation activities:
There are a lot of opportunities for the volunteers to enjoy and discover this part of the country. In San Cristobal de las Casas and in the rest of the state there are a lot of possibilities to discover the Mexican and Chiapas culture. Guatemala is also near and the volunteers can take advantage of this geographical situation. During the project, the recreational activities will be limited to the surrounding area where the project is located. These activities will be organized jointly with the hosting community.
PARTICIPATION FEE:
The projects proposed by Nataté have a monthly participation fee that has to be covered by volunteers. This fee is: 1,500 Mexican pesos, volunteers should buy and prepare their own meals. This participation fee covers, administration costs, lodging, light and tab water. In projects where meal is included the participation fee is 2,500 and 2,900 depending of the project.
IV. ACCOMMODATION &FOOD: •Nataté provides accommodation for the projects that take place in San Cristobal de las Casas. It is a house at the city center, with all facilities (kitchen, 3 toilets, a small patio) and 6 shared bedrooms.
•Volunteers buy their own food at their charge except in projects NAT11, NAT17 and NAT24 where the food is included in the participation fee.
•Volunteers can cook at home. Mexican food is good, and meat represents an important part of the diet. However vegetarians and vegans will not have any trouble finding what they need for their diets.
•In the case of projects outside of San Cristobal de las Casas, the lodging conditions are different. The information is written in each project description.
Insurance:
At the moment, Natate cannot propose a responsibility civil insurance, so we request the volunteers to have an accident and civil responsibility insurance and a trip insurance eventually.
Drug use:
The drug situation in Mexico is complicated. Even though the most part of the violence exists between the cartels and the dealers, the volunteers must be aware of the risks implied in the drugs’ use. Anyway, the drugs’ consume is strictly forbidden in the house where Natate accommodates its volunteers or in any of its projects. Natate will not tolerate to anyone the drugs’ use in the volunteers’ accommodation or in the projects. Breaking this rule will be enough reason for the volunteer to be asked to quit the project.
More information about Mexico and Chiapas:
Nataté performs projects in the state of Chiapas, located in the Southeast of Mexico; it is known for its touristic sites, which include natural attractive areas, pre-hispanic archaeological sites, colonial cities and the direct contact with different cultural groups that cohabit in this state. It has the highest native population in the country and has natural marvels which cannot be compared like the archaeological zone of Palenque and the Agua Azul waterfalls. It adjoins to the East with Guatemala, to the West with Oaxaca, to the North with Tabasco, to the South with the Ocean Pacifica and to the Northwest with Veracruz. The dominating and official language is Spanish. The mayan dialects spoken in Chiapas are: chol, tojolabal, tzeltal, tzotzil, mam y lacandon, which are related to Mayan origin dialects from the Peninsula of Yucatan and Central America.
San Cristobal de las Casas is the largest city in terms of tourism. It is a city where people of different ethnics, races and cultures coexist. It is located in the Chiapas highlands.
Nowadays, San Cristobal de las Casas is one of the most beautiful and original cities from the region of the Altos of Chiapas (and America), and also it must be added the evocative colonial image that it has conserved along the centuries. Because besides that, it has also an everyday life that could be almost called traditional, with its market, its people and a lot of natives with their colorful dressings, coming from several communities and who arrive to the place to sell or exchange their products.
Igloo Kokolo was born with the idea to create a self-sustaining environment. Igloo uses sustainable designs and lives within a sustainable environment. With these principles they are committed to disseminate experiences and techniques for sustainable living in balance with the ecosystem and the creatures that live in it. Its mission is to educate people about the care of the environment, through courses, seminars and workshops to spread an alternative life in balance with the environment. Kokolo is on the south shore of Mexico's largest lake "Chapala" in the municipality of Tizapan, 1 hour and 20 minutes from the city of Guadalajara.
Work:
1-Planning, dissemination and development of workshops and workcamps. 2 - The volunteers will participate in an outreach program of the center, which is to visit colleges in the city of Guadalajara giving talks about the center and volunteering. 3-Volunteers will do maintenance and improvements to the building, volunteers will have the opportunity to learn our techniques of bio construction.
Accommodation:
Volunteers will stay at Igloo Kokolo.
Location:
Mismaloya, Tizapan el Alto, Jalisco MÉXICO.
Duration:
From 1 to 3 months.
Remarks:
Good level of Spanish.
Number of volunteers. 2 volunteers.
Starting time:
From June to September.
Participation fee:
1500 Mexican pesos per month. Meals are not included.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION:
Founded in 2006, Natate –the House in the Tree in Tsotsil, one of the Mayan dialects, is an independent civil association which works in the promotion of the international volunteering, for the solidarity and the comprehensive education for everyone, without a profitable objective, nongovernmental and non-religious.
Aims:
»To develop the volunteering service and promote the international solidarity under an intercultural and peaceful spirit. »To promote and develop the comprehensive education for young people. »To promote programs for the development of sustainable lifestyles. »To back and support groups of marginalized people and vulnerable minorities. »To promote the respect to human rights and dignity
Programmes:
International Camping Training Courses and Seminars Information and Awareness Campaigns National and International Volunteering
Natate is a member of the Coordinating Committee for the International Volunteer Service (CCIVS) and this lets it have access to programs and collaboration with more than 200 organizations in more than 80 countries. For more information visit www.unesco.org/ccivs
Through projects organized jointly with civil organizations, municipalities, groups and international and local organizations, Natate encourages the participation of young people in the preservation of the cultural and natural heritage, the protection of the environment, the construction of houses for the poorest, the improvement of social-educational structures, the utilization of alternative techniques of construction and sustainable technologies in several communities of the region of Chiapas.
Volunteering:
Natate considers the volunteering as a mutual exchange between a person or a group that offers his/her time, work and energy for the benefit of a project of common interest and a community which offers to the volunteers a learning, experimentation, personal and collective development opportunity. The volunteering is also considered as a social tool which collaborates to the promotion of the inter-cultural dialogue to create Peace, and creates a relationship between the local action and the global reflection.
Volunteering is not an activity, is a way of life, a way of acting!
In all the projects proposed by Natate, the citizen participation and specially that one of the young people is really important.
M/LTV Programmes:
•Environmental activities: cleaning, construction, recycling, awareness raising, reforestation •Education: Work with children, artistic workshops, protection of the environment, recreational. •Health: Support on the creation of workshops and translation of documents on sexual and reproductive health. •Office work: Translation, promotion of volunteering, presentations, preparation of activities, camp leader, updating the web page, contact with international organizations. •World heritage: restoration, renovation, and preservation of cultural and natural heritage. •Construction: Support to low income families in the construction and improvement of their houses.
Depending on the project, volunteers work up to 35 hours per week.
The trip:
The volunteers are responsible for the organization of their trip, to look for the best prices, to deal with the visa, if it is necessary. These procedures can be done once you are accepted in a project. We suggest looking up the costs of the trip before the registration, to avoid the cancellation of your participation for economical reasons. We suggest to the volunteers coming from other continents, arriving one or several days before the beginning of the project, so they can adapt to their new schedules. To travel to Mexico, it is advisable to verify the prices of the flights, since it can be really expensive. A lot of airlines fly to Mexico, including: Aeromexico, Lufthansa, Air France, Air Canada, United Airlines, KLM, Alitalia, among others.
Cultural and recreation activities:
There are a lot of opportunities for the volunteers to enjoy and discover this part of the country. In San Cristobal de las Casas and in the rest of the state there are a lot of possibilities to discover the Mexican and Chiapas culture. Guatemala is also near and the volunteers can take advantage of this geographical situation. During the project, the recreational activities will be limited to the surrounding area where the project is located. These activities will be organized jointly with the hosting community.
PARTICIPATION FEE:
The projects proposed by Nataté have a monthly participation fee that has to be covered by volunteers. This fee is: 1,500 Mexican pesos, volunteers should buy and prepare their own meals. This participation fee covers, administration costs, lodging, light and tab water. In projects where meal is included the participation fee is 2,500 and 2,900 depending of the project.
IV. ACCOMMODATION &FOOD: •Nataté provides accommodation for the projects that take place in San Cristobal de las Casas. It is a house at the city center, with all facilities (kitchen, 3 toilets, a small patio) and 6 shared bedrooms.
•Volunteers buy their own food at their charge except in projects NAT11, NAT17 and NAT24 where the food is included in the participation fee.
•Volunteers can cook at home. Mexican food is good, and meat represents an important part of the diet. However vegetarians and vegans will not have any trouble finding what they need for their diets.
•In the case of projects outside of San Cristobal de las Casas, the lodging conditions are different. The information is written in each project description.
Insurance:
At the moment, Natate cannot propose a responsibility civil insurance, so we request the volunteers to have an accident and civil responsibility insurance and a trip insurance eventually.
Drug use:
The drug situation in Mexico is complicated. Even though the most part of the violence exists between the cartels and the dealers, the volunteers must be aware of the risks implied in the drugs’ use. Anyway, the drugs’ consume is strictly forbidden in the house where Natate accommodates its volunteers or in any of its projects. Natate will not tolerate to anyone the drugs’ use in the volunteers’ accommodation or in the projects. Breaking this rule will be enough reason for the volunteer to be asked to quit the project.
More information about Mexico and Chiapas:
Nataté performs projects in the state of Chiapas, located in the Southeast of Mexico; it is known for its touristic sites, which include natural attractive areas, pre-hispanic archaeological sites, colonial cities and the direct contact with different cultural groups that cohabit in this state. It has the highest native population in the country and has natural marvels which cannot be compared like the archaeological zone of Palenque and the Agua Azul waterfalls. It adjoins to the East with Guatemala, to the West with Oaxaca, to the North with Tabasco, to the South with the Ocean Pacifica and to the Northwest with Veracruz. The dominating and official language is Spanish. The mayan dialects spoken in Chiapas are: chol, tojolabal, tzeltal, tzotzil, mam y lacandon, which are related to Mayan origin dialects from the Peninsula of Yucatan and Central America.
San Cristobal de las Casas is the largest city in terms of tourism. It is a city where people of different ethnics, races and cultures coexist. It is located in the Chiapas highlands.
Nowadays, San Cristobal de las Casas is one of the most beautiful and original cities from the region of the Altos of Chiapas (and America), and also it must be added the evocative colonial image that it has conserved along the centuries. Because besides that, it has also an everyday life that could be almost called traditional, with its market, its people and a lot of natives with their colorful dressings, coming from several communities and who arrive to the place to sell or exchange their products.
The Educational Eco-park San José is a natural reserve of wild forest (oak and pine trees forest) and an educational park; it is part of the Natural History Institute in Chiapas. Its mission is to protect, conserve, and exhibit the flora and fauna from the region Los Altos de Chiapas. The total area of the park occupies 16 hectares, however at the moment only 2 are being used. The new administration is willing to reorganize the park and its facilities following their sustainable and ecological philosophy. The development of services for nature lovers and responsible tourist is among the plans (facilities for bird watching, bike paths, ecological refuges for animals, etc)
Work:
Volunteers will work on three different activities:1.-Enviromental culture and international volunteering: guide groups, renovation of the infrastructure, make material for workshops and the park, design and construction of cages for animals. 2.-Enviromental education: Guided tours for school groups, creation of demonstration places, elaboration of programmes for activities with kids. 3.-Wildlife: renovation of the infrastructure used by biologists to study animals, create information panels.
Accommodation:
Volunteers will stay at the park facilities, on a shared space.
Location:
Zinacantán, Chiapas, 15 minutes from San Cristòbal de las Casas.
Duration:
From 2 months to 1 year
Remarks:
Good level of Spanish to communicate with staff and children. Volunteers need to send a motivation letter and CV. Previous experience on education is a plus. An international work camp will take place for two weeks during the summer.
Number of volunteers:
3/4 volunteers.
Starting time:
At any time.
Participation fee:
1,500 Mexican pesos monthly. Fee does not include meals.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION:
Founded in 2006, Natate –the House in the Tree in Tsotsil, one of the Mayan dialects, is an independent civil association which works in the promotion of the international volunteering, for the solidarity and the comprehensive education for everyone, without a profitable objective, nongovernmental and non-religious.
Aims:
»To develop the volunteering service and promote the international solidarity under an intercultural and peaceful spirit. »To promote and develop the comprehensive education for young people. »To promote programs for the development of sustainable lifestyles. »To back and support groups of marginalized people and vulnerable minorities. »To promote the respect to human rights and dignity
Programmes:
International Camping Training Courses and Seminars Information and Awareness Campaigns National and International Volunteering
Natate is a member of the Coordinating Committee for the International Volunteer Service (CCIVS) and this lets it have access to programs and collaboration with more than 200 organizations in more than 80 countries. For more information visit www.unesco.org/ccivs
Through projects organized jointly with civil organizations, municipalities, groups and international and local organizations, Natate encourages the participation of young people in the preservation of the cultural and natural heritage, the protection of the environment, the construction of houses for the poorest, the improvement of social-educational structures, the utilization of alternative techniques of construction and sustainable technologies in several communities of the region of Chiapas.
Volunteering:
Natate considers the volunteering as a mutual exchange between a person or a group that offers his/her time, work and energy for the benefit of a project of common interest and a community which offers to the volunteers a learning, experimentation, personal and collective development opportunity. The volunteering is also considered as a social tool which collaborates to the promotion of the inter-cultural dialogue to create Peace, and creates a relationship between the local action and the global reflection.
Volunteering is not an activity, is a way of life, a way of acting!
In all the projects proposed by Natate, the citizen participation and specially that one of the young people is really important.
M/LTV Programmes:
•Environmental activities: cleaning, construction, recycling, awareness raising, reforestation •Education: Work with children, artistic workshops, protection of the environment, recreational. •Health: Support on the creation of workshops and translation of documents on sexual and reproductive health. •Office work: Translation, promotion of volunteering, presentations, preparation of activities, camp leader, updating the web page, contact with international organizations. •World heritage: restoration, renovation, and preservation of cultural and natural heritage. •Construction: Support to low income families in the construction and improvement of their houses.
Depending on the project, volunteers work up to 35 hours per week.
The trip:
The volunteers are responsible for the organization of their trip, to look for the best prices, to deal with the visa, if it is necessary. These procedures can be done once you are accepted in a project. We suggest looking up the costs of the trip before the registration, to avoid the cancellation of your participation for economical reasons. We suggest to the volunteers coming from other continents, arriving one or several days before the beginning of the project, so they can adapt to their new schedules. To travel to Mexico, it is advisable to verify the prices of the flights, since it can be really expensive. A lot of airlines fly to Mexico, including: Aeromexico, Lufthansa, Air France, Air Canada, United Airlines, KLM, Alitalia, among others.
Cultural and recreation activities:
There are a lot of opportunities for the volunteers to enjoy and discover this part of the country. In San Cristobal de las Casas and in the rest of the state there are a lot of possibilities to discover the Mexican and Chiapas culture. Guatemala is also near and the volunteers can take advantage of this geographical situation. During the project, the recreational activities will be limited to the surrounding area where the project is located. These activities will be organized jointly with the hosting community.
PARTICIPATION FEE:
The projects proposed by Nataté have a monthly participation fee that has to be covered by volunteers. This fee is: 1,500 Mexican pesos, volunteers should buy and prepare their own meals. This participation fee covers, administration costs, lodging, light and tab water. In projects where meal is included the participation fee is 2,500 and 2,900 depending of the project.
IV. ACCOMMODATION &FOOD: •Nataté provides accommodation for the projects that take place in San Cristobal de las Casas. It is a house at the city center, with all facilities (kitchen, 3 toilets, a small patio) and 6 shared bedrooms.
•Volunteers buy their own food at their charge except in projects NAT11, NAT17 and NAT24 where the food is included in the participation fee.
•Volunteers can cook at home. Mexican food is good, and meat represents an important part of the diet. However vegetarians and vegans will not have any trouble finding what they need for their diets.
•In the case of projects outside of San Cristobal de las Casas, the lodging conditions are different. The information is written in each project description.
Insurance:
At the moment, Natate cannot propose a responsibility civil insurance, so we request the volunteers to have an accident and civil responsibility insurance and a trip insurance eventually.
Drug use:
The drug situation in Mexico is complicated. Even though the most part of the violence exists between the cartels and the dealers, the volunteers must be aware of the risks implied in the drugs’ use. Anyway, the drugs’ consume is strictly forbidden in the house where Natate accommodates its volunteers or in any of its projects. Natate will not tolerate to anyone the drugs’ use in the volunteers’ accommodation or in the projects. Breaking this rule will be enough reason for the volunteer to be asked to quit the project.
More information about Mexico and Chiapas:
Nataté performs projects in the state of Chiapas, located in the Southeast of Mexico; it is known for its touristic sites, which include natural attractive areas, pre-hispanic archaeological sites, colonial cities and the direct contact with different cultural groups that cohabit in this state. It has the highest native population in the country and has natural marvels which cannot be compared like the archaeological zone of Palenque and the Agua Azul waterfalls. It adjoins to the East with Guatemala, to the West with Oaxaca, to the North with Tabasco, to the South with the Ocean Pacifica and to the Northwest with Veracruz. The dominating and official language is Spanish. The mayan dialects spoken in Chiapas are: chol, tojolabal, tzeltal, tzotzil, mam y lacandon, which are related to Mayan origin dialects from the Peninsula of Yucatan and Central America. San Cristobal de las Casas is the largest city in terms of tourism. It is a city where people of different ethnics, races and cultures coexist. It is located in the Chiapas highlands. Nowadays, San Cristobal de las Casas is one of the most beautiful and original cities from the region of the Altos of Chiapas (and America), and also it must be added the evocative colonial image that it has conserved along the centuries. Because besides that, it has also an everyday life that could be almost called traditional, with its market, its people and a lot of natives with their colorful dressings, coming from several communities and who arrive to the place to sell or exchange their products.
« I appreciate that constructive criticism may be more useful to you than praise but I honestly have no gripes that I could possibly mention. I can only thank you for the experience that I really enjoyed and will undoubtedly follow-up in the coming year. »
