Volunteering With Las Sonrisas de los Niños

Several years ago in Guatemala, I had a conversation with a recently retired American woman in which she lamented about the difficulty of finding a volunteer position. She had assumed, with her years of productive life experience, she could simply announce to the world she was ready to help, and she would quickly find a variety of volunteer opportunities. The reality, as she discovered, is generally different, with many organizations requiring a significant commitment in time and or money, and often requiring a complicated application process. This is understandable in many cases, for example when a particular organization needs a specific professional to fill a long-term position. Often lacking in the world of international volunteerism, however, are accessible opportunities for a person who simply wants to do some good. This is unfortunate because too many children, who have very little in the best of circumstances, needlessly go without the simple attention and nurturing that you can offer. This is one of the main purposes of Las Sonrisas de los Niños, to bring at least a few of the poor children of Honduras together with you, a person from the "first world" who wants to make a positive difference in their lives. If you have never experienced it before, you will discover that the smile you bring to the face of a poor child is one of the most satisfying feelings you will ever know.

We have been extremely fortunate to have had wonderful and generous volunteers, everyone of them, ranging from young people to not extremely young, and coming from Holland, Ireland/England, Canada, and the US.  Each one has brought special abilities and insights, and have all been loved by the kids.  Volunteers provide energy, ideas, and excitement that bring endless smiles to the kids of our project, and we believe they have all had happy, meaningful, and memorable experiences.  We do not have any particular requirements to volunteer and no application is involved.  Usually, but not always, we've had e-mail contact in advance, and we are happy to accept walk-in volunteers, to work for a morning, an afternoon, a day, a week, or whatever may suit your schedule and desire to help.  As a volunteer, expect to spend time with kids- playing games and sports, helping with crafts, reading stories, or simply sitting and holding them, something many of the kids have rarely experienced.  You are encouraged to bring your own ideas and activities.  Speaking Spanish is not required (it's amazing how well kids can interact with adults even through a language barrier), however we believe that volunteering with us can be directly associated with attending language school (click over to A Different Way To Go in regards to Linguo-Tourism).  *text continues below photos: Volunteer Tim introducing hand-painting, he also volunteered in Guatemala at a place for handicapped kids; Sasha, standing in the light blue tee-shirt, spent an entire month with us and lots of kids cried as she left us

Practical arrangements in terms of living and transportation have varied with each volunteer.  Most have stayed in La Ceiba with some attending morning classes at the Central American Spanish School (CASS) and traveling out via bus in the afternoon, while others have obtained only home stays through CASS and taken the bus to the project in the morning (CASS arranges home stays whether or not one attends the school, and at times efficiency apartments are also available through the school).  In one case a volunteer stayed at (and worked evenings) at a local orphanage about a mile from the project, and others have stayed at a nearby primitive but scenic hotel.  The bus from La Ceiba is is an adventure, usually about a 45 minute ride and costing 15 Lempiras (about 80 cents) each way.  They are old school buses from the US and tend to be irregular in schedule.  Usually a placard will read "Jutiapa" among other destinations, with the stop for Cacao and the project about 3 miles before Jutiapa.  Except for the most adventurous, if you want to travel out to us by bus you'll need specific instruction, but you'll quickly become an expert and you'll see a lot of Honduras on the ride (at certain points and on clear days the Bay Islands of Utila and Roatan are visible).  *text continues below photos: Gail and Becky brought huge amounts of energy and had the kids dancing every afternoon; Amber and Francisco taught the kids tricks and helped get our very popular arts and crafts activities going.

We are looking into the possibility of sharing local volunteer housing with the nearby orphanage, and even bringing a branch of the Central American Spanish School out to our site, but these ideas are still in the future.  If you have particular skills and abilities, be they in the fields of health, construction, computers, or whatever may be the case, and you would like to share them with Las Sonrisas de los Niños, please let us know. Remember, as a volunteer you can look forward to receiving absolutely free a plate of rice and beans for lunch! 

To learn more about volunteering please...Contact Us.  Otherwise please read some Experiences from a few of our volunteers to get a feel for what they encountered. 

Below: Kayla found herself an important mentor to several of the older girls and introduced the card game of UNO, which captivated the kids; Reid's son Will spent over 5 weeks in Honduras during the summer of 2007 and was instrumental in organizing the baseball program.