Volunteering With Las Sonrisas de los Niņos
In 2002 while living/volunteering 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 Niņos, 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. *text continues below photos: Patricia; Lena from Germany doing body painting with the girls; Will, Reid's son, with Presley)
We have been extremely fortunate to have had wonderful and generous volunteers, everyone of them, ranging from young people to the not so young, and coming from Holland, Ireland, England, Denmark, Belgium, Canada, Germany, 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 many months, 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 Linguo & Voluntourism). *text continues below photos: Volunteer Tim from Northern Ireland introducing hand-painting, he also volunteered in Guatemala at a place for handicapped kids; Sasha from Canada, standing in the light blue tee-shirt, spent a full 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. Some have stayed in La Ceiba while 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 January 2008, in partnership with our friends at Helping Honduras Kids (see Helping Honduras Kids & Future Plans), we opened a hostel type facility near the project as an additional living option for volunteers- click on Volunteer's Experiences & the Volunteer House for more information. *text continues below photos: Chauntel from Canada making crowns; Claudia from Germany & Lindsay from England with two very cute brothers in our vehicle; Ali from Canada was traveling with Chauntel and together they donated a swimming pool and many other wonderful things
The bus from La Ceiba is is an adventure, usually about a 45 minute ride and costing 18 Lempiras (about $1) 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 from the US brought huge amounts of energy and had the kids dancing every afternoon; Amber and Fernando from Canada taught the kids tricks and helped start our very popular arts and crafts activities
If you have particular skills and abilities, be they in the fields of health, construction, gardening, computers, or whatever may be the case, and you would like to share them with Las Sonrisas de los Niņos, 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, who has now made four trips, 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.
Below: John from Canada at the mountain river with his buddy; Iris, born in Honduras and moved to the US at age 11, a wonderful bilingual role model
Below: Ella from Belgium, came to Honduras by herself at age 18, volunteered with us before we reopened in Jan. 2008 helping build shelves and many other things and was with us for 3+ months on and off; Justin from the US just showed up one day and stayed with us for about 2 months, he was instrumental in establishing the garden and numerous other activities; both Ella and Justin went on to travel all the way to South America
Below- Becky (with Will in March 2008) from the US is now volunteering in Uganda; Laura from Denmark came to us from the CASS school
Below: Sonia with the keyboard and Valle dancing with the girls, from the US, spent 2 months with us and became important not only to the kids but also to our employees. When they left is was hard to believe their time with us was already over
Below: Claudia from Germany spent about 2 months with us and went on to volunteer with an orphanage when we temporarily shut down in May, 2008; Kim from Belgium didn't spend much time with us but brought some very generous donations for the kids
Below: Colin, Matt, & Melissa from the US came together in Jan 2008, a week before we reopened, and did lots of hot manual labor to help us get ready then were overwhelmed when we reopened because we were unexpectedly swamped with kids due to school being out. Matt was the first person to make a donation to us long before we opened and is now in Turkey; this was Melissa's second trip to Honduras.
Below- We were able to meet up with our first volunteer Stephanie in Canada in Oct. 2007; Sasha with Mick Jagger, or perhaps volunteer Tom from Holland
Below- Kayla of Washington, DC has made four trips and stays in frequent contact with the kids
Below- Ella performed many roles in her 3 months with us, including supervising the horse; Colin and Melissa met a new friend on their trip to La Ceiba
Below- Ella and Lena making tortillas, apparently Ella was quite surprised; Colin and another new friend; Sonia and Valle's last day was very sad for us
Below- Justin, Lena, Ella over to our house after work in February 2008; Melissa, Iris, Ella, Matt, Colin at a restaurant in Sambo Creek
Below- Over to our house for dinner; Amber from Canada playing Uno; Patricia leading morning exercises with Justin grooving in the background
