Community Development

Project Summary

Travel to the rural southern zone of Osa, Costa Rica. We have beautiful jungle but lack some infrastructure. While the tourist areas and capital city of San Jose are beautiful and up-to-date, the poorer areas are often run down and falling far behind the capital city. This is especially true at schools in rural communities, where people do not have the skill sets or money to do basic repairs. Join our construction participant opportunities to improve local homes, schools and public buildings. As a participant, you will work to repair, paint, remodel, and make improvements within the local communities to improve the village or town and overall morale. In the past, our participants have had a positive effect on the community, and the local citizens really appreciate the program.

participants will teach English workshops to the community with the objective of promoting greater literacy, supporting opportunities for higher education, building vocational skills and enhancing career prospects among students. participants will primarily focus on teaching conversational business skills, vocabulary by profession, and basic conversational skills.

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Skills/Qualifications Needed

No specific qualifications are required to join the construction in Costa Rica project, though the work will be physically demanding. While beginner to intermediate knowledge of Spanish is preferred, it is not mandatory. If you cannot speak Spanish, we suggest you enroll in our Spanish language course to make your stay more rewarding – both for you and for the community you are helping.

participants in this project will be expected to be open minded, patient, caring, and self-starters (able to recognize what needs to be done or who needs to be helped). participants are expected to maintain a helpful and professional attitude.

Participant Roles and Responsibilities

Participants will participate in various constructions projects. Some of the projects range from repairing and building homes, public buildings, and schools in rural villages and towns. Some duties may include digging, removing dirt, carrying bricks, mixing cement, plastering, painting, cleaning and other various needs. The work days are typically Monday through Friday, though the work schedule may vary based on project needs, the construction schedule and weather. All construction projects will be led and managed by experienced workers.

participants will determine on a case-by-case basis their lesson plans in accordance with the adult’s personal reasons and needs for learning the English language. participants will assist with the pronunciation of words, sentence structures, vocabulary, colloquialisms, culture, and basic conversational skills.

participants will be responsible to create, develop, and provide a community English workshop to the age groups based on current needs of the community. participants will work a schedule of Monday through Friday at least 2 hours per day (1 hour planning, 1 hour teaching).

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Accommodation/Food/Supervision

Participants have the option to either stay with well-screened host families or at our headquarters depending mainly on availability and preference. Should participants have a preference, they should let our in-country coordinator know as soon as possible-in their application. We try to accommodate preferences. Host Families are well-screened and offer participants a shared bathroom, private bedroom, electricity, and running water.

Headquarters housing offers participants shared bathrooms, hostel-style bedrooms, electricity, running water, and WiF.

Participants receive three light traditional meals per day at either accommodations..

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