APPLICATION DEADLINE:
Friday, January 16th, 2015 11:59 PM.
The Rotaract Club of York University will be travelling to the city of San Jose in Costa Rica on April 27th 2015. The trip will last 7 days.
Why you should come...
This is an opportunity of a lifetime! Throughout the trip you can experience different volunteer work which consists of providing individual attention and affecting children, organizing games and activities, educating children in regards of hygiene and assisting children with homework.
The price includes a registration fee of $279 USD, and a program fee of $300 USD. This cost includes accomodation, food and supervision/guide. Flight costs are not included but we will connect with all those who are going and purchase tickets together.
Please guide through this page to find out more about the trip. Once you are ready, download and complete the form below:
Program Overview
ACCOMMODATION
Volunteers are accommodated in homestays, where you will live with a local family who have been approved by our local staff. We give your host family a fee for your support, food and board. It is exciting to stay with a host family, providing you with a unique opportunity to learn about the Costa Rican way of life, meet local people, try local food, speak the local language (most families do not speak any English), and engage in local customs and traditions. Living is comfortable and all homestays have electricity, running water (drinkable) and western bathrooms. You can also expect low pressure showers that are not always heated. We recommend that you bring your own towel and toiletries. Bedrooms are comprised of single beds and bunk beds with bedding provided. You can expect to share a room with one or two other volunteers, but in some homestays volunteers get their own rooms. Accommodation on the Turtle Conservation project is typically in dormitory-style lodging with basic amenities.
Living Details
Meals
In Costa Rica, volunteers are provided breakfast and dinner at their accommodation. Breakfast typically consists of bread, spreads, fruit, eggs, rice and beans accompanied with tea or coffee. Dinner commonly consists of meat (commonly chicken), beans, rice, starches and vegetables. Gallo Pinto, the national dish of Costa Rica, is made of rice, beans and various spices, and is served with almost every meal. Lunches are not provided to San Jose-based volunteers as they are typically away from their accommodation mid-day. We recommend budgeting between US$5 and $8 per day to purchase lunch and the local staff will provide recommendations on economical places to eat in San Jose at orientation. Turtle Conservation and Eco-Agriculture volunteers are provided with lunch given the limited availability of restaurants in the rural settings these projects are placed in. If you have any special dietary requirements, please let us know when you apply for the program so we can make arrangements for you. However, we must emphasize that you should not expect to eat as you normally do at home. We will do our best to make sure you are well taken care of, but as a volunteer in a developing country, there is a need to be flexible.
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Why IVHQ?
SUPPORT
From the moment you pay your Registration Fee, you will receive ongoing support from IVHQ until the day you finish your volunteer program. Once registered on an IVHQ program, you will gain access to a number of features within My IVHQ to help you prepare for your trip, including information booklets and check-lists. You will also be connected with a dedicated IVHQ Program Manager who is directly responsible for managing your program and helping you prepare for your trip. Once you reach your volunteer program destination, our local team takeover the initial support role and will be your first point of contact until the day you depart your program. While your IVHQ Program Manager becomes a secondary layer of support at this stage, he/she will remain in touch with you via email and will be accessible should you require assistance.
SAFETY
Traveling to a foreign country and experiencing a different culture can be a daunting experience at the best of times, but when you are volunteering and living among the local community, this apprehension can often be compounded. While safety can never be totally guaranteed wherever we are in the world, IVHQ and its partner organizations do all we can to ensure your volunteer program is as safe as possible. Volunteers are placed in trustworthy institutions and accommodations, all of which have been screened by our local teams. We conduct risk management audits on our frequent visits to programs, while providing our local teams with risk management guidelines to help minimize risk for our volunteers.
FRIENDSHIP
Volunteers on IVHQ programs often form life-long friendships with their host families and the people they assist while volunteering. However, they also form strong bonds with the other volunteers on their programs. Although many volunteers come from very different cultures and backgrounds, the experiences that these volunteers share forge strong ties that can last a lifetime. As one of the world’s largest volunteer organizations, sending thousands of volunteers abroad annually, IVHQ volunteers are always in the company of other international volunteers.
LOYALTY
Loyalty is one of the foundations that IVHQ has been built on. We make your registration fee refundable so if you change your mind (no later than 60 days before your program start date), you will receive your money back. We also reward our returning volunteers with US$50 registration fee refunds. We show strong loyalty to the communities in which we work, IVHQ sets up sustainable long-term partnerships with local organizations and institutions, which allow long-term prosperity for the people in the communities where our volunteers are placed.
ENJOYMENT
At IVHQ we recognize that there is more to a great volunteer travel experience than simply volunteering. While we are focused strongly on providing top quality volunteer programs, we also realize that many IVHQ volunteers are first-time travelers to their program destinations and wish to take time out for sightseeing and to explore. To accommodate this, our local teams have established partnerships with local travel companies to provide volunteers with access to high quality and often discounted travel and tour activities.
Program Schedule
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Arrival and Departure
Accommodation is provided from the Sunday night before your program starts through to (and including) Friday night before your program ends. The program ends on Saturday and you can depart at any time that suits you. If you arrive earlier or depart later than these dates, this is ok, however, you will be expected to pay for the extra accommodation costs (expect to pay US$27 per night directly to partner organization in Costa Rica – this includes meals).
Orientation
Orientation is taken by our Costa Rica team at our offices in San Jose. Orientation begins on Monday morning and covers everything you need to know for your volunteer program in Costa Rica – Introduction to Costa Rica, Costa Rican Customs, Language Training Details, Rules and Expectations, Safety, Travel Opportunities in Costa Rica, Introduction to your Project and Placement. The orientation will also give you a chance to meet other volunteers and swap contact details for weekend travel and socializing. Once your orientation is complete, you will be transported to your home-stay and introduced to your host family.
