You can come and volunteer with the the CDCA. We need help in Nicaragua. If you are
skilled in agriculture, medical fields, business
management, medicinal herbs or appropriate technology we can use your help.
We aren’t. While we’ve gained a lot of experience on the ground, we
mainly we see ourselves as a conduit for resources from other parts of
the world to hook up with needs here. We do have specific long-term
volunteer positions available periodically. (We do charge a per diem to
all volunteers.)
Before arriving, long-term volunteers should read our reading packet to better
gain an understanding of Nicaragua and daily life here.
Currently, we are looking for
someone to fill our Volunteer Coordinator
position.
If you are not skilled in the above areas, we are taking a sabbatical and resting from hosting so many people.
Medical volunteers help us learn more and also see more patients. We can use nurses, PA's, nurse practitioners, doctors, public health trainers. Professionals come with health brigades and hold free clinics. They also teach and train our health care staff.Besides medical brigades, we host volunteer delegations which come to help with construction projects (such as the Spinning Plant)and other endeavors as they arise. In addition to a per diem charge of $45.00 to cover room, board, and transportation, volunteer groups also include "project funds" in their trip fees, which are used to purchase their own work project's supplies: medicines, shovels, cement, wheelbarrows, etc., as well as the costs of any tourist outings.
We expect groups to work as an act of
friendship with the Nicaraguan communities.
These groups will have opportunities to listen to what Nicaraguans have
to say and see some of Nicaragua's beauty as well as its poverty. As
much as volunteers want to help Nicaraguans,
the greatest work they can do is within themselves. As they see, hear,
and touch the lives of Nicaraguans they will change. What will last the
longest, and what will make the most difference to the people here is
the work volunteers will do when they return home.
|
in the United States...
Volunteer opportunities in the U.S. are a little more limited for us. Frankly, we have had a hard time getting all this organized...hey! That's something you could do: organize volunteers up there!
If you can collect stuff for us, or have
access to resources for medicines, tools,
school and office supplies, or other items that are useful here, we
want to stay in touch. If you know of ways to ship and transport large
donated items to us here in Nicaragua, please let us know.
We need people who will help organize speaking engagements for us in the U.S. We see one of our important services as educating people in the U.S. to the problems of poor Nicaraguans, so we have a power point presentation we take on the road twice a year.
We need people to organize fund-raising drives for new vehicles (ours are continually dying! Our clinic needs one to use to transport people to the hospital and our limited budget doesn't allow for it).
We do need people who would be willing to hold fund-raisers for us
(like host a rice and bean dinner in your home and show our
presentation...we can send you a CD of our digital slides, with an
accompanying script, if you would like to use it), host our staff when
we are in your area and arrange for a speaking engagement.
We also need people who will pass along creative fund-raising ideas to their friends and church / civic groups.
Occasionally we have special tasks that require us to call for help (like trying to get a specific information or locating some kind of equipment).
If you would like to participate in the Friends of CDCA, a U.S. based support group, you are needed.
If you are interested in any of this, let us know what and we'll give you more information and hold you close to our hearts! We hope to hear from you and thank you for being interested in this work. We always need all the help we can get!