Sample Volunteer Abroad Projects — Mexico
Several projects are available throughout Mexico mainly in working rural communities and often with native Indian peoples. The following is a sample of projects available. Volunteers should be prepared to be flexible with regard to their project placement.
Community Development - Education - Ecotourism Initiatives
Community Development Projects:
ISLA DEL VIEJO SOYALTEPEC o Naxi Jen
Oaxaca has 53% of the entire indigenous population of Mexico with half of its population living close to the poverty line and a third still speaking a native language. When the Miguel Aleman dam was built in 1947 it created one of the largest 
artificial lakes in the whole of Mexico. Native groups were forced to move from the mainland to a new “island” and had to leave behind their long time agricultural way of life to start fishing. Everything changed as a result and a large percentage of the population left the region. Nowadays the community is made up of three hundred families from Mazatecan background (an indigenous native group) who speak “mazateco” among themselves, and only speak Spanish with outsiders.
This project requires volunteers all year around for periods of 4 weeks up to 3 months. Participants will live with host families from the community. Volunteers will get involved in eco-tourism activities which might include helping with the cleaning and improvement of guest cabins; teaching foreign languages, computers or administrative practices to local staff; teaching cooking and confectionery techniques to locals in charge of the community owned restaurant or help in the maintenance of the nature trails on the island.
The women’s craft cooperative also need help to improve their organization, systems of production, marketing, design and quality control of products. Assistance is also needed in the development of workshops on the following topics: management of waste; recovering and recording of oral traditions, discovering the origins of legends or festivities; first aid training and environmental education.
Fighting poverty by empowering women, in Veracruz, Chiapas or Yucatan
Worldwide, social research results have shown that when a woman has a regular income she will spend it mostly in her children’s benefit. This income will help to secure for them food and to facilitate their access to education, bringing positive changes not only to their household but to the whole community.
The Maya Nut Program focuses on women as the caretakers of the family and the environment. Its main aim is to help indigenous and marginalized women to find ways to produce food, to earn income and raise healthy families without destroying their environment. The program has demonstrated positive and lasting impacts on rainforest conservation, reforestation, maternal health, infant nutrition, food security and the empowerment of women.
The Maya Nut is a 100% organic, non-GMO forest product high in nutrients which grows naturally in fertile rainforest soils. The Maya Nut is the fruit of a tree call commonly “Ramon”. The Program focuses on helping indigenous and marginalized women to find ways to produce food, to earn income and to raise healthy families without destroying their environment.
In general volunteers will collect, select and dry up seeds, and set up 
plants nurseries and parcels. In Veracruz, the volunteer might also take part in cooking sessions where women of the community learn how to use the flour got from the seed, and in the promotion of activities of the project in the local towns and cities to encourage other women to use the seeds.
In Yucatan volunteers will also work with the women’s cooperative in the organization and implementation of workshops to teach other women about the benefits of the Mayan Nut. They will also take part and organize talks on issues as family nutrition, healthy cooking and environment care awareness. Women also need help to develop strategies to market and sell their products in the region properly, so participants with knowledge on the field are very welcomed.
In Chiapas volunteers will be working in cooking workshops; helping local women to get familiar with solar ovens and test recipes in them; collecting seeds, developing the nursery and recording the fauna of the area.
Ninos Encantados de la Barra de Potosi - Charmed Kids of Barra de Potosi - Guerrero
Barra de Potosí is a small fishing village located on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, in the State of Guerrero, 25 minutes away from the Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo beach resort. Like any other small community on the edge of big tourist resorts, Barra de Potosi is in danger of losing its traditional identity as outside investors and developers seek to exploit its location and facilities. Now local residents are coming together to try and protect and preserve the values and traditions of their community.
“Niños Encantados de la Barra de Potosi”, (Charmed Kids of Barra de Potosi) has its main goal to provide opportunities for the children of the village. However it also raises an awareness and pride in the traditions and folklore of the community. It began 
with donations of gifts and money to create a bank of school supplies for children in the village school and led to the purchase and conversion of a small house in the village for use as a children’s library. Children go there to do their homework and art and drama activities and various workshops also take place. However much more needs to be done to improve the building and to increase the activities and services available within the project. Click here to read a story from a past volunteer to Barra.
Highly motivated volunteers with initiative are required to take over different tasks, from office work to homework guidance, coordination of art, language or music workshops, sport activities or reading circles. The project has few resources and facilities and volunteers who are resourceful, flexible and willing to improvise and introduce new activities are especially welcome. This project especially can use volunteer work all year around. Volunteers are welcome for 4 weeks up to 6 months.
CENTRO INTERACTIVO DE PARACHO – YOUTH INTERACTIVE CENTER IN THE SIERRA PUREPECHA, IN MICHOACAN
The Centro Interactivo, or Interactive Center, is located in the finest place of guitars making in Michoacan, the small city of Paracho. This Center works with children and teenagers from indigenous communities, mainly in rural and semirural areas of the Sierra Purepecha. Paracho has larger economical and social resources than other communities such as Pomacuaran, Nurio and Cheranastico, communities which children are also assisted by the Center, however the overall area is very poor and faces a neglected youth. Most of these children speak Purepecha as their first language, and Spanish is their second language.
One of the main objectives of the Center is to give young people tools and a space where to express their needs and develop their creativity. According to their background and language skills volunteers will help with after school support workshops, helping 
children with their homework or research project or teaching English. The can also coordinate IT, reading and dramatization of readings workshops, to organize creative writing, handcrafts, arts or music sessions, to give environmental and recycling talks, and to follow up those programs during his/her stay. There is also need for short term sports workshops and help in the general maintenance of the center: computers, gardens, etc. During summer time, participants will join also construction brigades to work in schools and rehabilitation of leisure spaces.
As all the communities have different levels of prosperity, when it is possible, participants will live with local families. If that is not possible, they are provided with lodging in community facilities such as school classrooms, camping sites, etc. Facilities might be very basic, but they are always very clean and safe.
While living with a host family participants will have a single bedroom, but will share a bathroom with other members of the family.
This project especially requires volunteers all year around. Volunteers are welcome for 4 weeks up to 3 months
COMMUNITY WORK IN TECAJIC, STATE OF MEXICO
Tecajic is a small town half an hour away from Toluca, capital of the State of Mexico. Toluca is an urban area that has growth rapidly thanks to its proximity with Mexico City; however the small municipalities around it hadn’t enjoyed the benefits of this growth. Tecajic is one of them, and despite it is located in an important historical belt, between a not very well known archaeological area and a former Franciscan settlement, their inhabitants leave the area at a very young age in search of opportunities in other cities.
Facing this difficult situation, a retired social worker who was involved for over 25 years in the development of support networks in rural communities, initiated a project which aim is to fight back a general feeling of despair in the community through the organization of activities that not only allow participants to enjoy their spare time, but also to build up a feeling of belonging and cooperation among them. Participants in different activities are expected to develop different skills that in a way or another will help them to improve their quality of life.
Volunteers in this project will work with specialists from the local Health Center, with the State Office Assistance to Older People and with the parish church.
Volunteers will work either with very young children, teenagers or senior citizens, according to their professional and personal background, and language skills. Their activities will not be confined to a certain area only: they can help with campaigns of the Health Center, to teach English, to organize physical activity workshops for different ages (from yoga, to soccer, aerobics or kickboxing), to organize handcraft, arts or music workshops, to organize cleaning campaigns, to organize reading workshops and creative writing courses and to help with the restoration of the local church, a key element in the enhance of the pride of belonging to the community.
LA VENTANILLA ECO-TOURISM PROJECT , IN OAXACA
The Co-operative project in the beach village of La Ventanilla in Oaxaca State was set up to stop the killing and selling of turtles and their eggs and has grown in to a sustainable development project which generates alternative sources of income for the local people. It is located in a small beach village in a large mangrove zone just 60 minutes away from Huatulco and Puerto Escondido beach resorts. Twenty five families living in the village are actively involved in the co-operative which has among its goals to rescue the natural habitat of hundreds of species of birds and reptiles and the promotion of eco-tourism.
The co-operative started operating tours along the mangrove swamp and offering horseback riding tours to generate an extra income. They have also established a tree nursery housing 70,000 plants of mangle and other local varieties, a crocodile farm and nurseries for turtles and iguanas.
This project requires volunteers all year around for periods of 4 weeks up to 3 months.
Volunteer activities might include cleaning and preparation of the eco-friendly tourist cabins, to assist in the community owned restaurant “El maíz azul” (“The blue corn”), helping in the rehabilitation of confiscated animals and the release of newly-hatched turtles into the ocean. Between August and October, for example, volunteers could take part in night patrol canoe trips to find turtle’s nests, to collect and record eggs, and to bring them to the nursery. Participants will also help in the organisation and development of workshops to recycle paper, aluminium, plastic and coconut fibre; as well as in the daily cleaning of the beach, the dock and the island; and in the planting and harvesting of ornamental and fruit trees.
