A typical day for volunteers will involve working at the camp from 8:45 am until 1:00 pm (Monday to Friday). The camp will be made up of different centers (eg: arts & crafts, sports, drama, etc.) where each volunteer will be assigned to a center and a group of 5 to 10 campers. Counselors will be responsible for creating, organizing and leading activities within their center, as well as short songs, games, and activities for the daily ‘morning circle’. Afternoons and weekends are free for volunteers to do as they please. There are several breathtaking beaches within 10-20 minutes of the town, as well as waterfalls, natural pools and caves.

All volunteers must be 18 years of age or over by June 1st, 2011. Volunteers should be adventurous, energetic, responsible, and enjoy working with children and youth. They should be open to experiencing and becoming a part of a new culture. Past camp / volunteer experience and Spanish language skills are an advantage, but not required.

As the camp is free of charge for campers to attend, we do require volunteers to pay a fee to participate in the program, which helps us to cover the cost of land rental, transportation, daily snacks for campers, benches, tables, supplies, land maintenance, etc. The volunteer fees also cover the following for the volunteers:

* room in a typical Dominican home for entire length of program
* typical Dominican breakfast and dinner at home-stay (some home-stays also choose to provide lunch but that is completely up to the individual family and not guaranteed by The Esperanza Project)
* all project materials
* 24 hour on-call emergency support
* local support on and off the project
* airport pick-up and drop-off to and from home-stay (Puerto Plata and Samana airports)
* orientation day upon arrival with all staff / dinner out in local restaurant
* orientation package before arrival with further information on town, home-stay house and family, things to do and see during free time, and camp t-shirt

Volunteers can choose to participate for the full 8 week session from June 18th - August 13th, or for one of our half sessions of 4 weeks each. The first runs from June 18th - July 16th and the second from July 16th - August 13th. The volunteer fees are as follows:

Half Session: $1550 USD

Full summer session: $1950 USD

Please email Fiona at info@esperanzaproject.ca for an application.