TEACH UNDERPRIVILEGED CHILDREN IN RIO DE JANEIRO

Teach English to deserving children who are full of spirit and enthusiasm. You can also teach Art, Drama and Music, or you can combine projects, for example, teaching Art combined with teaching English.  

You'll be based in stunning, buzzing Rio, a hot tropical paradise! This is a stimulating yet laid-back experience in one of the most beautiful and diverse countries in the world.

►SUMMARY FACTFILE
Start Dates	All year round (except school holidays) - you choose your start and finish dates!
Duration	Minimum stay 2 weeks and up to 1 year, subject to visa requirements
Requirements	No qualifications needed, just a big dose of enthusiasm!
Price	From £895 / US$1,345 for 2 weeks, ranging to £2,395 / US $3,595 for 12 weeks. Full Price List and other Currencies
What's included	►Accommodation ►Breakfast ►Meeting you at the Airport ►Transfer to your accommodation ►Transport to and from your project ►Full pre-departure support ►Local in-country team support and backup ►24-hr emergency support ►Free T-shirt.
What's not included	Flights, Insurance, Cost of Visas (if a visa is required, but we'll provide necessary documents and assistance), Lunch & Dinner, Return transfer to airport.
Who can do this Project?	All our projects are open to all nationalities. Unless otherwise stated, you need to be aged between 17 and 70+

Also on this page:

• Work Content

• Support and Guidance

• Accommodation - Rio De Janeiro

• Travel, Visas, and Support & Backup

PROJECT OVERVIEW

We work with a number of different schools, each one individual with its own atmosphere and attraction.  You may want to work constantly at just one school or you may be keen to spread your help among a selection of schools. Our projects are very well structured but, as with all things Brazilian, also pretty laid back! You don't need any qualifications to participate in a teaching placement in Brazil.

You can teach a huge variety of subjects in Brazil.  Teaching here is both exciting and rewarding. You will have students from a variety of backgrounds, and you are likely to learn about their culture as they will hopefully learn from you. Many of the children that you will teach are from some of the poorest areas in Rio, but they are full of life and their cheeky manner is infectious and endearing!

Some schools cater for children ranging in age from the very young, where you will probably spend more time playing than teaching, to older children who will be excited to meet a foreigner like you and probably won't stop talking in a mixture of Portuguese and what little English they know!

This placement is an all-round experience of volunteering. However if you have any specifications (for example - you might only want to teach sport or dance), just let us know and we can tailor-make the programme for you. Otherwise, you may wish to go with the flow and volunteer in a variety of worthwhile schools for a diverse experience. 

As well as English, you can teach the following subjects in Brazil:
 

• IT

• Maths

• Musis

• Art, Arts & Crafts

• Drama

• Sports (Football, Basketball, Volleyball and Handball)

WHAT YOU'LL GAIN FROM DOING THIS PROJECT:

• An exciting, never-to-be-forgotten adventure into Latin America.
• The enormous satisfaction of helping disadvantaged children and knowing that you made a difference to them.
• New skills, more confidence, a greater understanding of a different culture, invaluable personal and professional development.
• An entry on your CV/resume that will put you head and shoulders above most others in the job market
• The enormous satisfaction of learning or improving your language skills.
• And best of all ... an unforgettable experience!

WORK CONTENT
As well as providing much needed assistance to children within schools, Travellers has also developed a number of partnerships with social projects aimed at providing English lessons and recreational activities to street children or children from disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

You can teach most subjects, including Art, Drama and Music. In this case you are likely to work in more than one institutions (eg: twice a week in one school, and twice or three times a week in another, or at the crèche or street kids project). The projects can also be combined; for example teaching Art combined with teaching English.

You'll provide educational assistance and also encourage children to see the 'good side' of the world by taking them away from the violence and poverty that they live in and encouraging them to perceive things in a different way. Such children have the opportunity to develop social skills and life skills. Along with the co-ordinators of such projects, you'll be acting as a positive role model to children, keeping them away from the dangers of the streets. It is not uncommon for children, particularly in Rio's poorer areas to never have left their village. Many will be amazed and confused that you speak an entirely different language - and they'll want to learn it too!

We have a huge variety of placements dotted in and around the city of Rio de Janeiro, some right next to the beach and some a little further inland. You'll no doubt work with several different schools, depending on what age groups you'd like to work with.

Below are brief descriptions of some of the schools that you may work in:

M.F School:
This This school is attached to the another one we work with, A.S School, they are both public state schools which have been around for about 50 years.  They are located towards the North of Rio.

Their biggest goal is keeping the kids of the streets and in the schools using the school facilities, so students can attend sports activities, language courses and cultural projects, and be away from the streets, crime & drugs.

You will either work mornings or afternoons.  Regarding the teaching the main subject to teach is English but you can also teach Maths, IT, Music, Drama or Arts & Crafts.  The age of the children at this school is between 6 and 9 years old.

Stephanie White, says of her placement at Santa Tereza: "Everyone at B.D.S.T made me feel at home and it was a brilliant experience. I really couldn't of asked for a better bunch of kids! The children at Santa Tereza are so much fun and very talented, I became very close to them all and I miss them very much! A lot of the families there don't have much when it comes to material things but their culture and lively personalities make up for that! Ballet De Santa Tereza is a great organisation, the children enjoy every day there! I suppose it is like an escape for them! I would definitely recommend a trip out to Rio and volunteering somewhere like Ballet De Santa Tereza, it really was the best time of my life!" 

SCHOOL HOLIDAYS AND ... CARNAVAL!
The main school holidays are from approximately

• 15^th July until the 10^th August and

• 10^th December until the end of the last week in February.

If you are unsure about how seasonal breaks may affect your placement, please ask us.

Carnaval begins at midnight on the Friday before Ash Wednesday and lasts for five days, but the whole country stops for about two weeks. Carnaval is celebrated all over Brazil. The most famous is, of course, held in Rio, but the authentic versions of Carnaval are found outside that city.

"Carnaval - The planet's most spectacular annual cultural pageant, where the ancient world's spirit of chaotic collective delirium and abandonment of self to the impulses of the body and a greater collective spirit is unrivaled."