This project provides education for people of all ages, healthcare, infrastructure, community enrichment and awareness activities, and economic development services like microfinance and microenterprise support. There is a diverse range of volunteer work available including opportunities to develop your own project according to your skills and experience. There is currently a need for teachers, business analysts, sports trainers (football, volleyball, etc), arts and music teachers, assistant educators (for the day-care centre), students of medicine, health care or odontology (for the health centre).
There is no cost to participate but volunteers are responsible for covering their living expenses. Volunteers are assisted in finding local accommodation and Spanish lessons if required. Housing costs between £90 – £215 per month.
Rio de Janeiro has won the battle to host the 2016 Olympics and take the games to South America for the first time. 
An arribada (mass synchronised sea turtle nesting) is a unique nesting phenomenon common to both the Olive ridley and the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle. The best place to witness an arribada is Ostional beach on the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica. Arribadas at this beach are considered the largest in the world, with as many as a million sea turtle eggs laid in the beach nesting areas each year. Arribadas occur on a lunar cycle of approximately 28 days. The majority occur around the start of the last quarter moon; however, this event may take place at any time including the full moon, and two arribadas (first and last quarter) may occur in the same month. The size and duration of the arribadas varies between the dry and wet seasons. Those occurring in the dry season of January to April tend to be smaller (approximately 5,000 turtles) and of shorter duration (less than four days). In the wet season of May to December, up to 300,000 turtles may lay over a period of 8 to 10 days. On a number of occasions between August and October, two arribadas of 10 days each have occurred in the same month. This results in continuous activity during the month with a few days of lower activity and two peaks of maximum nesting. 
Samoa and Indonesia have suffered in the last 24 hours after earthquakes – and now a new quake has hit Peru and Bolivia. According to the US Geological Survey, an 5.9 earthquake was recorded at Puerto Acosta, near the shore of Lake Titicaca at 3.30pm local time Wednesday. The quake, which was 60 miles east of Juliaca (Peru) and 100 miles northwest of La Paz (Bolivia) occurred at a depth of 155.5 miles and is believed to have not been felt in the surrounding areas. There are no reports of damage or injuries at this time.
International Volunteer Day, celebrated on 5 December, offers an opportunity for individual volunteers to make their contributions visible at local, national and international levels. Now is the time to start thinking about volunteering for a cause that is close to your heart. Volunteer Latin America encourages everyone to make a difference at home or abroad.
For a long time we have stressed the importance of choosing the right project before setting off to start volunteering overseas. We have also been quite critical of many placement companies as we believe they are more interested in making money than helping the environment or providing sustainable and well-targeted help for local communities. We found an interesting article in the