📝 Detailed information
🏢 About the local organisation
ICYE Honduras
💼 What the programme involves
The 'Comunidad El Arca Honduras' belongs to L”™Arche International, a federation of more than 135 member communities, established as independent entities in 36 countries. The communities encompass 5,000 people with and without an intellectual disability, who share their lives in homes, workshops, and day programmes.
Comunidad El Arca Honduras”™ main objective is to offer people with an intellectual disability a family-styled living environment that encourages them to create a home, to develop their talents, to build friendships, and quite simply, to make the most of life!
Its main aims are:
Help mentally disable people to feel useful and adapted to the society.
To reveal the natural talents of mentally disabled people.
Main Activities
Some of the activities that Comunidad El Arca Honduras develops are:
Homes: Giving the mentally disabled people the chance to form a true family with a simple life.
Workshops: discovering their dignity, feeling useful and fulfill a task adaptable to their capacities.
School: offering a special education program, which permits them to enjoy and learn to relate to others and also helping the families with a special child to include their child into the family life and society.
Volunteer tasks
The volunteer could participate in any of the activities carried out at the community:
Assisting and/or preparing the existing workshops.
Helping in evaluation and occupational therapy of each individual.
Sharing and living with everyone in the project and participate in everyday life of these people.
Living in one of the homes demands the volunteer to take care of the disabled during the mornings and evenings, participating preparing their meals and house duties as well as sharing other things like free time in a family. He/she will have two hours free time every day.
In case the volunteer lives at a Host Family, the timetable will be 8.00 a.m. 4.00 p. m.
The volunteer will be assigned to an area which suits best his/her abilities and interests. In case the volunteer has know-how which the organization does not possess, the volunteer will be given a chance to put it into practice.
Minimum (weeks): 4
Maximum (weeks): 16
Project available for January.
🏠 Accommodation on site
Living within the social project or at a host family.
📍 About the location
Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, got its tongue-twisting name from the ancient indigenous dialect 'Nahuatl' that means 'silver mountain'. In effect, Tegucigalpa came to be during colonial times a mining center. 'Tegus', as its inhabitants affectionately call it, is a mixture of an old colonial city that has turned into the modern capital of Honduras.
Its population is approximately 1,200,000 inhabitants.
Tegucigalpa is a city with a very pleasant climate, nestled in a valley of about 3,000 ft. Its highest peek, the mountain 'El Picacho', is located at an elevation of 930 m above sea level.
Getting around Tegucigalpa can be a confusing experience. Despite the colonial history of the city, it does not have the typical Spanish layout of square streets around the city. This is mostly that terrain around the city did not allow this. Nonetheless, Tegucigalpa is well connected to all parts of Honduras. Buses leave daily to all cities.
After the capital had been switched back and forth between Comayagua and Tegucigalpa, Tegucigalpa became the permanent capital in 1880. In 1938 it was joined with its twin city Comayagüela to one governmental district, 'Municipio del Distrito Central: M.D.C.'. Tegucigalpa and Comayagüela appear from far as one big city, but the 'Grande' or 'Choluteca' River divides the city, and as one comes closer one can tell the difference. While Tegucigalpa is the political and cultural centre of Honduras, Comayagüela is more commerce orientated; here one can find everything for good prices at the different markets.
In Tegucigalpa, one can find many marginal areas in which unfortunately extreme poverty exists, mainly due to migration from rural areas which causes a high unemployment rate. One of the biggest problems of the city is street children.
ℹ️ Additional information
Volontariat de 4 à 16 semaines; frais supplémentaires de 370€ pour le 1er mois, puis 65€ par semaine. Placement individuel, programme ouvert toute l'année