VIC Elderly Project

Code: 98740810-1b9e-11e8-ab43-0242ac11000c Copied

Colombia People with disabilities Older people Social work People with disabilities Older people +1 Permanent

About the project

VIC Elderly Project

📝 Detailed information

🏢 About the local organisation

Volunteer in Colombia is a non-profit organization created in 2014 by Blanca Aili Usuga. The headquarters of the organization is based in the Village of San Javier in the Town of La Mesa, Cundinamarca, Colombia.

Mission

The mission of Volunteer Colombia is to support the communities to improve their financial and socio-economic situation in order to better their quality of life. By helping a community, we make a difference giving them a hand to achieve their goals, supporting their community development, agricultural, educational and elderly/child care projects. Volunteer Colombia aims to achieve this with the help and support of abroad volunteers sharing and promoting the principals of solidarity, compassion, cooperation and respect for the human rights and the environment.

Vision

The vision of the organization is to be the first Organization based in San Javier Villa supporting the goals and objectives of its inhabitants to improve their financial and socio-economic situation in order to better their quality of life.

Objective

Our aim is to increase the production of sugar cane and coffee crops, the creation of sustainable farms, better education, assisting the entrepreneurship programs and support the elderly, children and people with learning disabilities to relief the workload of their careers.

By assisting with education at the San Javier School, St. Francisco Julian Olaya School and The Youth Centre, we encourage and broad the children's views in life to be creative and innovative. By helping at the coffee and sugar cane farms, we encourage young people to stay and empower themselves to keep farming alive, increasing its production and the farmer’s economy. By giving a hand with entertainment and caring for the elderly and people with learning disabilities, we bring some comfort for the ones that brought up this community and those who need assistance and support.

💼 What the programme involves

Elderly Day Centre Project

Volunteers in this project will be assisting the member of staff in the kitchen preparing lunch for the elderly people at the Geriatric Centre or Day Centre.

Volunteers will also help with entertainment, ludic and cultural activities. Volunteers will need to be proactive and have a lot of initiative to work on their own and with the staff member. We expect volunteers to bring many activities to help with the entertainment.

Volunteers will need to take a minibus from the volunteer house or walk from the volunteer house to the day center depending on the allocated site. Work will be from 9 am to 2 pm. Some days and depending on the planning activities, volunteers will be asked to stay longer.

Volunteers will need a basic knowledge of Spanish to communicate. Sometimes people only need somebody to sit and talk to them or spend a few minutes in a one to one basis in an activity or a chat, reading a book, drawing, or playing chess. Just make them smile and feel they still be part of the society.

A typical week can be:

Monday to Friday:
7-7:30 am Breakfast
9-2 Day Centre work
12-12:30 pm Lunch Break
2- 4 pm Research
4- 6 pm Free to sightseeing
6-7 pm Dinner
7 pm: free time for other activities or presentations for the elderly people.

Saturday
8-8:30 am Breakfast
Then free to go sightseeing

Sunday
Free

🏠 Accommodation on site

Volunteers will be hosted at the Organization headquarters in a volunteer house. This is a bungalow of 5 rooms and two main toilets with showers and a small sitting room. The house can host up to 7 volunteers. The main house is the family house but volunteers can make use of all facilities around the main house, the TV room, the sitting room, the dining room and the gardens. The house is located in the countryside, so we are surrounded by nature, hills, and a river flows nearby. Wifi is aviable but volunteers need to bring some more entertainment like books or movies.

🍲 Food

Volunteers will have 2 main meals every day from Monday to Friday (breakfast and dinner). There is only one breakfast on Saturday and nothing on Sunday. Volunteers will be free to use cooking facilities at the weekend but they have to buy what they need.

Sometimes volunteers want to eat out at the restaurant. That is not included and it's the same for extra food. Volunteers will have to pay for their lunch from Monday to Friday at the local restaurant where the fee is only 2 or 3 €.

📍 About the location

San Javier is a small Village with 750 inhabitants but approximately 400 inhabitants live there permanently. It is surrounded by farms, hills and rivers. It has a school that holds 260 students from the surrounding villas and from San Javier. It Has a Medical Health Center with one nurse to care for all the inhabitants and the small villas nearby. The center depends on the main Hospital in the Town of La Mesa. It is open one day a week due to the lack of nurses and doctors. It has one elderly day center that is open every day from 9 am to 2 pm to host the elderly from the village and offer some entertainment, cultural activities and lunch for them. It has some very small countryside shops. Public transports run from 7 am to 7 pm every 20 minutes from the village to the main town only. Once volunteers arrive in town, they can easily walk fom one side to another.

The Paraíso Village is generally quiet and secure. In the past, the sugar cane and coffee producers were very successful but declined after the main producers had passed away or moved to other places.
The ones that still live nowadays struggle a lot to maintain the production and there are not many opportunities for young people who stay in the countryside. That's why people are very poor.
The Indigenas Panches were the original inhabitants in this area. Only a few of them are still alive.

The Main Town of La Mesa is a municipality of the Cundinamarca County and the capital city is Bogotá. It has 32000 inhabitants in the whole municipality of 7 villages. Approximatively 10200 inhabitants live in the center. There are 2 hospitals, many different private and comprehensive schools, a library, a marketplace, a catholic church, a coach station, small hotels, a police station, an army brigade, bars, restaurants, banks and a town hall.

🎒 Leisure activities

Volunteers will have the opportunity to go hiking to the Cross Peak or Pico de la Cruz, trekking by the Apulo River that is located a few meters away from the volunteer house, walking in the countryside to visit the surrounding villas like Margaritas, Peña Negra, Alto del Frisol. It is also possible to go to the countryside by minibus.

Volunteers can visit towns by Bus or Coach from the Town of La Mesa:

- La Esperanza where they can visit the Waterfall La Monja

- The Pedro Palo Lake

- Tena Town and the Tambo Waterfall

- San Antonio de Tequendama : Orquid Sanctuary and the Tequendama Waterfall

- Anapoima and the hot springs

- Bars and restaurants in La Mesa

- Bogota, capital of Colombia

The manager of the organization is a Speleologist and organize weekend trips to explore caves in different areas in Colombia. Volunteers can join these trips if they are interested but they need to be aware of the risks of this extreme activity.

Volunteers need to be aware that we live in the countryside, so there are not many things to do after 5pm. People in the countryside goes to bed early and it is very quiet except on holiday ant at the weekend where people from Bogota come to the countryside and make some noise. That is the reason why volunteers will need to bring stuffs for entertainment like movies, games or books (we have some and volunteers can borrow books at the library). Wifi is aviable at home. Mobile phones work but the signal is poor.

We try our best to make their stay as happy and entertaining as we can. Volunteers are the ones that bring us happiness and make us smile.

⚠️ Requirements

1. Curriculum vitae

2. Copy of Passport and Visa

3. Copy of Criminal Records

4. Copy of Covid Card or PCR

5. Copy of travel Insurance

🤝 Meeting point

The staff will pick up the volonteers at the airport.

ℹ️ Additional information

Available the whole year, except for Christmas, New Year, and Easter.

VOLUNTEER PERIOD
WEEK FEE US$
1: 310€
2: 480€
3: 720€
4: 960€
5: 1200€
6: 1440€
7: 1680€
8: 1920€
9: 2160€
10: 2400€
11: 2640€
12: 2880€
16: 3840€
20: 4800€
24: 5760€

For all programs, a Registration Fee of $140 USD on top of the Program Fee is required. All programs require a $50 USD donation pay at the end of the program to help the sites with their own projects. This amount will be included in the Program Fee that will be sent to you when you apply.

WHAT DO THE FEES PAY FOR?

Registration Fee (refundable if you choose not to take part) – ongoing support from Volunteer in Colombia staff, program marketing costs, information pack, administration costs, travel costs to inspect programs and communication costs with volunteers.
Program Fee – pick-up at the airport, orientation, supervision, accommodation and meals , 24/7 volunteer support and administration costs.

WHAT ADDITIONAL COSTS WILL I HAVE?

Visa, flights, travel insurance (mandatory), vaccinations, criminal background check, transportation, souvenirs, in-country trips or tours and spending money (volunteers in Colombia generally find US$50 sufficient for basic weekly expenses).
* - Terms and conditions do apply.

Interested in this project? Create your account and apply online.

📷 Project photos

VIC Elderly Project

/ 2

📅 Available sessions

Elderly Day Centre

01/04/2018 → 31/01/2019

Closed

0 / 7

♂ 0/3 ♀ 0/4

Elderly Day CentreAUTO-EXTAUTO-EXT

01/01/2024 at 00:00 → 30/12/2028 at 00:00

Open

0 / 0

Elderly Day Centre

01/12/2019 → 01/12/2020

Closed

0 / 7

♂ 0/3 ♀ 0/4

Elderly Day Centre

01/01/2022 → 31/12/2022

Closed

0 / 0

Elderly Day CentreAUTO-EXT

01/01/2023 → 31/12/2023

Closed

0 / 0

ℹ️ Key information

Age required

18–75 years old

Solidarity donation

720.00 EUR

French tax residents may be eligible for a tax reduction of up to 66% of their costs (membership, plane tickets, solidarity donation).

📍 Location

La Mesa, Cundinamarca, Colombia

Colombia

🌍 Location info

Local currency

Colombia Peso (COP / $)

Exchange rate

1 COP = 0.000274 EUR

Rate as of 31/05/2026

Timezone

Colombia Standard Time

Local time: 21:14 (12/11/2026)

🛡️ Before you leave

Security information

📞 Contact us

[email protected]

+32 2 888 67 13

Contact form

✅ Features

🏠 Accommodation

Host family Collective

🗣️ Languages spoken

English Spanish