VIC Learning Disabilities Centre Project

Code: 3732c1d3-1ba3-11e8-ab43-0242ac11000c Copied

Colombia People with disabilities Education Social work People with disabilities Education +1 Fixed dates

About the project

📝 Detailed information

🏢 About the local organisation

Our local partner 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-economics 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 and 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 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 it's inhabitants to improve their financial and socio-economics 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 carers.

By assisting with education at the San Javier School, St. Francisco Julian Olaya School and The Youth Centre we encourage and broad the children views in life to be creative and innovative, 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 and 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

The DC holds between 20 to 80 students and is located in the main Town of La Mesa. Volunteers will need to take a minibus to go there. Or use transport from the Volunteers House for a small fee. Open everyday from 9 am to 5:30 pm and depending on organized activities . Closed only for 2wks in Christmas time.
Volunteers will assist in all entertainment , educational and cultural activities. Also sports, music, IT, painting, drawing, singing, dancing,board games, English lessons, and any skills that volunteers can bring to help. Some times volunteers will assist members of staff to go to rural areas to bring this activities for disable people that can not reach the center.
Volunteers will need to make a lot of research, presentations and orientation to children on their research.
Volunteers will need to be proactive and have a lot of initiative to work on their own as well as to work with members of staff.
Volunteers will need to take a minibus to the Learning Disabilities Centre which is at the main Town of La Mesa 20 minutes from the volunteers house.
Some times the program start late in the beginning of the year as it is organized by the Council and it depends on their resources to open so please ask before booking for this projects.

A typical week can be:

Monday to Friday:
7-7:30 am Breakfast
9-12 work
12-2 pm Lunch Break
3- 5 pm work
5-6 Research or free to sight seen
6-7 pm Dinner
7 pm ... free time for free activities or preparing presentations for the students.

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

Sunday
Free

🏠 Accommodation on site

Volunteers will be host at the Organization headquarters volunteers house. Which is a bungalow of 5 rooms and two main toilets with showers and a small sitting room, volunteer house can host up to 7 volunteers. The headquarters main house is the family house but Volunteers can make use of all facilities around the main house, TV room, sitting room, dinning room and gardens. The House is located in the country side, so we are surrounded by nature, hills,and a river. Unfortunately Internet is an issue as the signal is very poor to none, volunteers can make use of free Internet at the main town of La Mesa.

🍲 Food

Volunteers will have 2 main meals every day Monday to Friday (Breakfast and dinner) and a packed lunch. Saturday Breakfast, Sunday None. Volunteers will be free to use cooking facilities at the weekend if at home.

📍 About the location

The Village of San Javier is a small Villa with 750 register inhabitants but only approximately 400 inhabitants lives permanently in here. It is surrounded by farms, hills and rivers. It has a school that holds 260 students from the villas around and a few from San Javier . It Has a Medical Health Center with one nurse to care for all the inhabitants plus the small villas around and it depends from the main Hospital at the Town of La Mesa it is open only 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 2pm to host the elderly from the Village and offer some entertainment , cultural activities and lunch for them. It has some very small countryside shops. It has public transport that runs from 7 am to 7 pm every 20 minutes from the Village to the main Town only. The roads are country side lanes and volunteers can walk everywhere in town.

The Village in general is a quiet place, very safe and secure. In the past was a very successful sugar cane and coffee producers but went down once the main producers pass away or move away to other places.

The ones that still living now days have struggle a lot to keep farming alive and there are not many opportunity's for young people to stay in the countryside, people lives in very poor conditions.

The Indigenas Panches, were the original inhabitants in this area and today only a few of them still alive.

The Main Town of La Mesa is a municipality of the Cundinamarca County which Capital is Bogotá. It has 32000 inhabitants in the whole municipality which has 7 villages. In the center lives 10200 inhabitants approximately, it has a level 2 Hospital, many different private and comprehensive schools, a library, market place, catholic church, coach station, small hotels, police station, army brigade, bars, restaurants, banks, atm's and the hall council. It is one of the main touristic destination for the capital city citizens for it's cercanity and hot climate.

🎒 Leisure activities

Volunteers will have the opportunity to go hill walking to the Cross Peak or Pico de la Cruz, Trekking by the Apulo River a few meters from the volunteers house. Walk a long countryside roads to visit other villas around like Margaritas, Peña Negra, Alto del Frisol or go on the countryside ride minibus to this places.

Volunteers can visit also near by 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 ... The Tambo Waterfall

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

- Anapoima and the hot springs

- La Mesa Town Bar and restaurants

- Bogota Capital of Colombia

Also The manager of the organization is a Caver or Speleologist and do go out for weekends trips to explore caves to different areas in Colombia. Volunteers can join this trips if interested but 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 for bank holiday weekends where people from Bogota come to the countryside and makes some noise. So volunteers will need to bring stuff for entertainment like movies or games or books (we have some and also volunteers can borrow books at the library). There is not internet or wifi at home because the signal does not reach us but volunteers can use Internet at the main Town. Mobile phones work but signal is poor.

We try very hard to make their stay as happy and entertain as we can, but volunteers are the ones that bring us happiness and smiles.

ℹ️ Additional information

VOLUNTER PERIOD
WEEK FEE US$
1 220
2 360
3 480
4 590
5 710
6 810
8 1040
10 1320
12 1620
20 2820
24 3420

All programs attract a Registration Fee of $140 USD on top of the Program Fee. All programs will have a $50 USD donation pay at the end of the program to help the projects sites with their own projects. This amount will be included in the Program Fee quoted 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 – airport pick-up, orientation, program supervision, accommodation and meals during volunteer program period, in-country 24/7 volunteer support and in-country administration costs.

WHAT ADDITIONAL COSTS WILL I HAVE?

Visa, flights, travel insurance (mandatory), vaccinations, criminal background check, transportation to placements, souvenirs, in-country trips or tours and spending money (volunteers in Colombia generally find US$40 to be sufficient for basic weekly expenses).
* - Terms and conditions do apply.

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

📅 Available sessions

Learning Disabilities Centre Project

01/04/2018 → 31/01/2019

Closed

0 / 7

♂ 0/3 ♀ 0/4

Learning Disabilities Centre Project

01/12/2019 → 01/12/2028

Closed

0 / 7

♂ 0/3 ♀ 0/4

ℹ️ Key information

Age required

18–99 years old

Solidarity donation

590.00 USD ≈ 528 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: 21:17 (12/11/2026)

🛡️ Before you leave

Security information

📞 Contact us

[email protected]

+32 2 888 67 13

Contact form

✅ Features

🏠 Accommodation

Collective

🗣️ Languages spoken

English Spanish