In response to the country’s rising poverty, non-profit organizations in Argentina grew in number. Being that governmental assistance is limited, non-profits are in place to provide the underprivileged with a safety net to help them meet their basic needs.

Healthcare, education, food, clothing, work and safety are essential services provided by local community development agencies to help individuals and families reach and maintain self-sufficiency.

Local agencies also seek to encourage active citizen engagement and participation by educating and informing citizens about issues that impact them and their communities.

Today, Argentina’s poverty level is somewhere between 20-25 percent. The financial strain this places on non-profits is unimaginable. Add to that limited staff and insufficient training and you have organizations that are not operating efficiently or effectively.

As an AMPED volunteer, there are a variety of ways for participants to become involved and use their skills and experience to help local non-profits improve their capacity and operations.

Volunteers' responsibilities may include:

• Support and train young local volunteers in capacity building tasks such as marketing, fundraising, planning, accounting, management, scouting, etc;

• Technical assistance: building cooperation and offering assistance in tasks designed to meet the needs of the community such as medical support, clothing drives, library management, legal counsel, and assistance in resolving specific community problems;

• Develop communication strategies and collaborative partnerships with community stakeholders and with other community development agencies;

• Create written and audiovisual communication tools to encourage citizens to participate in community development activities and to encourage civil dialogue concerning resolution of various issues affecting the quality of life; and

• Propose administrative and organizational strategies to effectively facilitate the work of volunteers who sustain the community center.

With a poverty rate of only 5 percent in the 1970’s, Argentina was once thought to be Latin America’s model for economic equality. Having experienced 14 economic crises in the last 30 years, the gap between rich and poor has risen astronomically. The worst of the crises occurred in 2001 when 50 percent of the population fell into poverty.

Argentina’s spiraling economic decline led to the creation of a number of non-profit organizations dedicated to helping the poor as more families struggled to feed, clothe, educate, and care for their children.

On average, these agencies provide meals and after school support to 40-50 children between the ages of 4-16.

As a volunteer at one of AMPED’s projects for disadvantaged children, your responsibilities may include, but not be limited to:

• Organizing recreational and educational activities such as crafts, sports, and music;

• Tutoring children and helping them to understand the educational content learned in elementary or high school; and

• Teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) to children between 6 and 16 years old. Volunteers helping in this capacity should have previous training such as TEFL or similar experience.

Caring for the homeless is a challenging task due to their transitory lifestyle and the fact that homelessness can be attributed to a number of factors that are far more complex than unemployment, such as mental illness, substance abuse, and domestic violence.

Our homeless shelter project in Argentina has been in operation for over 20 years servicing the basic needs of the homeless through the provision of food, healthcare, and employment services. The project’s ultimate goal, of course, is to help end the cycle of homelessness by helping homeless men and women to become self-sufficient and to reintegrate into mainstream society.

There are three separate facilities that comprise this project. All of which service different age and gender demographics. One facility houses up to 20 adult women ages 30-60. The other two accommodations have a bed capacity of 25-30 persons, with one facility designated for men 60 years and younger and the other for men over the age of 60.

The homes are coordinated and supervised by an interdisciplinary team from different specialty areas such as psychology, nutrition, and physical therapy.

AMPED volunteers helping with this project may expect to contribute in the following ways:

• Conducting weekly workshops for activities that provide recreation and training, such as drama, music, crafts, dance, film, gender issues, and others. Workshops allow opportunities for cultural exchange and help to expand the knowledge and understanding of these deprived people;

• Assisting with institutionalized treatment of addictions, primarily drug and alcoholism addictions;

• Training for development of micro-enterprises – business training, mentoring, financial planning, leadership development, administration, advertising, etc; and

• Assisting with therapy: physical and mental therapy; accompany individuals to their doctor visits and help them to complete medical paperwork.

Working with special needs children can be an especially rewarding experience as it brings out the best in them and YOU! There is no doubt that it requires a little more of you physically and mentally. Compassion, by far, is the biggest requirement. There is also no doubt that it is time and energy well spent. For the child, it means having the one-on-one attention from someone who cares. For you, the volunteer, it means the lasting memory of watching a child beam with pride after reaching a challenging milestone that you helped him or her to achieve.

Volunteering to work with those that have special needs in a developing country is all the more sweet as they tend to come from impoverished families and the level of care that they receive is usually not sufficient to address their needs.

While working with our project to help children with special needs in Argentina, you will find there are about 70 children that come to the facility for daily counseling and therapy. And there are another 50 or so that come in on a weekly basis.

While the level of responsibility will vary according to each individual’s level of experience, here is some of what AMPED volunteers can expect:

• Assisting teachers in the classroom;

• Assisting with therapeutic practices;

• Helping with recreational, manual, and artistic activities;

• Organizing and developing sports and other outdoor recreational activities;

• Reading stories, mentoring, caring for and simply playing with the children;

• Teaching skills such as art, gardening, handicrafts, music, carpentry, and dance.