Volunteering

Volunteering at La Esperanza Granada can be a very rewarding experience. As a volunteer you will be a part of an organisation that changes lives for the better. Volunteering can help you develop skills that you can use in other areas of your life, and gain experience in the NGO and education sectors. We are always looking for new people to join our team of Learning Center educators, help out with construction work or assist our staff with administrative tasks in our office. We are a grassroots organisation and we ensure the work of international volunteers is ethical, genuinely impactful to the communities we work with, and serves to complement the hard work of our Nicaraguan volunteers, staff and educators.

“It has been a real pleasure to work with all the people at La Esperanza over the last three months, as they are very open-minded, committed, motivated, very serious young people… with lots of craziness (with lots of laughs, games and dancing). I am thankful that I was able to contribute to the goals of the organization, even though I was only a small part of it. I feel so grateful for each encounter, for each conversation, and more generally for each and every moment spent… if I had to do it all over again I would stay longer!!”

Elise

Learning center and office assistant volunteer, 2022

Volunteer with children in a Learning Center

The majority of our volunteers work in one of our four Learning Centers with young children. The children attend primary school in the morning, and come to the Centers during after-school hours (1-4pm).

Our learning Centers provide safe, clean places for children to continue their learning in an informal environment. Our centers are stocked with resources not often found in schools such as books, computers, a library, art materials, and much more.

Volunteers work with young local university scholarship recipients to run activities for the children. You can help us create our fun, interactive, high-impact, and positive learning environment.

Most volunteers will spend most of their time teaching basic English to the children. There are also opportunities to focus on Computing, Mathematics or Spanish.

We prefer that all volunteers have at least an intermediate level of Spanish, a minimum time commitment of 2 weeks, and ideally some experience working with children.

Volunteering in a Learning Center can be challenging, but is also really fun and rewarding. To find out more, head to our Volunteer Testimonies page, or drop us an email.

Volunteer as an Office Assistant

La Esperanza Granada employs five full-time Nicaraguan staff to oversee the delivery of all our projects. As an Office Assistant, you would work with our team of dedicated staff to ensure the efficient and effective running of our NGO. You would be involved with administration, publicity and communications. Tasks for this position vary depending on our needs at any one time, but may include improving our online presence, translating documents, writing the newsletter, recruiting new volunteers and distributing materials to the Centers.

This position is available throughout the year and requires a minimum time commitment of 8 weeks, so that volunteers have enough time to understand how the organisation works. We also ask that volunteers have a professional working level of Spanish.

Volunteering hours for this position are flexible, but are likely to include a mixture of home and office-based working in Granada. This position may also be combined with volunteering in a Learning Center.

If you have any questions about this role, please email us or you can head straight to our application form.

Group volunteer with construction projects

We have four Learning Centers that are always in need of maintenance, repairs and renovations. We have the tools, but it is of great help when we have volunteers willing to take on general handyman work. Whether you have particular skills in building or painting, or simply wish to learn on the job, we will be delighted to hear from you.

This is an ideal position for anyone who wants to help La Esperanza. This is also the perfect opportunity for groups who are only able to dedicate a short amount of time to volunteering.

Painting and Construction projects require a time commitment of anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks. We welcome groups and families for this volunteering opportunity.

To find out more about the current jobs in need of volunteers, drop us an email and we will back to you as soon as we can.

Long term volunteering for experienced professionals

Are you an experienced educational professional looking for your next challenge? If so, we would love to hear from you. International volunteers help La Esperanza to deliver our life skill workshop curriculum, deliver teacher training to educators and lead new educational projects in our Centers. If this sounds like something that matches your skillset, and you are able to make a long-term commitment to La Esperanza, please get in touch with our team.

“I was working here with La Esperanza for two weeks. I was teaching English to the Children of Granada. It was a really nice experience and I’ve learnt a lot here. I had a lot of fun teaching English to the children, things like the fruits and the numbers, as well as playing and seeing their improvements. It’s a really interesting experience living here and seeing how society works, how people live, and how children grow up.”

La Esperanza Granada