Volunteering in Buenos Aires

Had enough of waking up at 2 p.m. with a hangover? Feel like you should do something more productive with your time here in Buenos Aires?

Volunteering is a way to experience a different side to Buenos Aires, away from the Palermo, Recoleta and San Telmo tourist centres. Unfortunately, most tourists do not venture outside these neighborhoods, therefore never really getting a sense of what it’s like to live in this city. Perhaps they’ll see a cartonero on the street or a protest march in Plaza de Mayo, but these sights only give a tiny glimmer of life beyond the central zones of Buenos Aires. I have been volunteering with two charities, LIFE and CONVIVEN, both of which work in and around Ciudad Oculta among other places. In the afternoons, they offer English lessons and school support to the children of the villa (shantytown).

Working with these organizations has provided valuable insight into life outside the chic barrios. I’ve now seen the places where cartoneros who may only earn ten pesos a day are fathers, the places where emergency services don’t tend to enter, and the places where 12-year-old girls offer sex for 5 pesos to get 5 hits off paco (unprocessed cocaine). In recent years, paco addiction has become an epidemic in the villas because it is laughably cheap and dangerously addictive. Speaking to the residents of the villas, they recount to me how they have given up on everything. They feel abandoned.

Carmen, the head of Conviven, repeats the word ‘feo, feo’ (ugly) when describing the villa. She can hear screaming at night and it is very unsafe. When describing the government, all she says is ‘vienen, prometen, se van…’ (they come, they promote, they leave). They offer goods such as microwaves, animals and clothes, but then after the vote fail to deliver the promises. The houses are poorly constructed and are often just made of mud and cardboard. There are no formal streets. When applying for jobs, lying about one’s address is the norm. Like in the ghettos of the United States, there is an overwhelmingly disproportionate rate of single-mother households due to the large number of men in prison.

The volunteers are important: not only to expose the children to a new language and culture, but also just to give them some attention. The kids love to talk, to have conversations instead of just giving quick responses, which sadly, is often the norm in their troubled homes. The children are keen to know where we are from– many do not know Europe exists. Others may not even understand other continents exist. Carmen is also eager to express to me that not all the people inside the villas are delinquents; for the most part they are hard working. The charities give the children a different perspective– the volunteers are their role models, demonstrating there are different ways to live life. The exposure to another language gives the children the knowledge that there is a completely different world out there– not just the basic, impoverished lives they may be living. Because the people in the villa do not have much contact with foreigners, volunteer work can be even more special.
Not only will it help to improve your Spanish, but it is also a great way to contribute, even in a small way, to making your host country a better place. Not to mention it’s a great way to meet other like-minded people.