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Teaching English to the conservation community in Chiapas, México

Sumary

Theme: Teaching English for the specific purpose of improving marketing, communications and fundraising within the conservation community in Chiapas Placement Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, Mexico. Requeriments: This is an ideal program for individuals wishing to put to use their knowledge of NGO management and to gain firsthand experience working with Mexican NGOs. The volunteers’ primary responsibility is Teaching English as a Second Language with the goal of helping NGOs in the local conservation community with marketing, fundraising and communications with Englishspeaking partners. Project language: English primarily, working knowledge of Spanish preferred Highlights: In the last ten years, Ecobiosfera - a small, local nonprofit organization formed by conservation practitioners and scientific researchers - has been collaborating with the management of El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve as well with community groups to achieve conservation and local community development through tourism. Ecobiosfera’s birding trips to El Triunfo, with 400 species of birds, are well known among the international bird-watching community. Short description: The Ecobiosfera Project was designed to improve the skills of the Chiapas conservation community, specifically NGO leaders and staff. The training program uses immersion methods as well traditional classroom methods. Volunteers and students will invest at least nine weeks of intensive training on conversational English, fundraising and marketing for their nonprofit organizations.

Date of start June through August 2010, September through November 2010 Volunteers needed 4 Duration Minimum 11 weeks Prices (In US dollars) 11 weeks $ 3,400 Additional month $ 900 Book online    Other projects Biomonitoring at El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve Promoting fair trade of organic coffee at CESMACH

 

Detailed information

Living conditions:

Volunteers will be placed with a host family in Tuxtla Gutierrez, a small city with less than one million inhabitants that has mobile phone services as well as Internet access, banks and a very well established tourism infrastructure. The host families in Tuxtla Gutierrez have electricity and running water. Internet, phone and cable TV are also available. Volunteers will share a bathroom and a kitchen with the host family, but will have his/her own bedroom. The immersion sessions will take place at three different remote places in the countryside where neither radio nor television can interrupt the session, in order to maintain an English-only environment. In those sites, conditions will be rustic.