Updated 15-March-07

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Programs in Peru are organized by our largest partner in Mexico – VIVE:

SPANISH COURSE

OPTIONAL ACTIVITY FOR ALL THE VOLUNTEERS

VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR ALL THE VOLUNTEERS ACCEPTED IN THE VIVE PERU PROJECTS

Sonqoykipi besides the workcamp it self; gives the opportunity to take part in an Intensive Course of Spanish for all the volunteers interested.

This activity is organized 7 days before the starting date of each camp. The volunteers MUST GO to the city of Ayacucho to take part in it.

After participating, the volunteer must travel to his/her project meeting point.

The costs for the Spanish language course is:

SPANISH LANGUAGE COURSE 150 EUROS

This cost includes

· Hosting for 7 days and 6 nights in one house of the city with all facilities at your disposal

· Materials needed for the course (books of theory, books for exercises, etc.)

· Intensive Spanish classes given by a professional Spanish.

·

· This cost is very cheap compared with the traditional language courses in the private schools of Spanish in Peru and the people giving the course are professional teachers of Spanish, the classes are 3 hours a day during 5 days and the participants have a lot of home work to do.

Who are We?

Vive Mexico is a non profit-making, non-governmental organization that has been organizing International Volunteer Service Projects since 1997.

Vive Mexico was officially born in March 1997 as a non-profit, non-governmental organization recognized by the Mexican laws and authorities as volunteer organization.

The main activity of Vive Mexico consist of organizing International Volunteer Service Projects, most of them in the short term volunteer service frame (3 – 4 weeks) as a tool to help in the different programs for the culture, social and ecological issues of Mexico but also to promote intercultural exchanges and global understanding between the participants of our projects and the local people of the communities involved in them

Vive Mexico also organizes other activities such as medium term volunteer service projects and long term volunteer service projects. We have hosted people from England, Canada, United States, Finland, France, Italy and Spain who have worked in our organization in periods from 3 months to 1 year

Beside this, Vive Mexico has organized a great diversity of activities to promote the volunteer service movement in Mexico such as media advertisement to talk about the benefits of the volunteer service projects for the countries and also the people involved in them. Also, we have organized a leader training seminar in Mexico in cooperation with the organization MS Denmark in November 1999 and also a training for trainers of leaders. After this, Vive Mexico has organized more leader training seminars, with the objective to involve Mexican youngsters in volunteer service projects in Mexico and also to work to promote the international volunteer service activities and the volunteer service movement.

Vive Mexico has always been looking for new and creative ways to promote the international volunteer service movement, we have hosted volunteers from the EVS program and also many Mexican youngsters committed to volunteer activities.

We started organizing volunteer service projects since 1995 at this time only with Mexican people. In 1997 we organized our first international workcamps, that year, we organized only 3 projects where we welcomed 25 international volunteers, in the year 1998 we organized 8 international workcamps where we welcomed 85 international volunteers, in 1999 we organized 12 international workcamps where we welcomed 122 international volunteers and the year 2000, we organized 20 different international workcamps where we welcome more than 260 international volunteers and in the year 2002 we organized a total of 37 international projects where we have opened more than 500 places for international volunteers.

In all these projects there have been more than 1,600 local people working with the international volunteers, including personal from the sponsor, Mexican youngsters and local people from the communities.

At this moment Vive Mexico is one of the largest organizations related to international volunteer service projects and exchange of volunteers in Mexico and Latin America.

Since our beginning, every year we had organized more activities to provide the youngsters of the word the chance to get to know the real Mexico, our culture, our people and the way we see life and how we contribute to a solution to many different social, ecological and cultural necessities in our country.

In our projects, we look to involve international volunteers in interesting activities related to ecological, social or cultural issues that help to give a solution to specific problems in target communities with great necessities and at the same time we seek to involve Mexican youngsters with international volunteers to promote an intercultural exchange among them and also to have a good time sharing experiences and enthusiasm.

Vive Mexico also offers different types of projects for international volunteers Short Term Projects, Medium term Projects and Long term Projects, which give to them a wide diversity of activities and dates where they can participate in many different activities in Mexico lasting from 3 weeks l to 1 year .

Vive Mexico works together with numerous members of the European Alliance of Voluntary Service Organizations. We have welcomed people from many different countries such as France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, Finland, Spain, Italy, Israel, Belgium, Australia, United States, Canada, Korea, Greece, Slovenia, Ireland, Greenland, etc.

In addition, Vive Mexico is working in co-operation with many different Mexican non governmental and governmental organizations like Youth Leaders of Mexico, Ecotonia, Ecomorelia, Viva Natura, Cuauhtli, SEMARNAP, SEDUE, Reserva Natural de la Biosfera de la Mariposa Monarca, CEC y TEM, Michoacan Institute for the Youth, to mention some of them.

We have organized international volunteer service projects related to different topics:

· Projects to protect endangered species (sea marine turtle)

· Projects to help isolated communities in the state of Michoacan to promote the sustainable development and recycling activities.

Projects to protect natural reserves

· Projects for the reconstruction of archaeological ruins of Prehispanic civilizations of Mexico

· Projects to help in the classification of archaeological items of Prehispanic civilizations of Mexico.

· Projects to protect natural spaces in urban areas of big cities.

· Projects to search for ancient fossils and help in the creation of a museum for the communities.

· Projects to restore an ecological centre, which was built with European funds (British), Canadian and Mexican funds.

· Social/cultural projects organizing and taking part in an ecological festival.

· Social projects to help handicapped people to involve themselves in a productive life.

· Social projects with children with cancer

· Social projects with children of the streets.

The philosophy of Vive Mexico consists in involving young people of different nationalities in projects focused in aid and cooperation with the objectives to provide a space where the energy and creativity of them can be channeled in a background that promotes the brotherhood and solidarity between the nations of the world, and at the same time, help them to create a consciousness of the problems that are a human responsibility, by inviting them to take part in an activity to help our planet.

In all the activities Vive Mexico organizes in Mexico, we seek also to give to the volunteers a marvelous experience getting to know our people, our country and the hidden treasures in our land, to achieve this we always involve the volunteers of our projects in many different activities so they can know the Mexican people and culture, but also the hidden places that are a marvel of nature, or places that have a rich cultural history; next to this some pictures of the activities of leisure time that the volunteers do in our projects:

The objectives of Vive Mexico are:

1. To promote a cultural and learning experience of exchange between young people of different nationalities and backgrounds.

2. To provide a unique and original way to discover all that Mexico has to offer.

3. To give young Mexicans the chance to participate in workcamps in Mexico and around the world through our partner organizations.

4. To promote and develop voluntary service in Mexico as a mean of solving social, cultural and ecological problems.

Where is Vive Mexico located

Our main office is located in the city of Morelia, capital of the state of Michoacan and we have 4 regional offices in Mexico, located in Mexico City, Mexico State, Guadalajara City and Cancun.

Where do our workcamps take place

At the beginning our workcamps were organized only in the state of Michoacan, but now we are organizing workcamps in 6 states of Mexico (Michoacan, Sonora, Mexico State, Guerrero, Guanajuato and Hidalgo) and for the future the Vive Mexico plan of action include projects in more States of Mexico.

The aims of vive Mexico are:

1. To encourage cultural exchanges to promote the understanding between the nations of the world.

2. To show the real Mexico through useful projects which involve youngsters from different countries and cultural backgrounds for a common objective.

3. To create international volunteer service projects as a creative tool to help in the development of the cultural, social and ecological issues of Mexico.

4. To promote projects to help in the formation of youngsters from different nations by opening their minds to understand the different cultures of the world and to know and understand the Mexican culture.

5. To send Mexican volunteers abroad to promote the participation of Latin American youngsters on international volunteer service projects around the world, and also to involve them in volunteer activities in Mexico, when they have returned to Mexico from an international project.

6. To train Mexican youngsters to be leaders of international projects in Mexico with the objective to create in them the vision of being able to solve problems with international actions to help to increase the volunteer service activities in Mexico.

7. To open a wide variety of international volunteer service projects in Mexico for the volunteers around the word. Projects with good organization and good quality always looking to increase the number of projects opened every year.

GENERAL CONDITIONS ABOUT THE PROJECTS:

1. Once the volunteer is accepted in a project, detailed Info Sheets will be sent for all the volunteers of each project.

2. Volunteers must be 18 or older.

3. English is the official language inside the groups but due to the nature of some of the projects a basic knowledge of Spanish would be required

4. It would be very good if volunteers could come with a preparation for projects in Latin American countries in order to reduce the cultural shock, but also all volunteers will have an orientation meeting about the Latin American culture.

5. Volunteers will travel from the international airport, where they will arrive to the project place, and detailed travel instructions and insights will be given to them in the project Info Sheets.

6. An orientation meeting about the project will be given to all the volunteers.

7. We ask the volunteers to stay during the whole duration of the project. If some volunteer would not be able to attend the first day of the meeting point it wont be a problem

8. The departure day for the group will be the last day of the workcamp.

9. Volunteers will need to bring a sleeping bag and matress.

As a final word; we can say that Mexico has many different things to offer…..

It has amazing natural reserves, flora and fauna

An enormous cultural history

An amazing archaeological heritage; and the list goes on

But the most beautiful and important thing that Mexico has is its people.

In Spanish Vive Mexico means “Mexico is alive” but it also is an invitation to come and to live the experience of Mexico and all that has to offer.

We invite youngsters all over the world to come and live an unforgettable experience in Mexico as an international volunteer; and get involved in all the activities we organize to solve the ecological, cultural and social problems of our country, to discover the reality of Mexico, to interact with the local people, to work in interesting and useful activities and have fun and friends at the same time beyond cultural, religious, social or economical differences.

This is the spirit of our organization.

General information on this country can be accessed via any of the following websites:

Library of Congress country studies … http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/

US Dept of State country background pages … http://www.state.gov/r/pa/bgn/

CIA Factbooks … http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/

National newspapers online via Internet Public Library … http://www.ipl.org/reading/news/