Sustainable Tourists Building a Better World for All

  Brazil

• Rio de Janeiro: 
Rio de Janeiro
• Salvador: 
Salvador

Durations of Program: 2-4 weeks, 5-8 weeks, 9-12 weeks and 3-6 months
Typical Duration of Program: 5-8 weeks
Dates: On Going

Description: We place international volunteers in local NGOs that work in local communities. We see our international volunteers as the perfect examples of Sustainable Tourist, because they are tourists that invest their holiday, time, and money, and also their skills and enthusiasm into the Sustainable Development of local communities.

We strengthen local NGOs in different ways. First we financially strengthen the NGOs by helping them in their fundraising efforts and by donations from international volunteers. And of course, we also strengthen NGOs by recruiting volunteers that use their education, professional skills and life experience to strengthen the NGOs. But we are not only focused on strengthening local NGOs. We are also very committed to promote intercultural exchanges.

We try to promote intercultural exchanges because we believe that the interaction between people from different cultures and backgrounds, and the exchange of experiences, opinions and knowledges will open up new horizons and opportunities for everyone involved.

When we bring people together we like to create a win-win situation. Of course a community will benefit from volunteers who are teaching or applying their skills and experience during volunteer work. But we also like it to work the other way around too.

For us, volunteering is more then just helping other people. We truly believe that someone should become a volunteer because he, or she, also wants to learn and use the experience for his own benefit and pleasure. Especially because the interaction with local communities, the intercultural exchange, gives them another perspective on their own life back home

For us, creating a win-win situation is very, very important, because a win-win situation creates equal relationships between international volunteers and local communities. We strongly believe that everyone should be able to enjoy the right to live in an equal society. That is why in our volunteer programs we like to create an equal society on a micro level. This way, we hope that the international volunteers and the people from the communities not only learn from their differences. We also hope that they will see what they have in common. We hope that they will see that we all have similar feelings; we all have hopes and fears; we all have our problems. We all fall in, and out of love. We worry about our family members; and of course, we all like to relax and party. And that is when we see that, despite our differences, we are more equal than we thought before we met each other.

In other words, intercultural exchanges not only open new horizons and opportunities, it also helps to build a fair and equal society.

Highlights: Volunteers partake in projects that are developed and operated by local NGOs and their respective community councils. We learned that our volunteers chose to be international volunteers because they see volunteerism as a good way to experience the real Brazil. As a normal tourist you do not have many opportunities to meet Brazilians outside the tourist trade.

They also want to give a meaning and purpose to their extended holiday. They want the experience to be useful, for themselves, and for the communities. They want to do something, be active, and help other people with it.

Our practice of Sustainable Tourism shows that all volunteers will be on an emotional rollercoaster, especially in the first weeks of their stay. First they start with the stress of arriving in a new country, all by themselves, and meeting people from different countries and cultures. Then they experience the difficulties of trying to be productive in a strange culture. They also have to deal with the gap between their world back home and the communities they work in. And last but not least, they also have the deal with a lot of positive and negative experiences, which will bring them emotional ups and downs.

Sometimes this rollercoaster ride can be difficult, but at the same time, it also the thing that makes the volunteer experience worth it. In the end, it is the rollercoaster ride which makes the volunteer experience so challenging and different from any other form of tourism. It makes the volunteer experience into the productive and meaningful experience our volunteers are looking for.

Qualifications: Sustainable tourists should come in a spirit of generosity and sincerity; pen themselves up to the experience; be prepared for the emotional ups and downs; be open-minded to the unexpected things that will happen; not be intimidated by the strange culture; And last but not least, they should be independent, adaptable and motivated.

Cost in US$: 780

Experience Required: no

Typical Volunteer: Please read our Testimonials on our Webpage Volunteer Abroad.

Age Range: Must be over 18 year old

This Program is open to World Wide Participants. This Program is also open to Families, Couples and Individuals

Participants Travel to Brazil Independently

Typically Participants Work Independently

Application Process Involves:

• Written Application

Post Services Include:

• Alumni Network

Iko Poran Association's Mission Statement: To implement volunteer programs and projects that make a positive impact on the projects in which they take place, promoting a wide experience exchange between cultures and strengthening a constant and growing number of NGOs in Brazil.

Year Founded: 2002