Pinocchio School In The Bolivian Pantanal Recruit Volunteers To Teach English Classes

The Educational Unity Pinocchio School (U. E. Pinocho) in the Bolivian Pantanal has around 400 pupils between the ages of 5 and 13. The school is located in Puerto Quijarro, a town of approx. 12000 inhabitants on the Bolivian side of the Bolivia/Brazil border, just south of Puerto Suarez.

Pinocho is a public school and many of the children that attend come from families where parents must work all day to provide basic needs such as food and housing. Many of the children also work before or after school and as such their education often suffers or is cut short. Our objective is to further the education of these children, who come from many corners of our country, and strengthen, beyond the scope of our education ministry’s current curriculum, to help develop their knowledge with support from other people, countries and cultures

Volunteer Program:

The program Volunteer Pinocho was created by the owner of Tamengo Resort, Andres Linale in order to help deal with some of the social and environmental issues that affect the local community.

The program is closely tied to Andres and his hostel, as he is a key person in terms of liaising with the school, the director and new volunteers, but our goal is for it to one day function independently.

The program began in August 2008, and has been very well received by the school, the children and the community. Although it has been established for 9 months, the program is still relatively new, so we need volunteers that are confident, independent and self motivated to assist us with its development.

We have also found that an intermediate level of Spanish is required in order to interact fully with the children, so you may want to think about taking some Spanish classes before arriving if yours is a little rough.

Like most schools in Bolivia the day is split into a morning session for the younger children and an afternoon session for the older children. We have been teaching an hour session in the morning (10:30 – 11:30) and an hour session in the afternoon (16:30 – 17:30) this timetable is necessarily flexible however, as there are often other school commitments to work around and the number of volunteers available also dictates the number of classes we can teach.

So far the volunteers have been teaching English classes at U.E. Pinocho, however, as we receive more volunteers, we are beginning to include other area schools in the volunteer program. There is a huge demand for English classes in the community and additional schools are continuously contacting us for support. We would like to continue to be able to offer these classes.

English teaching resources here are a bit limited, so, we could always do with more, or books/games that will help the children if you have space in your luggage. Also volunteers need to keep in mind that the program currently has no external funding when planning classes. Our previous volunteers covered the costs themselves for things such as paper, crayons and photocopying, and although this is not expected of you these resources do help make for more interesting classes.

About Quijarro:

Puerto Quijarro was established in 1900 by a British explorer, Captain Henry Bolland, who had been commissioned by the Bolivian government to explore the feasibility of navigating the Río Paraguay. The expedition started off from Buenos Aires and sailed upstream. One of its primary benefactors, Antonio Quijarro, passed away during the trip and the area was named in his honour.
(www.chiquitania.com)

As a border town Quijarro is quite different than other places in Bolivia and there is a lot of Brazilian influence here. Portuguese is widely spoken and Reales (Rs) are used as well as Bolivianos (Bs). Much of the local economy here is based around providing cheap goods and services to the people in Brazil, particularly Corumbá, which is a city of around 100,000 located only 5km away from Quijarro on the Brazilian side of the border.

Although there are stark contrasts between Corumbá and Quijarro, namely in relation to public services and infrastructure, the two places are closely linked. Many Bolivians work in Corumbá and many Brazilians work in Quijarro. Because of this relationship the border is quite informal and you can pass freely between the two places without worrying about visas and stamping passports every time – as long as you do not go any further a field than Corumbá or Quijarro.

How to get here:

Quijarro (the "Puerto" before it is almost always omitted) is now best known for being the eastern terminus of the 'Death Train' railway; and for volunteers travelling from within Bolivia itself, the train - which begins its journey some 640k to the west in Santa Cruz - is the best way to get to Quijarro.

Volunteers traveling from Brazil should first get to Corumbá. Brazilian Immigration is located at the Bus Station, or Rodaviario in Portuguese. It is open Mon-Fri from 08:00-11:30 and 14:00 - 17:00 and Sat-Sun 09:00 – 13:00.

After Immigration you need to travel from Corumbá to the border, which is located about 5km from the city centre. You can take a taxi which could cost anywhere between 18 – 25 Rs or a motortaxi (a motorbike) which should cost around 7 Rs. There is also a bus that runs to the frontier. It leaves every hour from the Plaza Independencia in front of the Church and costs 1.75 Rs. There is no timetable for this bus, but it runs from approximately 09:00 – 19:00pm.

The Bolivian Immigration office is located at the border. After crossing into Bolivia, take a taxi into Quijarro town centre, which is around 3km from the frontier. The cost varies depending on the number of passengers, but for 1-2 people it should cost around 10 Bs. If immigration is closed, you can still cross between Quijarro and Corumbá without entry and exit stamps – just return when it’s open to get your passport stamped, and don’t go beyond these towns.

The Pinocho School is located in the centre of Quijarro on Calle Costa Rica (straight down the hill from the exit at the train station). As the streets are not labeled we suggest you download a map of Quijarro with Pinocho school labeled on it from www.tamengo.com, or ask around. Many of the local business have children that attend the school.

Accommodation:

Volunteers have a few options for accommodation, including alojamientos (hostels/pensions), home stays or Tamengo Hostel. Although Tamengo is closely linked to this program volunteers are in no way obliged to stay there.

Costs:

Volunteering with us is completely free and there are no participation fees, however as our program does not have any external funding you may want to bring along a little bit extra in order to purchase some stationary/resources to use in class.

Volunteers will need to organise and pay for their own accommodation and support themselves financially while working with us, we would suggest you budget for at least US $80 per week to cover this.

If you are planning to stay 3 months or more and you would like some help to reduce your costs then you can talk to Andres about getting a job at Tamengo Hostel.

Apply:

If you are interested please E-Mail Pinocchio School , Please tell us:

* about yourself, including any relevant experience
* when you are going to arrive
* how long you can stay

Please respond to the points as fully as possible;

To establish this program and to provide continuity, we would especially like to hear from volunteers willing to work with us for longer periods (i.e. at least one month).

Please note that as a grass-roots organisation, we can't take volunteer 'bookings' months in advance.

We can however sometimes make arrangements at short notice, and volunteers who are currently on the road in Bolivia or neighbouring countries are more than welcome to apply.

E-Mail Pinocchio School

Web Site: www.volunteersouthamerica.net/Pinocho/pin_index.htm

No Enquires Of A Commercial Nature, Thank You.