Best Rated Volunteer Abroad Programs in Latin America

At the beginning of our trip the orientation was very informative, no piece of information was left out. This made travelling around Cusco and going about our days so much easier. My volunteering experience was amazing, we had all the support and help we needed when ever we needed it. Marco was brilliant he took the time to teach us everything that we needed to know, he was extremely patient and understanding. Whilst in Peru my purse was stolen walking down the street, the team at Maximo Nivel were really helpful. I came to the establishment on a daily basis, during these visits i was able to use the phone as often as i wanted to contact the bank and my parents. This happening put me in some money trouble. They helped out by offering to pay for taxis and other things that i needed to get by.

I’m going to be real honest. My volunteer trip to Guatemala was life-altering. Even just two weeks into my five week trip, I knew I didn’t want to go home. I volunteered through Máximo Nivel, an amazing organization that offered me the greatest advice and support while I was there. I’ll admit, I was terrified when I landed in Guatemala, never having been out of the US before in my life. However the morning after I landed I had orientation with other new volunteers and a tour of the town. Any questions we had were immediately answered. We received advice on not only how to stay as safe as possible (which was easy, Antigua was a much safer place than I anticipated; I absolutely never felt like I was in any sort of danger) but also where the best places to eat were as well as what activities we should be sure to do. I had the opportunity to volunteer in a clinic in the mornings, which meant in the afternoons I was free to explore the city and take Spanish classes at Máximo. The Spanish classes were great, I was placed in a class based on my skill level, and there are so many different levels that the classes are small, which means that you get a more personal class with your teacher. Awesome. On the weekends you could travel, and Máximo was great about suggestions for travel agencies and other tips to make traveling easy while you’re in country.

Also, we lived in home-stays with other volunteers, which I loved. It was an incredible opportunity to make friends that I know I’ll have forever. If you prefer a more traditional ‘family-style’ home stay, like one of the volunteers I knew, Máximo will accommodate you. I lived in a home stay with six or seven other volunteers, and I enjoyed the heck out of it! Living with other volunteers was great because there was always someone you could convince to go on some sort of outing you want to do. We still had traditional meals, however, and it was strongly encouraged that we speak Spanish so our house mom could understand what we were saying.

More on the volunteering: The first day, after your orientation and tour, one of the lovely field managers accompanies you to your placement. They show you exactly where you can get on your bus and where to get off. They introduce you to all the workers at your placement and briefly explain what you’ll be doing, so your first day alone isn’t overwhelming. After being showed the ropes, I was confident I would be fine on my own to get to and from my placement. Working at my placement was such a blessing. The people I worked with acted like my best friends from the moment I met them. They went out of their way to ensure that I was having a good time. There were days in the clinic when there were not a lot of patients, but if I had already triaged all the patients and administered injections and it was only 10am, they had a lot for me to do still. I had the opportunity to shadow the doctors, help with vaccinations of infants and toddlers, work in the pharmacy, and work with the nurse in the women’s health/family planning clinic. Multiple times they offered to drive me home in the Ambulance. My clinic was in San Lucas (about a half hour bus ride from Antigua), but the nearest hospital is in Antigua. So, whenever they had a patient that needed to go to the hospital around the time I was going home, they let me know so I could hop in. It was awesome. To say that Máximo chooses great placements for their volunteers is a huge understatement.

If you have any questions I would gladly answer them, my e-mail is everly07@live.missouristate.edu

I volunteered for a few weeks at La Policia de la familia - it was basically a makeshift room for kids picked up off the street, many of whom were more or less orphans. The time we spent there was the only time they had any activities to do (when we left, they only had a TV to watch and were not allowed to leave). It was a hard experience, but worth it - our impact seemed very temporary since different kids came and went but being there for whoever was there enough.

As for the facilities and support of Maximo - they were excellent. Everyone was very helpful and responsive. My housing (a family house) was very good quality and the food delicious. Showers were always hot and there was Wifi so keeping in touch was easy.

Cuzco is a very lovely city and the people are very welcoming and nice. Granted, there are always those who try to take advantage of the fact that I'm a tourist (mostly taxi drivers) but overall I felt comfortable and safe. Not to mention there is plenty to do, day and night!

I was so incredibly impressed with the program at Maximo Nivel in Antigua, Guatemala. The volunteer program was excellent and perfectly designed for me (as a dental student). The classes were amazingly helpful, with really great teachers. The office staff is kind, helpful and extraordinarily knowledgeable about the country/city, etc. I felt very safe during the entire trip. Also, the homestay was AWESOME, and I had some of the best food I've ever had in my life.
Highly recommended by this gringo!

I stayed in Antigua doing medical volunteer work for 6 months, and it was honestly the best decision of my entire life thus far. Between the amazing hands-on experience and cultural immersion, it was an extremely rewarding venture, that I have nothing but good things to say about. If you have any questions whatsoever, please contact me at harrison.sims13@gmail.com. One thing that would have been very useful for me, would have been someone to talk to about my program before heading down there. So again, feel free to ask me any questions you may have.

I worked in the Dignidad Nacional clinic in Cusco, Peru. I had a great experience there, meeting the doctor, dentists, nurses, and obstetrician, and learning from them. They were overall very helpful and welcomed me in as a volunteer. What I liked the most about volunteering at Dignidad Nacional was that I was able to work in different parts of the clinic and I was able to experience different types of patient care. This included obstetrics, general, emergency, dentistry, and children's and baby's health. I would have had a better experience if I understood Spanish better. I felt that I helped a good amount, but I would have liked to be more helpful and more effective. But, I understand that it is hard to help without a medical degree. Overall, I had a great experience and I would recommend it to other medical volunteers!

This was my first volunteer trip abroad and I couldn't be more satisfied. I went through Maximo Nivel and I can't think of one negative experience from the minute I landed in Guatemala to the minute I left. Maximo Nivel arranged for someone to pick us up from the airport and take us to their building and the host family we were staying with. My host family was absolutely wonderful and the house was a very comfortable size. We were served fresh fruit and veggies with every mean, which was important to me. The staff at Maximo Nivel was also amazing and showed us around the whole town, explained how to travel around and use the public buses, and even gave us helpful tips when needed. I volunteered at an orphanage where the kids would run up to be and hug me every morning. Nothing made me happier than to see the little guys and I miss them terribly already! While we were in Guatemala we also took some evening and weekend trips which were recommended to us. Going on those trips helped us make many new friends which we still keep in touch with. Everyone, form the staff to the volunteers were extremely friendly and energetic. I loved everything about this trip and would recommend to anyone. It is life changing and eye opening to do something like this. Don't make excuses and just do it! You won't regret it as long as you go there with an opened mind and willingness to help and make a difference. When I went to Guatemala I was hoping to change a child's life, but instead, they changed mine.

The shouts from chicken buses, the brightly coloured local dress, smells wafting from local eateries and street stalls, and music drifting from the Parque Central...you know you're alive in Antigua, Guatemala!

I was lucky enough to spend 2 months there during the festive season, taking part in the Burning of the Devil celebrations, being hauled in to a local Posada parade, and being invited to eat tamales and drink Christmas punch with local families. I lived with the warmest and loveliest of Guatemalan families, who generously shared their home and life with me and my fellow volunteers, including us in all of their celebrations.

I had signed up for the medical volunteer programme, not really knowing what to expect, but I was very impressed with the team at Maximo Nivel, who had everything organised in a country that seemingly doesn't run to any sort of schedule! I worked in a small but busy rural clinic, assessing patients before the doctor saw them, and on the days there was no doctor, performing the medical consultation with the help of the local nurses. I struggled with how sick some of these children became before their mothers would bring them in, but as I learned more of the daily life at home and the demands of 5 or 6 other children, I could see why this was so. I was impressed at the clinic's vaccination regime, and generally the mothers were pretty good at returning for the next appointment, even if it were just to weigh and measure their child, keeping an eye on nutrition and growth. The staff in the clinic were admirably very adaptive, coping with days of 40 or more patients, sometimes with no doctor, no running water, or a shortage of necessary medications - on the whole, they ran a good health service for a large and widespread population. The patients were to be admired also, for their ability to wait patiently for review or treatment, and for putting up with a white alien with imperfect spanish on the days when I was on my own!

I would recommend volunteering with Maximo Nivel to anyone who has an inkling to go somewhere completely out of your comfort zone, the motivation to learn spanish and to share your skills with others, and the humility to let those you work with teach you something about this world we live in.