Hola! My husband and I have been living in Spain for almost a year now and we love it. One problem though, I can't legally work and am getting bored. I'd love to volunteer somewhere, but have been told by many who've tried that its not really possible for foreigners (due to language difficulties I suppose). My Spanish isn't great, but I manage and I'm studying. I figure volunteering will help me improve faster than just sitting in classes. Any ideas?? I'd consider just about anything, but my passions are working with immigrants and/or public health issues.
Thanks!

What about organizing a blood drive for the expat crowd?

You could also contact your local parish or church, alot of volunteer work is done through the church...

I just recently joined the American Women\'s Club in Madrid and saw they had a post on their bulletin board looking for volunteers. They close next week until September, so give them a call quickly if you decide to. I've also come across websites for international volunteering. But, all of the organizations require a fee for the administration. The other thing I would recommend, is contacting the local branch of a international organization like Amnesty International , Green Peace , Unicef , Red Cross , etc... Good Luck!

Sandra,
I can recommend Plan Internacional .

Saludos,

p

Thanks for your ideas Pim, Chica and Katrina! Katrina, I'm a member of the American Women's Club, but haven't been by the clubhouse in a while. Thanks for the tip!

There is a ONG called Caribu that works with inmigrants subsaharianos, they have their local in santa Engracia 140.
Also Cruz Roja and Caritas work with inmigrants, you can contact Caritas in your closest church.
There are also plenty of small associations that work at neighbourghood level.

Thanks Miguelito! I'll look into those. Especially the one on Santa Engracia since I attend a SPanish class on that street. Any idea how these types of organizations will respond to someone with so-so Spanish? If they are subsaharian immigrants, I bet a lot would speak English. I've talked to a lot of foreigners who've been rejected as volunteers because their Spanish wasn't good enough. Anyway, I'll give it a try. Thanks!

I was on another website today and noticed a link for volunteerism. The site is www.volunteerabroad.com. Here's a sample of what they had on Spain

Spain, Rota
Global Volunteers: Teach in Spain Includes web link
The sole work project is teaching conversational English during the school year. The Rota school district has seven elementary schools and a high school with 700 students, nearly all of whom study English three to five class hours per week. Volunteers gene ...
click here for more info
Global Volunteers

Spain, Various
Volunteers for Peace: Spain Includes web link
VFP offers over 2000 affordable short-term voluntary service projects in 80 countries including 38 in Spain. These International Workcamps are an opportunity to complete meaningful community service while living and interact ...
click here for more info
Volunteers For Peace, Inc.

Spain, various
Volunteer Abroad, Overseas, Worldwide Includes web link
Through various non-commercial partner organizations worldwide and through SCI international, national and regional branch development, the U.S. branch of SCI participates in the SCI network which exchanges over 5,000 volunteers each year in short term 2-4 ...
click here for more info
SCI International Voluntary Service

Spain, El Puerto de Santa Maria
Courses/Internship/Volunteer in Spain
'OASIS-PraFor' is an Educational Project, in which we offer to students to do a course/internship/volunteer in Spain. This Project is an educational proposition which is aimed at the collective of young people that is found in the scholastic-labour transi ...
click here for more info
Oasis - PraFor Project

Spain, various locations
Networked International Volunteering
The aim of 'Networked International Volunteering' is to provide a program of volunteering in foreign countries for individual volunteers; or pairs or groups of individual volunteers while travelling; to assist other people while gaining valuable experience ...
click here for more info
Involvement Volunteers Association Inc.

Spain, Madrid
ICYE - Spain
Organisation: Actividades Educativas Culturales (AEC) was founded in 1988. In 1990 it joined ICYE as a National Committee. It is composed of staff and co-workers, most of which are former exchangees. The AEC office is located in Madrid. ...
click here for more info
ICYE

Spain, Various
Work as part of an international team!
Add a little twist to backpacking. Designed to promote international cooperation and understanding, International Volunteer Projects provides an adventurous experience for you to work as part of an international group on a short-term community service pr ...
click here for more info

MadridMan, I noticed you added the links to my previous post-very cool, thanks!

Thanks so much Katrina! I'll be in Barcelona this week volunteering at the International AIDS conference, but am looking forward to finding something long-term. Thanks for your help! You wouldn't be looking for volunteer opportunities too would you?

Hi Sandra,

Actually, I just signed up to start volunteering for Plan Espana in September. A friend in my Spanish class just told me about it. It's a impoverished child sponsorship program that uses volunteers to help run the office and to translate letters that, the sponsors write to their sponsored children, into English. Let me know if you want more info.

Katrina