EduMais takes the safety of its volunteers and students very seriously. Most of the time, it is perfectly safe to work in PPG, but armed clashes and shootouts between police forces and gangs are unpredictable. That’s why we have strict safety protocols to maximize the security of our volunteers.

We are always in touch with our community in PPG and they keep us informed of any safety issues. When a dangerous situation arises, we abstain from our work and do not enter the favela. Safety is the number one priority.

Portuguese will help you to interact with the children and will be very useful for getting around. Some of our programs require a good level of Portuguese, especially the After-school, Web and Game Design, and Education-Based Football programs. For our English programs, there is no need to speak Portuguese. In fact, during English class, we don’t want our volunteers to speak Portuguese at all, or at least as little as possible.

As it’s useful to have at least a basic grasp of Portuguese in Brazil, we can recommend Caminhos Language Centre if you are looking to learn. It is the closest language school in our neighborhood. They offer courses for different levels at reasonable prices.

We work with different professions, backgrounds, and skills. How much teaching experience it’s necessary to have is dependent upon your position, as well as your character. No matter how much teaching experience you have, children from different cultural backgrounds can present different challenges, and your readiness to deal with these is something that will be assessed at the interview stage. We always guide our volunteers to learn how to teach accordingly to our methodology.

Unfortunately, EduMais cannot help you with any visas. But when you become a volunteer, you also become part of the EduMais family. Many of our volunteers have had to deal (or are dealing) with the often confusing bureaucratic procedures in Brazil. It is perfectly possible to ask them specific questions about visas, CPF numbers, the dos and dont’s etc. Ultimately, however, the form-filling and trips to the Federal Police are your responsibility as we do not have the resources to take on this process for our volunteers.

EduMais has 9 different educational programs in total. If you are interested in volunteering on more than one, this is certainly possible. Some programs take place at the same time on the same day but others do not. Let us know which programs you are interested in via your application form and then we can have a look at the possibilities.

Unfortunately, EduMais does not have its own rooms or apartments for its volunteers. But EduMais does have partnerships with different hostels where volunteers can stay at a special rate.

In addition, all current volunteers live in different locations in Rio. Often, when their rooms or apartments become available, they are first posted in the EduMais volunteer WhatsApp group. This allows us to exchange rooms and apartments with each other. As soon as you become an EduMais volunteer, you belong to the EduMais family and therefore also our Whatsapp group(s).

This depends very much on your own preference. Some volunteers prefer to live near our community and others prefer to live in other parts of the city.

A good thing to know is that almost all tourists, travelers, volunteers etc. generally stay in the “Zona Sul,” the South Zone of Rio de Janeiro.

“Zona Sul” is often used as a collective name for the following neighourhoods: Botafogo, Catete, Copacabana, Cosme Velho, Flamengo, Gávea, Glória, Humaitá, Ipanema, Jardim Botânico, Lagoa, Santa Teresa, Laranjeiras, Leblon, Leme, São Conrado, and Urca.

When coming to Rio de Janeiro, it is recommended to have the following vaccinations.

• Yellow fever
• Hepatitis A and B
• Tetanus
• Diphtheria
• Typhoid

Whether you choose to take Malaria tablets is a matter of personal choice. The risk within both the city and state of Rio de Janeiro is very low. The low risk means that the side-effects of these medications are often not worth bothering with. However, if you plan to travel to other areas at higher risk, either before or after coming to Rio de Janeiro, then you might want to consider taking them.

Please contact us (click here) and we are very happy to talk about the options and the ways you can become a sponsor.

We’re very flexible and open to other ideas. Please get in touch with us (click here).

We welcome any collaboration as long as it is in service of our students and the community we serve. Please get in touch with us (click here).

We have a variety of parnters. All the information about our Partners you will find here (click here).