Preparing for the Carnival in Rio: Gary from the UK with his Carioca friends!

Gary Ward, from the UK, with fellow Brazilian workers preparing the Carnival of Rio de Janeiro.

Volunteering with Iko Poran in Rio was a great decision – I had a fantastic 12 weeks in this amazing city. I helped the Grande Rio samba school with carnival preparations and taught English in a community in the west of the city. I met some fantastic people and made many new friends. I found that being a volunteer enabled me to discover more of the real Rio and its people in a way that I couldn’t have done as a tourist.

The organiser, Felipe, is incredibly helpful and does everything he can to ensure you have a great time. He’s also a big Botafogo fan and I watched two matches with him at the Olympic Stadium, which was brilliant. The support offered by Iko Poran in general is very high quality and the programme was brilliant value for money. I’m thinking of doing more volunteering and I will definitely go with Iko Poran again. – Gary

Ever thought about traveling to Rio de Janeiro for Carnival and working as a volunteer at the same time? Join our Carnival project and dive deeply into Brazilian culture and society! Since we are working together with a samba school, you will participate in the preparation for the great day of the parade at the Sambódromo in Rio. People join for rehearsal several months before Carnival and begin constructing the floats, designing the costumes. You will have a deeper understanding of the work behind the scenes, since you will see how passionate the Cariocas are about Carnival. They come together in solidarity, dance and leave behind all social bounderies.

Find the volunteer project in Rio de Janeiro here! However, there are even more volunteer opportunities in Brazil available, be it teaching English, sports and football or medical internships.

Discover all of our highly affordable volunteer programs in Latin America, Asia or Africa on our home page.