Partner with two Chilean families to make critical improvements to their homes. Your work together will enable their developmentally-disabled children to return home from a hospital or treatment center and continue care in a safe, healthy environment. Leave Chile knowing that your team’s work reunited a family.

Eat, work and spend time with your two partner families in Casablanca, where you’ll experience life in a typical Chilean town. Get to know neighbors and community members and learn about our staff’s innovative work. You will also see how locals make a living when you visit an organic vineyard. 

Join a team of like-minded volunteers, then come home ready to tell friends how Habitat is transforming communities in Chile one family at a time. 

Apply now to join this Global Village team, or email team leader Shelley Ulmer. 

Trip highlights

• Your team’s housing improvements will bring disabled children home from a treatment center.
• Become an honorary family member by working living alongside the families.
• Learn more about the town's economy when you visit a local vineyard.

Itinerary

• Saturday, day 1: Volunteers traveling from North America depart.
• Sunday, day 2: Arrive in Santiago, meet your team and travel to Casablanca. Habitat for Humanity Chile staff introduces their work.
• Monday-Tuesday, days 3-4: Build on the worksite and get to know your partner families. Spend evenings exploring Casablanca.
• Wednesday, day 5: Build until lunch, then visit an organic vineyard.
• Thursday-Friday, days 6-7: Build on the worksite.
• Saturday, day 8: Build until lunch, then enjoy a farewell barbeque with partner families.
• Sunday, day 9: Travel back to Santiago. Your travel in South America may continue independently, or you may depart for home.

Program cost
US$1,970

This cost includes an important donation to Habitat for Humanity so that we can continue building safe, decent housing after you return home. For more details about what is included, visit Global Village program cost. 

Share your story
You’re doing something exciting with Habitat, so tell people about it! Create a page on Share.Habitat to tell friends, family, and coworkers about your Global Village trip. Share photos and videos, even updates from the field. It’s a great way to raise support for your program cost, and anything extra goes as donations to build Habitat’s impact. Together, we can improve shelter conditions and end poverty housing.

Meals and accommodations
Teams stay at modest, comfortable hostels. Enjoy typical Chilean meals prepared by locals, including your partner families.

Tasks on the work site
Typical work for a Global Village team may include digging foundation, framing walls, mixing cement, painting, carrying construction materials and other tasks assigned by the expert construction crew.

Contact this team’s leader
Have questions? Ready to join?  Email team leader Shelley Ulmer.

Shelley says, "Out of everything that happens on a Global Village trip, I most enjoy getting to know the partner families. It is a wonderful feeling to experience a true cultural exchange in some of the tiniest moments; tasting a new food, learning a word in a new language, experiencing different weather, landscapes and environments all while working side by side with individuals who are working towards a better future. It is has changed me for the better."

Co-leader Suriya says, "Following my most recent build, which took place in a small village in Nepal, the entire community gathered in celebration of our hard work. Happy tears streaking down the faces of new homeowners and elders dancing with abandon while wearing smiles stretched impossibly wide, filled my vision. There were so many hugs. As I sat upon a rickety plastic chair in the sweltering heat of the mid-day sun and accepted the sincere gratitude of the families who had worked alongside us for the past two weeks, I knew Habitat's Global Village program would forever be a part of my life."