Pim in Argentina
Participant
Pim
Country
🇦🇷 Argentina
Short bio
Hello, I’m Pim, a 21-year-old International Leisure Management student. For my studies I had to do a third-year internship with an organisation abroad. I really wanted to get to know a new culture, and that was the biggest reason for me to choose
Argentina.
My story
“This just shows once again how important it is to have interns and volunteers, so that local children in disadvantaged neighbourhoods are helped through fantastic sports projects”
Pim · volunteering in Argentina
Doing an internship with United Through Sport (UTS) in Argentina is one big adventure. You work with volunteers from all over the world and work with children day in, day out. These children also have different nationalities, so it’s interesting to discover the differences in backgrounds and cultures.
A regular task as an intern in Argentina is coordinating the volunteers. Getting in touch with the volunteers before they arrive and communicating with the accommodation manager, the local coaches and the teachers are daily tasks. I enjoyed organising things and seeing that volunteers were having a good time and genuinely felt they could do their bit during the after-school activities and the PE lessons at local primary schools
where United Through Sport is active.
During your stay in Buenos Aires you’ll learn an incredible amount about yourself and about the world.
After 5 months of living in Buenos Aires you get to know the city well. You build a strong bond with the children and teachers, but definitely also with the other residents of the accommodation. UTS Argentina is based in a hostel where mainly young people stay for a longer period (1-4 months). As a resident, this makes it easier to build a good bond. On top of that, alongside the work you
also have plenty of time to see something of the country or continent. For example, I went to Iguazu (the waterfalls) for three days with two residents of the house (a Dane and a Swede). These are trips that are easy to do in a short time but definitely give you an extra impression of Argentina and the beauty of the country.
I enjoyed organising things and seeing that volunteers were having a good time and genuinely felt they could do their bit during the after-school activities
Working for UTS Argentina will be very different from working for one of the other UTS locations and projects. The reason: the size of the organisation and the level. South Americans are often relaxed about their rules, and on a warm, dry day the level will be fairly low. For volunteers and interns this can sometimes come as a surprise. On top of that, the facilities aren’t what we Westerners are used to.
Hockey and rugby are played on concrete, for example. That doesn’t mean it isn’t educational. During your stay in Buenos Aires you’ll learn an incredible amount about yourself and about the world. Working at UTS Argentina shows you how difficult it actually is to start a charity in a country like Argentina, where it’s so badly needed. In between your work for UTS you’ll come into contact with poverty every day. From home you probably can’t imagine it, but sadly in a city like Buenos Aires and a country like Argentina it happens. This just shows once again how important it is for UTS to have interns and volunteers, so that local children in disadvantaged neighbourhoods are helped through the fantastic sports projects.
