RdC has been in Ecuador for the last thirty-five years. In July 2024, the 2024-2025 RdC Volunteers will be living and serving in Consuelo, a town in the Dominican Republic.

RdC volunteers live together in a house rented by Rostro de Cristo from a local family in the neighborhood. RdC volunteers live in an intentional Christian community with an emphasis on simple living, hospitality, service, and spirituality. Each volunteer is accommodated with his/her own bedroom; bathrooms and other living spaces are shared.

Volunteers work in different field areas within their broader community as partners with local organizations. These positions are predominately in the fields of health care, education, ministry, community outreach, and social work and have included community organizing projects, HIV/AIDS education projects, pastoral ministry with parishes and women’s groups, outreach to street children, serving as a teacher or teacher’s aid, facilitating after-school programs, or working at a clinic or hospital, such as Damien House, a hospital for patients with Hansen’s Disease. The volunteer placement site schedules are meant to allow volunteers to have time each week to participate in both formal and informal community engagement and outreach. Thus, these placements aren’t viewed as full-time, 40-hour-a-week job positions, but rather as vehicles to facilitate relationship-building between volunteers and locals and to create opportunities for volunteers to learn and understand more about Dominican culture while also being of service to the community. Along with their normal work placements, volunteers are responsible for planning and leading 2 or 3 retreat groups and accompanying the retreatants in their daily activities as they experience life in the DR. This includes sharing the history, culture and background of the people in the local community, helping retreatants to live in solidarity with the local people during their short time in the DR, and sharing in group discussion, prayer, and reflection.

This refers to the space where retreatants stay while on their retreat immersion. Currently, Rostro de Cristo hosts 8-12 retreat groups yearly from universities, high schools, and parishes from all over the United States. Each group stays for an average of seven to ten days. Volunteers work with Rostro de Cristo’s Program Coordinator to take turns planning and leading retreat groups through their daily activities and experiences. The reflections and prayer times for the retreat groups are planned by the group themselves; however, the group leader assists with any needs the group might have.

Visit our staff page to find out who the current staff are and what their roles are within Rostro de Cristo.

This number varies annually, but Rostro de Cristo usually receives between 35 and 60 applicants each year.

We now are accepting 12-14 volunteers each year.

RdC volunteers attend a two-week orientation in the summer (July/August). The volunteers will leave following the conclusion of orientation. Volunteers term ends the first week of August of the following year. In total the experience is 12.5 – 13 months. Volunteers may discern renewing their commitment for a second year. This will be done in conversation with the Rostro de Cristo staff and must be approved by the Associate Director.

Rostro de Cristo pays for a round-trip ticket leaving from and returning to the U.S. It is the responsibility of the volunteer to arrive for the orientation. Each volunteer is expected to participate in a volunteer community fundraising campaign leading up to orientation in July to help cover various expenses including airfare, orientation, health care, living expenses, etc. There is no personal fundraising goal that volunteers are required to reach, however the commitment to fundraise is essential to our mission and the well-being of our programs! Fundraising options have including but are not limited to: writing letters to family and friends asking for their support, speaking in church/parish communities about Rostro de Cristo and, reaching out to high school or college groups, and reaching out to local Rotary groups or other organizations to help support Rostro de Cristo and the volunteer’s year of service.

Each volunteer will receive basic health insurance starting from the day he/she/they lands in the Dominican Republic to the day he/she/they leaves the Dominican Republic. Health insurance is only applicable in the country of the Dominican Republic.

Yes, each volunteer will receive a small monthly stipend.

The house will receive a weekly allowance for food and water. The volunteers community is responsible for budgeting, buying, and cooking their meals.

Yes, family and friends are encouraged to visit with the approval of the Program Coordinator and when there are no retreat groups present.

Yes. The priority deadline is February 15th, but we are open to receiving applications after that date. See the Apply page for more information.

After a completed application is received, selected volunteer applicants will be invited for personal interviews on a rolling basis. After the interview, the applicant will be notified by mid-April if he or she is accepted and will have a limited amount of time to commit to the program following this acceptance.

Rostro de Cristo volunteers live together in an intentional Christian community. Each person may have a different idea of what that means. RdC volunteers commit themselves to sharing time together in prayer and meals and challenging each other to explore the values of simple living, hospitality, spirituality, service, and social justice. Throughout the year the volunteers will complete retreat weekends as a community. Overall, one of the objectives of the program is that the volunteers foster a living and working environment centered on faith and love. One former volunteer says this about living in community: “You will find in community that the best way to see yourself with all your blessings and faults and vices and gifts is not to stare at yourself in the mirror, but to look at the other people in your community: they are the best mirrors you can find, and you would not be able to peer so deeply into your own soul were it not for their presence.”

In a RdC volunteer’s daily life, including worksites, there is an emphasis on “being” rather than “doing.” This concept can be difficult to understand for some people. Our volunteers and retreat groups spend much of their time being with Dominicans as opposed to doing things for Dominicans. This time “being” is meant to fulfill our mission by building relationships through faith and love. Time in the community can be spent playing, working, and praying WITH the Dominican people. It is within and through the strength of those relationships that love and service are truly done. Here is how one former volunteer describes what “being” means: “we need to teach classes, coach basketball teams and run after school programs. But let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that it ends there — let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that’s the end of the line. Its not — it is too easy to fall into the distraction of ‘doing’, and failing to take the harder path: the path of entering into genuine relationship with another human being. That’s the hard thing to do, and not everyone can do it. That’s what it means to “be,” as opposed to “do.” True, people need food, housing, and education. But unless those things are facilitated mindfully, with love (or agape, for you Greek scholars and MLK fans), they miss the point entirely. Being, not doing — it’s a radical call to a radical way of life — simpler, yet harder; counterintuitive, yet true, and finally, revolutionary, yet more real and more authentic.”

Competence in Spanish is important as RdC does not provide formal language training. There are opportunities in the Dominican Republic for language support, such as tutoring, that Rostro facilitates for volunteers. Competency can come from experiences of intensive study and/or immersion in Spanish and is demonstrated when an applicant is able to carry on a basic conversation in Spanish. An applicant should show evidence of the ability, interest and commitment to continue to grow in competency in Spanish. Furthermore, applicants should demonstrate a respect for other cultures and ways of being in our diverse world; and openness to learning from people of another culture other than their own.

Volunteers commit to one full uninterrupted year. All holidays including Christmas are spent in the Dominican Republic.

Volunteers typically receive typhoid, yellow fever, Hepatitis A and B, Covid vaccine, and are encouraged to speak to their physician about vaccine recommendations. Please refer to the CDC travel website for the Dominican Republic for the most current information.