Your volunteering experience in Rio de Janeiro

It really all depends on your visa status and category. If you hold a VITUR Tourist Visa you cannot work or study while in Brazil, not even volunteer work if it pays any kind of stipend.

If you currently hold a VITEM-V Work Visa or are a permanent resident then volunteer work is quite permissable. The problem with volunteering in Brazil is that many of the areas where volunteers may be active in other countries fall into the area of public service jobs here in Brazil, these are very protected by strong unions that prevent volunteers from carrying out the same kind of work.

Cheers,
James   Expat-blog Experts Team

And then indeed you speak perfect portuguese or more exactly portuguese carioca with accent and vocabulary that the poorest can understand.  You know well all the "how-to" of Brazil : dealing with social services, health/SUS services and any other public services in order to help people?

Thanks Bardamu and James. I have a visa, and the language isn't a problem :-) I was more hoping to hear what people's experiences within the various organisations were.

And yes: a big problem is the fact that you can't "just volunteer". As you said, James, many volunteering roles fall into public service jobs. Do you happen to have a recommendation of any particular ONG that is good? Unfortunately I do not have time to apply for full-time positions. And the concept of "helping out" or "after work volunteering" doesn't really seem to exist here (maybe I'm wrong?)

Try churches...you have a got all kind, pick up yours. I am serious. This is a quite important part of the society here i Brazil.
As James wrote. A lot of social agencies are public services or are actually ONG that are runs link public agencies: a lot of full times job and very strong unions. So no much space for outsiders. Especially gringoes. Sorry.