Amie Tsang meets Khosro Adibi, the founder of Fronteras International Art Festival, which starts today in Rosario. A former Marxist activist and political prisoner, he left Iran at the age of 24, and spent time in prison in the United Arab Emirates. But he now channels his desire to ‘change the world’ through art rather than militancy.

We are sitting at the kitchen table of a quiet adobe house in the desert just above the town of Andalgalá in remote Catamarca, north-western Argentina. Seventy kilometres to the west, Alumbrera mine is in full operation, digging into the ground 24 hours a day. Alumbrera was sold to the people on the promise of bringing modernity to the little village. There would be new hospitals, schools, jobs and even a farfetched town-wide WiFi network. In one man’s words the people were promised “paradise”. But it never came.

We are sitting on the roof of a rather ramshackle building, a load of chorizo sausages sizzling on a makeshift barbeque. Some of the walls are missing, so that the hum of Villa 20 and cumbia music floats in and clashes with the crackle of ‘Baby I love your way’, spilling out of a dated radio.

Leading British news website for the voluntary sector, Charity Finance, has revealed that the numbers of people travelling across the globe to be volunteers has rocketed in recent years. Catherine Raynor, media manager of international charity VSO, says that “the climate of redundancies is drawing in more people”.

“We want simple things,” Atilio Curiñanco of the Santa Rosa community says to me through a crackling connection. “Most people don’t understand that.” It is 11th February, and in three days the families of the community of Santa Rosa will mark the two-year anniversary of their reclamation of their ancestral territory.

“When my mother died, I lost everything, I lost my house because I couldn’t afford to pay the rent, and I was living life between a hostel bed and the streets for almost five years. Arte sin Techo changed my life around,” explains 33–year-old Israel Silveria.

Woken at 7am to the sounds of Aqua’s Eurotrash anthem ‘Dr. Jones’ (‘WAKE UP NOW’) as a man in a giant green dinosaur outfit shakes me from my slumber. This is no standard weekend in Buenos Aires. I’ve been invited to join ‘Un Techo para mi País’ on one of their construction campaigns, as they endeavour to build emergency housing for 50 families over the space of a weekend

Ten young people from across the globe joined a group of Argentines in greater Buenos Aires to build up walls and break down stereotypes this month. The international group came as volunteers with Subir al Sur, an Argentine organisation that strives to create peace and understanding between diverse people through collaborative service projects.

“Right, please don’t look at me, hey!” says 22-year-old Nadia, who’s about to start her routine in front of the other students. She shyly stares at her feet whilst waiting for the music to start, then skilfully starts lifting herself up on the hoop that hangs from the ceiling.

Just 15km from the Iguazú Falls in Misiones lies Fortín Mbororé, a Guaraní settlement of 800 people. As I walk into the community from the main road, along a red dirt track, I feel I couldn’t be further away from the waterfalls and the slick circus of tours that go with them.