Global Volunteers: Travel that Feeds the Soul

Granddaddy of the volunteer vacation movement.
—USA TODAY

Be a bridge of understanding and peace! As a Global Volunteers team member, you're a catalyst for local people's vision of self-reliance and prosperity. You can truly make a difference! Global Volunteers pioneered direct service-learning programs abroad in 1984, and has mobilized more than 27,000 short-term volunteers on long-term development projects in more than 120 host communities on six continents. Choose from 18 countries, start dates year-around and service programs lasting from one to 24 weeks.

In special consultative status with the United Nations and UNICEF, Global Volunteers supports host communities' commitment to the Millennium Development Goals through direct volunteer service, project donations, student scholarships and child and classroom sponsorships. Find your place as a volunteer in the areas of child care, English instruction, health care assistance, elder support and care, capacity building, early childhood education, environmental protection, youth recreation, and family support.

Global Volunteers has been widely covered in national and international media including the Oprah Winfrey Show, People Magazine, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, The CBS Morning Show, the NBC Nightly News, ABC World News Tonight, Travel and Leisure Magazine, Conde Nast, and news stories in all 50 states and throughout Canada.

What You Can Do

Global Volunteers enables you to use your skills and interests in an unconventional setting to benefit others in a community requesting outside help. There are great family opportunities: teens and youth as young as eight can work in some communities with toddlers and young children and teach English to peers. As a prospective volunteer, you can choose to serve from hundreds of worthy causes both at home and abroad. As a Global Volunteers team member, you're assured to contribute to genuine development projects and that your itinerary strictly follows IRS tax-deductibility guidelines.

I have great respect for Global Volunteers' philosophy and policies. With each trip, I'm touched and humbled by the possibility of helping a child or young adult. Global Volunteers enables me to not just be a passive world traveler but to be an active participant, a "citizen diplomat." —Norina Viara, volunteer on 18 teams

Any native English speaker can be a valuable resource in a classroom. All you need is enthusiasm and a desire to help adult and youth students.

Teach Conversational English Skills
Any native English speaker can be a valuable resource in a classroom in Africa, Asia, Europe, Mexico, or in ethnically diverse regions of the U.S. Even if you've never formally taught a classroom subject, you can teach conversational English skills under the guidance of Global Volunteers' local host partners.

Big hugs, toothless smiles, bright coffee-nut eyes beaming love. Their struggles are many - poverty, disabilities and even homelessness. But you can make a lasting difference in these young lives.

Care for Vulnerable Children
You're needed to nurture at-risk infants and youth worldwide; you can care for orphaned, abandoned, disabled or impoverished children in a variety of settings, such as foster care facilities, orphanages and day care centers. Families and volunteers of all ages can make a significant difference in the life of a child!

Can you pound a nail, swing a paint brush, or plant a flower?

Lend a Hand on Labor Projects
Many host communities need help with light construction projects, landscaping and assistance to beautify public spaces, painting help, plumbing and electrical assistance, help installing playgrounds and much more. No professional skills are required. Anyone in good physical condition can be an important resource for essential community labor projects.

Health Care Volunteer Services: While the needs and the working conditions are very basic, your hands-on contribution can be life-changing.

Assist with Health Care
Health care professionals and students are needed to provide patient care to impoverished children and families. You can provide basic services such as diabetes screenings, tooth extractions, well-baby checks and pre-natal exams in local clinics, village dispensaries and in homes through outreach programs.

One of the best things about a Global Volunteers program is that you can be dropped into a setting in another part of the world for just a few weeks. Things are already set in motion, and you pick up where the last team left off. Being part of one team in a series, part of a long-term commitment served by many teams, I realized that I was participating in something much bigger. It was perfect for me because I only get a few weeks' vacation each year. And yet, it was one of the most thrilling and rewarding things I have ever done. —Jim Hausler, Tanzania volunteer

Global Volunteers' experienced volunteer coordinators will counsel you to select an opportunity to broaden your global perspective and truly make a difference. Consider these advantages to serving with Global Volunteers:

The Global Volunteers Advantage Give back to society in a practical, compassionate way

The Global Volunteers Advantage Wage peace personally while advancing international understanding

The Global Volunteers Advantage Learn first-hand about poverty and homelessness

The Global Volunteers Advantage Contribute to the successes of local development work

The Global Volunteers Advantage Share cultural insights with like-minded teammates

The Global Volunteers Advantage Employ your talents and skills in an unconventional setting

The Global Volunteers Advantage Experience a foreign culture from inside–as a non-tourist

What You Can Serve

Join a 'private' Peace Corps sponsoring short-term working vacations, one that has gained my own excited attention to the same extent as the original Peace Corps. —Arthur Frommer, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel online

Global Volunteers' unique philosophy of service guarantees you work at the invitation and under the direction of local leaders in all parts of the world. Volunteer teams return to the same host community up to 17 times each year—year after year. Choose exciting volunteer opportunities in these host countries: Africa (Ghana, Tanzania), Americas (Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, Jamaica, Mexico, St. Lucia, USA), Asia (China, India, Vietnam), Europe (Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania), and Pacific (Cook Islands).

When You Can Serve

Choose a volunteer opportunity virtually any week of the year!

Choose a volunteer opportunity virtually any week of the year! Global Volunteers offers start dates for most programs each month, year-around.

Standard international service programs are two or three weeks with one-week options in most countries, and program extensions up to 24 weeks.

USA service programs in Appalachia, the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and immigrant communities of Minnesota are offered for one week.

Special arrangements are made for groups and individuals seeking gap year, J-term, spring break or summer-long options.

Is this Right for Me?

English speakers of all ages and from all walks of life around the world can be valuable resources on Global Volunteers' service programs. Families are encouraged to serve together. Each service program has individual requirements for children under age 18. Global Volunteers typically share common characteristics such as flexibility, compassion, a sense of adventure, and most importantly, the desire to work with and learn from local people in the host community.

Global Volunteers' program structure provides a relaxed, safe and informal experience for solo travelers and couples, students traveling alone or in an organized group, as well as boomers and seniors.

Experience International Volunteering in South Africa
You can help the small rural community of Malungeni improve its educational, economic and social capability while gaining a rare, first-hand perspective of villager's daily life.

Watch more Global Volunteers videos Watch more Global Volunteers in action »

Waging Peace Through Service

Global Volunteers was founded in 1984 by a married couple who believe each person can wage peace by working hand-in-hand with local people.

Feature Article: Volunteer VacationsIf you are considering a volunteer vacation this year, examine options to ensure you help, rather than harm, while abroad.

If I've made one change, one difference in the life of one child, I've changed the world. It is through the demonstration of understanding and acceptance that we earn the right to sit at the table of peace. —Jo-Ann Winnik, Vietnam and Romania volunteer

From the beginning, Global Volunteers challenged traditional development models by honoring local problem solving, and engaging "average" people in local service delivery. As an apolitical, nonsectarian organization, Global Volunteers demonstrated how true "people-to-people" initiatives in "micro- economic and human development" can succeed. Whether you've always dreamed of joining the Peace Corps, envisioned yourself immersed in another culture, or yearned to "give back" to the world, Global Volunteers' exceptional service programs connect you to a global network of friends—and the opportunity to wage peace together!

Connections

Global Volunteers
375 E. Little Canad Rd.
St. Paul, MN 55117-1628
(800) 487-1074 toll free
(651) 482-0915 fax
email@globalvolunteers.org
www.globalvolunteers.org

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