Pack your enthusiasm and volunteer spirit – and discover another culture on an unforgettable alternative spring break this year. With Global Volunteers, you travel the world, expand your boundaries, change your perspectives and make a difference in your life and in the lives of those you serve. Your health and safety are our top priorities! Our programs comply with local COVID-19 protocols, provide comfortable and secure lodging and nutritious meals.
Global Volunteers offers meaningful alternative spring breaks for students, families and volunteers of all ages.
Refer to minimum age requirements here.
Thirty years ago, Miguel Rodriguez rescued more than 40 children from the streets of Lima and took them home. In time, he moved his family to the desert 35 kilometers north and built a school and dormitories. Today, that school offers meals and education to over 1,300 students, and the dormitories house more than 200 children. Without private or public funding, Miguel feeds, houses, educates and cares for children from remote villages in the Peruvian jungle or mountains, and the streets of Lima. They ask Miguel for a chance for a decent basic education and maybe even college someday.
Community Partner: Sagrada Familia
Lodging: B&B-style hotel in seaside town of Ancon, outside Lima
On the outskirts of Quito, many families struggle to provide food and little more for their children. In 1993, a group of women in Calderón formed a foundation to support impoverished families (largely single mothers) who work hard to improve their living standards. Today, FUNDAC (Foundation of Ladies of Calderón) has a staff of 14 teachers/caregivers offering food, education, vaccinations, and psychosocial support for women and approximately 140 children at two early childhood development centers. They also provide social opportunities, support, lectures and semi-annual day trips to area seniors. Read more about FUNDAC here.
Community Partner: Foundation of Ladies of Calderón
The families FUNDAC serves earn only minimum wage, and the majority of the women are domestic workers, day laborers, and part-time workers. The early childhood development centers focus on the growth and education of vulnerable children living in poverty and extreme poverty. You can help teach, feed and provide nurturing care to at-risk children, help the staff create teaching materials, and teach English skills to the teaching staff. Read details on our Ecuador Service Program page. All volunteers must be vaccinated. Refer to Ecuadorian government COVID-19 entry requirements here.
Our long-standing community partner on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia is the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church. Caring for the spiritual and educational needs of the community, the Church supports the Anse la Raye Infant and Primary Schools from kindergarten to 6th grade for approximately 300 students. Work projects are designed with an eye to long-term sustainability and integration. Our ability to work with teachers to improve educational resources multiplies impacts across the community. Read more here.
Community Partner: Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church
As a volunteer in St. Lucia, you’re needed to tutor and mentor students of all ages in Anse la Raye’s classrooms and preschools. Help mothers provide nutritious meals for their families, help high-school-aged students learn skills in electricity, joinery, computer skills, and catering, supply fruit/vegetable gardens, teach women’s sewing groups and improve community buildings. Encourage and support local people making a difference. Learn more on our St. Lucia service program page. All volunteers must be vaccinated. Read St. Lucia travel requirements here.
Lodging: Cozy resort cottages on Marigot Bay
Beginning in 1996, we’ve supported municipalities and local non-profits in Crete helping children and families improve their standard of living. Teaching conversational English has been a central component – to help students better prepare for higher education and career choices. Throughout periods of economic decline, Global Volunteers has collaborated with teachers to make English instruction accessible to families, regardless of their means, and supported programs helping vulnerable women and children escape violence and poverty. Your service now will have life-long impact on the lives of local people who work hard to elevate their own and their community’s capacity.
Community Partners: Municipality of Malevizi and the Union of Women Associations of Heraklion
Teach English to youth in classrooms, tutor and support women working through trauma, and nurture young girls and boys at a newly opened home for displaced and neglected children. You might also help paint and “spruce up” community facilities, and plant, weed and harvest a “kitchen” garden used to augment at-risk families’ diets. All volunteers must be vaccinated. Learn more about our Greece Service Program here. Read Greece Covid restrictions and entry requirements here.
Lodging: Charming beach-side hotel in Amoudara
Our development partnerships in Tanzania began 35 years ago – with the invitation from rural Lutheran parishes to work with them, hand-in-hand to combat the long-term impacts of severe poverty. Volunteers work with parents, teachers and village leaders to provide essential services to children and families in the Iringa District. The education, nutrition and healthcare projects through our Reaching Children’s Potential Program are focused on interventions to end stunting in children under age 3.
Community Partner: The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania
You can offer nutrition and healthcare workshops, provide direct care to moms and babies, improve classrooms, build chicken coops, safe stoves and rainwater harvesting systems, and teach English, science and math in primary and secondary school classrooms. Refer to our Tanzania Service Program page for more information. All volunteers must be vaccinated. Tanzania government COVID-19 entry requirements here.
Lodging: Guesthouse built and operated by Global Volunteers
Working through The Cuban Council of Churches (CIC) in Havana and Ciego de Ávila, we support local people’s desire to improve their capabilities in educational, economic and social services areas. Global Volunteers service programs fulfill the requirements of legal travel to Cuba under US law by general license to elevate civil society through approved activities.
Community Partner: The Cuban Council of Churches
Based upon your skills and interests, you’re assigned to one or more service projects – including practicing conversational English with youth and adults, working in community gardens, supporting and assisting seniors, creating crafts with a local women’s cooperative, and helping with light construction and/or painting. Practice English with teens and adults using Global Volunteers tried and proven Conversational English Teaching Guide. Help students attain confidence and fluency through lively conversations. Meet in small groups to practice vocabulary, pronunciation, idioms and common phrases. Everyone is needed; everyone can be meaningfully engaged.
Lodging: Privately-owned B&Bs called casas particulares.
Volunteers have served in Italian classrooms and small groups as L’amico preferitos” (“favorite friends”) since 1995. Now in partnership with the municipal government of Castelvetrano, Sicily, we teach conversational English skills to students in high school classrooms and small groups. Our new program is near the southwestern coast of the island, in the province of Trapani. The city has a population of roughly 31,000 residents and is famous for its olives and olive oil, cobbled streets, narrow passage ways, ready access to the sea, and unique architecture reminiscent of the past.
Community Partner: Municipality of Castelvetrano
On a typical day, you create your own lesson plans from standard curriculum texts and our Conversational English Teaching Guide, engaging small groups of high school students in games and diverse interactive activities. In practice conversations, you may discuss North American culture, history, daily lifestyle, sports, and school systems. You might team teach, work one-on-one, or conduct classes on your own – depending on your style and comfort level.
Lodging: Two charming, family-owned guesthouses
Deep in the hollers of West Virginia’s Appalachian Mountains are small coal towns, home to economically impoverished, but spiritually rich families. Volunteers from all across the globe serve in the small towns of Kincaid and Beards Fork in Fayette County with Global Volunteers – retirees, college students, professionals and teens from all walks of life inspire, encourage and mentor youth who strive to overcome generational poverty.
Community Partner: Southern Appalachian Labor School
Every helping hand is welcome relief here. The service project vary by season – you might help rehabilitate dilapidated and energy inefficient homes; paint classrooms and community buildings; assist young students with homework; or work at a community garden. Most important, you bring companionship, encouragement and living skills to challenged and at-risk youth in one of the most economically devastated rural regions of the USA.
Lodging: Community center dormitory rooms in Beards Fork
Lend your hands and spirit to projects improving living conditions for migrant farm workers and new immigrants through exemplary housing and social services programs in the Rio Grande Valley. The Texas-Mexico boundary often looms large in today’s news. But beyond the headlines and politics lies a vibrant community requesting your help. The families we assist struggle with the basic necessities of life, and one week of your time can make all the difference.
Community Partner: Proyecto Azteca
Our community partner serves low-income residents through the construction of single family homes. Volunteer assignments depend on skill level, but could include painting, house siding, tile work, site preparation, landscaping, building handicapped ramps and upgrading bathrooms to be handicapped accessible as well as providing childcare, serving meals, sorting/issuing clothes, helping with paperwork and door-to-door canvassing. Learn more on our Texas service program page. All volunteers must be vaccinated.
Lodging: Local hotel or community dormitory
Register soon! Your dates may fill quickly.
Call a Volunteer Coordinator for help choosing a program to suit your spring break plans: 800-487-1074.
