Along with routine labor and education projects in our host community, West Virginia volunteers occasionally have the opportunity to contribute to local celebrations and special events. For the first time that Global Volunteers’ partner, SALS, participated in Bridge Day – West Virginia’s largest single-day festival, and one of the largest extreme sports events in the […]
Global Volunteer Linda Roberts has served six different partner communities since 2016, and has no plans to slow down. The Florida retiree, who says “volunteering adds purpose to her life,” last served in Anse la Raye, St. Lucia, helping the community plant 94 EarthBoxes in two weeks! She shares her journal entry describing how their […]
Seven–time Global Volunteer Rene Moquin had a Global Volunteers “first” recently. He joined a team serving the students at Nguyen Binh Khiem School (NBK) in Hanoi, Vietnam. The Colorado retiree employed his acting and musical skills – challenging them to “dream of new possibilities.” In these journal entries, Rene reflects on his singular experience and […]
The desire to explore and travel while giving back led Jasmine Hooper, a 30-something African-American and Guamanian from Texas, to join Global Volunteers in a service program in Tanzania. During her service, Jasmine taught conversational English, conducted workshops and home visits, and assisted in the local clinic. In this guest post, Jasmine reflects on how […]
Ellen Shenkarow decided to spend her time in retirement helping where necessary through volunteer work. She volunteers with Catholic Social Services helping refugees and asylum seekers in Tucson, Arizona. This summer Ellen, a retired ESL teacher, wanted to spread the spirit of “doing good” with her family and teach her grandson what life is like […]
Relatively little research is available on the wellbeing of the large population of visually impaired or blind adults in Vietnam. Global Volunteers’ partner, Blind-Link, a social entrepreneurship program, professionally trains blind young Vietnamese adults for a career in massage therapy, affording them the opportunity to significantly elevate their lives. In this interview, two Blind-Link staff […]
Personal referrals account for more than 40 percent of Global Volunteers’ team members, on average, each year. Not only do “word-of-mouth” recommendations lend credibility to our work, but they help us engage needed numbers of team members for each service program. Who do you know that would love to experience the fulfillment of volunteering with […]
“So how was your trip?” is a common question friends and family ask volunteers upon their return from a service program. How do you summarize in a few words – or even a few sentences – what waging peace through people-to-people service means? Anticipating this question near the end of his Peru service program, Mike, […]
It might be that there’s no farther point from the Cook Islands in the United States than Maine. But, that didn’t discourage University of Maine Honors College student Lucie Bonneville from traveling to the South Pacific with Global Volunteers. Undaunted by the 7,000 mile journey, she sought to help others in the global community and […]
A student volunteer group from the Wegmans School of Pharmacy at St. John Fisher College discovered their week of service on the Rosebud Reservation of South Dakota really does make a difference. Learn from their experience here! Just one week. Would that be enough time to truly have even a little impact on people’s lives […]