Current News, Field Reports and Volunteer Voices

Several times each week, we post stories about work we do in our host communities – through the voices of our partners, volunteers, and those we serve. Subscribe using the form below to receive updates in your inbox when they’re published. If you’re looking for deeper insight into service in a specific country, on a particular type of project, how you can share your unique skills or volunteering as a family or a group, you can find a wealth of information here. Use the categories next to the posts here or on any page (below right column) to explore more stories that suit your interests.

We welcome your ideas on topics you’d like to see here. Please contact us at marketing@globalvolunteers.org. Enjoy our blog!

Reaching Children's Potential, Volunteer Voices

Inspirational Volunteer Video from Romania

You may never again feel so appreciated after volunteering with the infants and toddlers in the children's ward of Municipal Hospital in Barlad. The children with sight or hearing impairments or mental disabilities such as autism, Down syndrome…

Pongal O Pongal

Volunteer Voices

Playtime in Romania

We have a new child, Emma, who I am so happy to meet after seeing pictures and hearing about her. Unfortunately, she has a virus and is in isolation for a few days. We've gone in to visit her but can't pick her up or get too close. Her…

Pongal O Pongal

News and Updates Cuba

“Be an Agent for Peace and Justice”

The direct flight from Miami to Havana is disarmingly brief, as I discovered during my first trip there on a Global Volunteers People-to-People program in 2012. After our ascent, we enjoyed just a few minutes at "cruising altitude" before…

Pongal O Pongal

News and Updates Cuba

New Service Program Announced!

We're thrilled to announce that beginning in May, Global Volunteers will send volunteer teams on two-week service programs to assist children and families in Ciego de Avila, a rural community in the island’s interior, on projects for conversational…

Pongal O Pongal

News and Updates Cuba

New Opportunities for Americans in Cuba!

In December, President Obama announced a series of actions aimed at easing travel and trade restrictions between the United States and Cuba. With these changes, Global Volunteers is prepared to begin a new relationship with our community partners…

Pongal O Pongal

Volunteer Voices Cuba

“I Can’t Wait to Return”

In December, when President Obama discussed ending an outdated foreign policy with Cuba, all my family and friends had an opinion. But not one of them had actually spoken to anyone living in Cuba under Castro's regime. I spent a week…

Pongal O Pongal

Cultures and Traditions

Pongal O Pongal

Pongal is the Harvest festival celebrated in the state of Tamilnadu and also by the Tamil people from all around the world. The festival is celebrated in the month of January for 4 days between January 14th - January 17th. It is mostly celebrated…

Pongal O Pongal

Volunteer Voices Cuba

54 Minute Flight From Home

As I live in Florida, I feel as if I my 2013 journey to Cuba with Global Volunteers was an homage to my Cuban American friends and colleagues. Cuba is beautiful, deteriorating, and complex. The people are warm and welcoming. Everyone dances,…

Pongal O Pongal

Cultures and Traditions Peru

New Year’s in Lima

Many say Lima is like London. That is, Lima is usually foggy. But during the days after New Year’s celebration, the skies of Lima look even foggier as clouds of smoke and the smell of powder fill the skies. Just as at Christmas, Peruvians…

Pongal O Pongal

Volunteer Voices Cuba

Feel at Home in Cuba

Cuba has a magnetic pull for me....I just returned from my 6th (or maybe 7th) trip to Cuba. Our Cuban friends say: "We've never met a stranger, " and that is exactly how you feel the moment you arrive in the country. They greet us with…

Pongal O Pongal

Cultures and Traditions Cuba

American Classic Cars as Taxi Cabs in Cuba

In Cuba restored American classic cars - Chevy convertibles from the 50s and 60s - are taxi cabs. Most are relics of the U.S. businesses on the island in the 1950s under the Fulgencio Batista regime before Fidel Castro came to power in 1959.…

Pongal O Pongal

Reaching Children's Potential, Volunteer Voices

Back to India, Back to my Second Home

Team Journal Entry from January 7, 2015: Back to India, back to feeling at home and at peace. I worship every moment spent with the children and was rejuvenated again this morning at Little Angel's Early Intervention Center. Luckily,…