Community Partner since 2018.
A measure of success for Global Volunteers is supporting local efforts so much that volunteers either are no longer needed, or are assigned to ever-expanding community projects. By avoiding creating dependency, we work so that our partners are self-sufficient and local projects are sustainable. An essential step towards achieving this goal is building local capacity. […]
Working toward self-sufficiency is related to many of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, and is a baseline criterion of Global Volunteers’ service programs. This post illuminates how volunteers assist two of our community partners in Asia work to elevate local people’s capacity and confidence to become agents of their own progress. When volunteers teach conversational […]
Global Volunteers promotes children’s well-being around the world in many different ways so they can realize their full potential. This third post in a series about child development projects examines how brain development enhances cognitive ability, and how our work contributes to healthy brain development for children in partner communities. Although the brain’s wiring is […]
Among all Global Volunteers’ partner communities, struggle is a common thread. Our inspired and resourceful partners rise to leadership positions with their vision of opportunities that may not be obvious or seemingly attainable to others. In this second interview with Global Volunteers’ partner and consultant in Kathmandu, Nepal, Buddhi Man Shrestha describes how overcoming hardship […]
As we all confront new questions and conflicts each day about our safety, health and economic security during the pandemic, we appreciate our inspired partners around the world. Every Global Volunteers development partnership has its own origin story and offers its unique inspiration. And, local community leaders personally have overcome threats to their own peace […]
Few global events ever impact every country simultaneously as COVID-19 has. Besides its devastating consequences for the health and finances of millions of people around the world, the pandemic also disrupted their education. How have schools in our partner communities been affected? How have they’ve been able to cope with the challenges, and what does […]
Buddhi Man Seresta, founder of Papa’s House orphanage and pastor of Fresh Fire Church in Kathmandu, had a difficult time growing up without his father. Yet, the love and care he received from his mother impressed on him his advantages – which thousands of children without parents lacked. As he grew up, he transformed his […]
Dipesh Khadka (second from right) and his family with Global Volunteer George Hayes (third from left). When the nation-wide lock-down was abruptly declared in the early hours of March 24 to combat COVID-19, Dipesh Khadka and his family were caught unprepared. Since then, Dipesh – one of Global Volunteers’ community partners in Nepal – his […]
Two-time Global Volunteer Pastor Debbie Michaels says she journeyed to Nepal “to make the world a better place.” She has some experience with that. With her focus on retreat ministry occupationally, her “com-passion” was evident as a Tanzania volunteer in 2016, and again recently in Kathmandu. Always a seeker, Debbie admits she was uncertain what […]
Although the caste system is officially banned in Nepal, its legacy and lingering prejudices have greatly damaged women of lower status over decades. The cumulative effects are daunting. Facing institutionalized inequalities that are nearly possible to overcome, women of oppressed ethnic groups often have lived outside village boundaries, and are prevented from walking through the […]