Community Partner since 2004.
Longtime friends Urvi Doshi and Suma Putcha have always been involved as volunteers within their local community in Allen, Texas. Then they decided they wanted to broaden their own and their teenage daughters’ horizons by volunteering internationally. Urvi and Maya (age 17) and Suma and Avani (age 18) spent a week serving with Global Volunteers […]
In this guest post, Peru volunteer Mark Bierbaum takes us on his journey of discovery while volunteering at a children’s home in Ancón in northern Lima. Mark volunteered with his wife, Maggie, and their 17-year-old son, Michael, at Sagrada Familia in Ancón in northern Lima. In this essay, he describes his nervousness about his remedial […]
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, […]
Global Volunteers Alumna Maggi Gallaher said retirement has liberated her to indulge her appetite for volunteering. For her fourth service program, she served at Sagrada Familia, a community in Peru serving 1,400 at-risk children, from one month to 17 years. The community shelters about 600 homeless and abandoned children and provides nutrition, healthcare and education. […]
Paula is a 13-year-old young woman living at Sagrada Familia, a Global Volunteers’ community partner, in Ventanilla, one of Peru’s poorest urban communities near the capital city of Lima. During the summer months (December through February), Sagrada Familia quiets down, with only the resident children attending sessions at the school, eating in the dining hall, […]
Jack Bryan, Global Volunteers Digital Media Coordinator, said he learned a lesson on “mothering” in Peru he couldn’t have learned anywhere else. Read his compelling story here: “All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.” Abraham Lincoln A growing body of scientific evidence reveals the extent that a mother’s […]
A dedicated Global Volunteer, Thomasina Tafur is once again getting ready to pack her bags. But, before she did, she shared her story about working at Sagrada Familia outside Lima. It’s here, she said, where she found a clear commonality with the children she worked with – especially “helping young people maneuver through their life’s […]
Forty years ago, Laura Tomlinson and Kim Berge worked together in Colorado Springs. They parted ways soon after college to pursue their careers – Kim attended a Physician Assistant program in CT and Laura pursued a graduate degree in Education in CA. They never lived in the same town again. Each got married, raised their own families, established […]
The first four months of our new partnership with Sagrada Familia in Ventanilla, Peru has enabled volunteers to integrate fully into the daily rhythms and activities of the children’s lives. From a collection of team journal excerpts, a picture emerges of the opportunities for leaving your mark on this special part of the world. Message […]