Global Volunteers works in partnership with community leaders on genuine development programs, creating impact in the areas of health, nutrition and intellectual development.
Reflections by Emily, an India Global Volunteer, on the cumulative positive volunteer impact on students in Chennai. Before I made the decision to come to Chennai, India, I debated with myself over what my true volunteer impact would be in such a short period of time. I didn’t know if my time and effort volunteering […]
by Daniel Salazar, Global Volunteers Peru Country Manager. When you volunteer in Peru, you have the chance to significantly change a child’s life. It’s one thing to sight-see in Lima. But there is an opportunity to do more, to get to know the country, the stories, and also actually make a difference in a child’s […]
Global Volunteers’ Philosophy of Service guides team members on the principles of responsible volunteering. This alumni volunteer shares a practical example of how this works on site in Chennai, India and elsewhere around the world. By Fran, India Volunteer. At Assisi Illam, the daycare center in Chennai where we’re serving, we’ve just finished singing “Twinkle, Twinkle, […]
When Bud Philbrook and Michele Gran opted out of a honeymoon cruise to take a more meaningful trip, they stumbled onto a rewarding way to enrich their own lives and help thousands of children around the world. Instead of their planned cruise, Bud and Michele spent a week in a rural village in Guatemala. After the local newspaper wrote a story about their unusual honeymoon, people started contacting them asking how they could plan a similar trip.
This unconventional honeymoon led to Global Volunteers’ founding in 1984. Since then, Global Volunteers has engaged more than 32, 000 volunteers in over 200 communities. Watch the full honeymoon story on the Oprah Show…
The next step is to chat online with one of our Volunteer Coordinators. We’re ready to assist you with project descriptions, travel questions, registration guidance, and other program details.
A unique butterfly garden highlights our work in Costa Rica! You’re needed to help plant native species that attract butterflies, build walkways, lay gravel, and landscape the garden. Costa Rica’s Astounding Biodiversity While Costa Rica covers a mere 0.03% of the Earth’s land surface, it contains nearly 5% of all of the species of flora […]
The world over, your professional skills in early childhood education and healthcare volunteer programs abroad can be a lifeline for children and families living in poverty. We focus our development work on children in the first 1, 000 days of life – from pregnancy to their second birthday – because this is when their brains are […]
Being invited into the home of a community member while on a service program is an experience volunteers do not soon forget. Here, Ecuador volunteer Katie Leon reflects on the home visit her team had with Alexandra, a young mother in Calderón. A certain amount of apprehension among volunteers about being invited into a stranger’s […]
On the barren hillsides of Alto Progres, Peru, you can magnify your volunteer efforts by assisting families in need! Within the district of Pamplona – one of 150 destitute communities districts of Lima – Alto Progreso’s 350 families survive amidst extreme living conditions. Within a sea of more than one million people, children and youth grow up with intermittent electricity, no […]
When I asked the community of Alto Progreso what project they needed help with and they replied a wall, I honestly was a little scared. I knew they meant a 40-meter-long wall. I knew they had no machinery whatsoever. I knew it would mean a lot of sweat. But I also knew of the importance of […]
And so we finally started our service program in Alto Progreso. Alto Progreso is a struggling community of about 350 families in Pamplona Alta, in the barren hillsides of Lima. Sherry was our first volunteer for the job. Upon arrival, we did not know how things would turn up, but we had much excitement and expectation. […]