What’s more meaningful than a family volunteering together? Vacation together and help improve the world. Work with other family volunteers on important community projects for one or two weeks. See how meaningful your family vacation can be when you volunteer in another culture.
On a previous post, Mari described how volunteering with adult children can enhance the service experience. Here she talks about the highlights of volunteering as a family in Cuba – Mari, her sons Sy and Kole, and girlfriend Mary. As only the second group to volunteer in Havana, the structure for our work developed over the […]
Summer Family Volunteering in Peru – Sydney Hill and her new friends in Alto Progreso. The teens shared an interest in soccer. The children welcomed hugs and games just as kids everywhere do. Neighbors worked together to build a stairway for safety and access on the steep cliff. At the conclusion of their two-week project, they […]
Mari had volunteered before, but never with her adult children. Here she tells us about her experience volunteering with adult children in Cuba. My husband and I live in the same town as our two adult sons, who attend a state university. We told them we’d give them an out-of-state experience at in-state prices, so […]
Global Volunteers salutes Andy, Lucy, Anna and Alice Kligerman, who have served twice as a family on the island of Crete, in Greece, where they taught conversational English to summer camp students. It is obvious they made learning productive and fun for their students and each other! Andy writes: “We selected the teaching program in Crete, because […]
by Barbara Gironda Marcel Proust said, “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes.” I thought of these words often as I looked at the beautiful Montana Mountains. It has been 27 years since I ventured to Glacier National Park as a recent college graduate, eager to start […]
Journal entry by Rechelle, Cuba Global Volunteer, who served with her teenage daughter Kayla: Day three in Cuba, it’s Monday – our first day of service, and what an experience! My daughter Kayla and I spent the morning painting a door at Eduardo’s church. The warmth and welcoming we received from the keepers of the […]
Reflections by Jody, on volunteering at PPA, Peru’s largest children’s home. Today was our first official day on the job at PPA (Puericultorio Perez Aranibar) for my husband David and me – and the rest of our team. Personally, the enormity of the facility itself, coupled with the beautiful architecture and the state of disrepair was somewhat overwhelming. […]
by Fran Johansen (middle-right in the photo) and her granddaughter Betz Mayer (right in the photo) A day at Villa “Cztery Pory Roku” in Zakopane dawned like most days for us with wisps of mist wrapping around mountains and promises of another wonderful day of building English language skills for the delightful students at the summer English […]
Amy Kleissler and her son Jack said volunteering together in Tanzania was a highlight of their year. This was the second program for Amy, who has taken four sons to Tanzania during summer vacation. She talks about the “immeasurable value” of experiencing this culture with her children, and the gifts of knowledge and insight the […]
When 14-year-old Cassi Kay volunteered in Romania with her grandmother, Shirley and Aunt Colleen, she wasn’t aware how that experience would impact her future education. Her essay, “My Epiphany, “ submitted with six college applications, helped secure six admissions. Here is Cassi’s story: “I was fourteen when I discovered what so many search for their […]