Stories from students, retirees, working professionals, couples, families, groups, solo travelers, first-time volunteers, volunteer veterans and everyone in-between from more than 20 countries around the world. Learn about your favorite country in their own words.
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 […]
Seven–time Global Volunteer and Colorado retiree Rene Moquin employed his legendary optimism and enthusiasm to captivate students at Nguyen Binh Khiem School (NBK) in Hanoi, Vietnam. Through skits, music and personal charm, he urges them to “dream of new possibilities.” In these journal entries, Rene reflects on his singular experience and offers personal insight to […]
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 journal entry from her third day in service, Ecuador volunteer Ann Hite reflects on what the young children at an early childhood development center on the outskirts of Quito have taught her while she has played with and taken care of them. Ann served at a center that feeds and educates 60 children […]
Peggy and Bud Cope volunteered in Greece with their three children, Ellie, Adam, and Evan, after having a year that could’ve torn them apart, both physically and emotionally. Peggy had the feeling that the only hope her family had to heal and come together was if they did something meaningful together. So Peggy and her […]
The desire to explore and travel while giving back led Jasmine Hooper, a 30-something African-American and Guamanian from Texas, to join Global Volunteers in a service program in Tanzania. During her service, Jasmine taught conversational English, conducted workshops and home visits, and assisted in the local clinic. In this guest post, Jasmine reflects on how […]
In this guest post, Peru volunteer Mark Bierbaum takes us on a journey to a caring community, Sagrada Familia, sheltering at-risk children in Ventanilla outside Lima. He writes about volunteering with his wife, Maggie, and their 17-year-old son, Michael, his nervousness about using his remedial Spanish skills, and his path to communicating cross-culturally with the […]
Elizabeth Wang, Senior Marketing Product Manager at Google, sought both a different way to travel and a meaningful way to give back to the global community. After reviewing several organizations online, Elizabeth selected Global Volunteers’ Vietnam service program. She served in Hanoi at Blind-Link, a non-profit organization which trains visually impaired adults in massage therapy […]
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 […]
Nathalie Oestmann and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Anna, decided to volunteer in Tanzania to learn about a new culture and work on meaningful service projects. Nathalie and Anna traveled from London to Ipalamwa, Tanzania in July of 2019. Nathalie said, “I came to Global Volunteers to do humanitarian work in a country different from those I […]