In 2011, the United Nations declared October 11th as the International Day of the Girl Child. Its mission is “to help galvanize worldwide enthusiasm for goals to better girls’ lives, providing an opportunity for them to show leadership and reach their full potential.” It’s a day when humanitarians worldwide unite under the same goal to highlight, discuss, and take […]
Ethical volunteer vacations combine purposeful service with cultural travel – to the ultimate benefit of local children and families. Global Volunteers meets 10 of 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in structuring programs respecting and assisting local people who invite our volunteers into their communities. Our philosophy of service requires serving where we’ve been invited, working […]
by Mindy Lull, Professor at Wegmans School of Pharmacy Three years ago, I had a wild idea to find a service trip in the United States where I could take a group of my students to experience a new culture, help a community in need, and grow together as teammates. I’ve traveled on service trips […]
by Tracy Heaberlin Have you ever googled “travel service babies?” I did about 10 years ago, and it led me to Global Volunteers. Working as a health-care provider, I was interested in spending some of my vacation time engaging in short-term volunteerism. Global Volunteers helps provide short-term volunteers on long-term service projects to create, nurture, […]
In the years since Ruth Curran first served as a volunteer in St. Lucia, she accepted a position on our Board of Directors, and thereafter joined our staff as Director of Partnerships. As an author, blogger and organizational behaviorist, Ruth believes things happen for a reason. For instance, she believes the understanding seized from her life-changing […]
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. […]
Message of the Day – Wherever the art of medicine is loved, there is also a love of humanity. – Hippocrates I got to see the love of medicine and humanity today when Stephen took me to St. Thomas Hospital. It was a substitute for my daily visit to Assisi Illam, and while I missed […]
Day 10: Last day of our volunteer experience We were off in the morning through the crazy hectic traffic in Lima and arrived at our one-day experience to teach children coloring, painting, and drawing. We had a confidence in our ability to interact with children because each of us was an involved mother and we […]
This is simply an amazing experience for my daughter and for me. I’m profoundly appreciative that I had the opportunity to do some work related to psychiatry (although I still would have been happy to paint fences!). The treatment program where I did an in-service with the staff on debriefing is really pretty amazing. They were remarkably receptive, […]
by Blackfeet Reservation Volunteer Kelsey It so happened that the morning I wake up with a sore throat and stuffy nose is the same day we go visit the Blackfeet “medicine woman” in Browning. But more about that later. I slowly got out of bed, falling a few steps behind the rest of the […]