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  • VOLUNTEER YOUR PROFESSIONAL SKILLS ABROAD

The world over, your professional skills can be a lifeline for children and families living in poverty.  The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that malnourished and chronically ill children often are stunted, have difficulty learning, and struggle to get and stay well. Stunting is preventable.  In some of our host countries, the number of stunted children reaches 50 percent.

When you volunteer as a professional, you help provide sufficient food, nutrition, and health interventions for mothers, children and their families.

Help our resourceful partners with your skills in: obstetrics, maternal care, breastfeeding, mental health, early childhood intervention & family  education, preschool, primary & secondary education, nutrition, health & hygiene education, earthbox gardening, agronomy, nursing, disease prevention, drug intervention, building trades, business, marketing, computer literacy, cooperatives and related careers for community development.

 In just one or two weeks, you help maximize children’s learning capability and development.

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 developing. It’s also when their life-long physical health and intellectual potential can be enhanced.  All are invited to serve on our inclusive, team-oriented service programs.

You can be the change.

MAKE A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE

  • Food, Diet and Nutrition

  • Health Care and Education

  • General Education and Tutoring

  • Conversational English

  • Construction and Maintenance

  • Small Business Management

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Your role balances upon three critical touchpoints – clear and appropriate expectations about appropriate help, guidance from our local partners and team leaders, and expert program management by community development experts.   Global Volunteers has you covered!

First, our volunteer coordinator helps you choose the best program for your skills and schedule.  You “hit the ground running” with our pre-departure skills inventory, a “how to” volunteer manual, and project reports from previous teams.  Second, on site, you join a cohesive, project-oriented team assigned to sustainable work projects based upon your combined skills. Third, our proprietary team-building process maintains momentum.  Our team leaders are Global Volunteers staff and alumni, extensively trained in volunteer engagement, health and safety, host relations, community project management, and most important – delivering the 12 Essential Services  to children and families worldwide. Together with our dedicated and resourceful host partners, we leverage your expertise to the greatest benefit of the community.

We support and prepare you

  • Professional in-country staff and partners

  • On-site orientation and team-building sessions

  • 24-hour emergency phone contact

  • Emergency medical evacuation insurance

  • Language and cultural introductions

  • Professional skills and work project interest questionnaire

  • Program summary materials and reading lists

  • Conversational English Teaching Guide

  • Global Volunteering Manual

  • Essential Services Prospectus

  • Volunteer fundraising assistance

  • Hotel lodging in most partner communities

We Engage Your Professional Skills

  • FOOD, DIET AND NUTRITION

    Plant and maintain container gardens or community gardens. Provide nutrition education and teach healthy meal preparation in schools, clinics and community centers. Help build fuel-efficient stoves. Various project opportunities in Cuba, Peru, St. Lucia, and Tanzania.

  • HEALTH CARE AND EDUCATION

    Assignments may include peri-natal counseling, pediatric care, maternal heath and nutrition, mental wellness, breastfeeding support, physical therapy, diabetes screening and education, dental hygiene, proper hand-washing, first-aid training, disease prevention, HIV/AIDS & STD education, eye exams, blood pressure checks. Various project opportunities in Peru, and Tanzania.

  • GENERAL EDUCATION AND TUTORING

    Through directed play, social stimulation and support for children in schools, day care and early childhood education centers and children’s homes, you can reward and expand learning. Tutor students in basic classroom subjects including math, reading and literacy, science, computer skills, geography, music, sports, agriculture, and art. Demonstrate positive discipline as an alternative to corporal punishment for classroom management. Various project opportunities in the Cook Islands, Malaysia, Nepal, Peru, St. Lucia, and Tanzania.

  • CONVERSATIONAL ENGLISH

    Use your professional skills and native understanding of the language to assess students’ capabilities, practice pronunciation, teach English structure, explain idioms, create lively lessons, assist English teachers, and excite youth and adult students about learning English. We provide our Conversational English Teaching Guide with tested and effective activities for beginning, intermediate, and advanced English speakers. Various project opportunities in China, the Cook Islands, Cuba, Greece, Italy, Malaysia, Nepal, Peru, Poland, Tanzania, and Vietnam.

  • CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE

    Help build, repair and maintain schools, health clinics and community centers, water systems, athletic fields, school dormitories, libraries, and playgrounds. Use your trades skills in planning, drafting, masonry, electrical, plumbing, roofing, engineering, landscaping, carpentry, brick-laying, irrigation systems, and conservation. Various project opportunities in the Cook Islands, Cuba, Montana, Peru, St. Lucia, Texas, and Tanzania.

  • SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

    Work with families and community organizations to help improve trades and career opportunities, and help establish community cooperatives. Teach basic business skills, entrepreneurship, bookkeeping, sales and marketing, basic management, employment, market assessments, forecasting outputs and production, setting prices and community outreach. Help identify and produce crafts for an American market. Various project opportunities in Nepal, St. Lucia, and Tanzania.

“Thanks for giving us in the corporate world the opportunity to share the tremendous experience of forming our own teams! All of our expeditions have been “trips of a lifetime” for us. It’s a wonderful opportunity to experience a different people and culture, and to enjoy true service. These service experiences help move corporate teams from ‘good’ to ‘great.’ Our experiences were 22’s on a scale of 1 to 10 in measuring the value to The Prouty Project. If you take a trip with Global Volunteers anywhere they serve, I’ll guarantee you’ll learn something about yourself and your colleagues that you didn’t know before. Just do it!!”

“Both trips were great successes. The benefits started the day we signed up, and we returned with a new lens on our jobs and lives.  Serving together outside of our everyday work environment was a rare and unique opportunity. Global Volunteers’ Romania service program was a great match for our needs – working on the other side of the world in a setting with much different staff and equipment resources. There’s a saying, ‘I’m not the same person having seen the sun shine on the other side of the world.’ The value is exponential when you rally a group around serving with Global Volunteers!”

“Having volunteered with several different organizations in many countries over the past 15 years, I agree that there is a wide range of effectiveness and sustainability of their efforts.  However, my long-term commitment to Global Volunteers is largely due to the fact that they keep their eye on the (long-term) ball, and work with the communities they serve, not for them. They make every effort to leave a helpful, lasting footprint when they are not present, as well as to develop a sustainable, ongoing program.”

“We would be so excited for an expanded and continued relationship with Global Volunteers, and I’m already pushing for another week in Cuba with the organization. I was so impressed each day with every aspect of the opportunity! Thank you for your work to make this trip a success. It was a lot of hard work on everyone’s part, but having you on our side has been tremendous, and I’m so appreciative for all your answers and coordination and everything you did to ensure we had an amazing time in Cuba: thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“This was my fifth or sixth time doing international volunteer work, but it was the first time I really immersed myself in the culture. I usually go with other dentists, and we stay at deluxe tourist hotels and are transported to the clinic on first-class buses. This time, I wanted to really challenge myself, stay in the community, and mingle with the people.  I learned a lot about island culture, other dentists, local people and myself.  This experience re-lit some fires that had been out for a while. And it really opened up doors.”

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LEARN FROM OTHER VOLUNTEERING PROFESSIONALS

Volunteering professionals describe their service abroad experience:

We need you! Find out where and how you can help:


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Global Volunteers is a U.S. based NGO in the central time zone (UTC -6). Because tax-deductibility, visa requirements, and language proficiencies vary, please choose the country you’re inquiring from to enable us to provide you the most appropriate information.



Thank you for your interest in a development partnership with Global Volunteers. We're unable to expand our programs at this time. As our website portrays, our current service programs center around providing the 12 Essential Services for our Reaching Children's Potential Program. But for future reference, please send any information to: partnershiprequest@globalvolunteers.org


As a private, non-profit organization independent from government and religious funding, Global Volunteers’ programs are financed almost entirely by volunteer contributions. This is important because our community partners cannot afford the “open market” costs of the services and materials we provide. Your tax-deductible service program contribution pays your expenses in the partner community. These include your food, lodging, work site transportation, program materials, team leadership, emergency evacuation insurance, and administrative costs. In addition, we provide supplemental financing to help meet our host’s many, on-going and special needs.


While English fluency does not disqualify you from participating on any of our programs, Global Volunteers is a U.S based NGO with your teammates, training materials and other communications being conduced primarily in English.

We’re unable to provide any assistance in obtaining your passport or visa. You'll need a passport to travel abroad and for some countries, you’ll need a visa.  Please keep this in mind when planning your travel schedule. If you live outside the U.S., you may have additional restrictions for participating on U.S. programs.

To provide you with information to match your specific interests, please tell us a little about you:




Many employers help cover part of the service program contribution. Providing this information can help us determine if this is available to you.



Our volunteer coordinators are available from 8:30AM to 4:30PM Central Time and will email you during that time on the next business day. If you prefer, you may chat now, or call 651-407-6100 if you’re inquiring during office hours.

Please choose up to 4 program locations and projects that interest you.
















By providing my phone number to Global Volunteers, I agree and acknowledge that Global Volunteers may send text messages to my wireless phone number for any purpose. Message and data rates may apply. We will only send one SMS as a reply to you, and you will be able to opt-out by replying "STOP". For more information on how your data will be handled please visit https://support.8x8.com/business-phone/voice/work-sms/SMS_Campaign_Registration%3A_SMS_Usage_and_Content_Policies. No mobile information will be shared with third parties/affiliates for marketing/promotional purposes. All the above categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties.
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Global Volunteers
375 East Little Canada Road
St. Paul, MN 55117-1628 USA
(800) 487-1074 | toll-free
(651) 482-0915 | fax
globalvolunteers.org
email@globalvolunteers.org
Federal EIN: 36-3352680

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