International Partner Stories

Our international partners accomplish amazing things with volunteers. Read their stories.

Volunteer assistance is critical to enabling our international partners to create change in their communities. Many of them have shared the work they were able to accomplish with the help of international volunteers. Read their stories below. 

 

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The Language of Collaboration

October 04, 2011

Global Journal Project, United States

The following article appears in Global Vantage, Issue 2, released in Spring 2011.The Language of CollaborationBy Stephanie Dawes, with Ryan SarafoleanPassionate Curiosity. That was my driver when I embraced representing Kibera Girls Soccer Academy in the Global Journal Project—this collaborative, perspective-sharing, student-led effort.I carried the same motivation into the Pacific Ridge School (PRS) conference room on a Saturday morning for the first Leadership Summit, attended by faculty or student representatives from all three schools. I was already supportive of the vision, one that was passionate about empowering the student voice and fostered curiosity about cross-cultural perspectives—a vision that designed a journal and raised funds to support projects that address needs in each partnering school community. Because of my dedication to the evolving vision of the project, it...

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Are you considering volunteer work in Argentina? Here’s four takes on the benefits of it

October 03, 2011

Voluntario Global, Argentina

What is to gain, who are the recipients, and how is it done?By Lisa Andersen and Robert Wake-WalkerTuesday the 27th September 2011 was World Tourism Day, so therefore we have spent the week reflecting upon the subject, and want to share our thoughts with you. We talked to different people at different levels within the field of responsible tourism, in order to gain a wider, more thorough perspective on the matter and on the issues. What isresponsible tourism, and what is to be gained and learned from it? Is this idea of learning the same both at the top and at the bottom? In order to find answers to all of our questions, we talked to the founder of the Responsible Tourism Network in Argentina, to the founder of...

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Combating Poverty through Education

October 02, 2011

HOPE Ofiriha, Norway

Omilling’s former child-soldier problem is a complicated one!Astrid Wang and Lunde Arneberg from the Oslo School of Architecture & Design are returning to Omilling to construct Mario primary school in November. The plan A – is to build one classroom, girl-pit latrine, and a teacher’s house. They are busy re-designing the school’s structure to match village’s standard.Fighting against decades of marginalization and intense state of poverty that spawn the practice, it is sometimes hard to imagine there is a way to help. Funding school building may seem like a small thing to do when thousands of children are living in such a hard conditions, but this school provide more than an education. It provides hope, dignity, and a sense of well-being. But most of all, it brings the new-beginning...

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Viva Huarmey Makes a Positive Impact

September 30, 2011

Viva Huarmey, Inc, Peru

What we have accomplished with your donations for Elsa is a positive step in the right direction. Because of how Elsa's twin boys came into the world, the biological father did not want to claim them. Unfortunately, they could not enter school. With your donations, Viva Huarmey paid a lawyer to give two last names to the twins so that they could enter school. Below is the official document that declares two last names for Elsa's boys. The document has poor lighting because it was taken when the sun went down. Sadly, Elsa's family have no lights or running water in the home. A flashlight illuminated the document.Thank you for your donations and volunteering your time. Keep it coming! We are changing lives, one family at a time!Viva Huarmey Team...

Name Change Add For Elsa's Boys

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Volunteers Shop For a Cause

September 30, 2011

Viva Huarmey, Inc, Peru

Some of our volunteers got together and went shopping for school supplies for Elsa's boys.  It is important that children have school supplies so that their poverty will not be a stigma upon them in school, making learning more difficult.  Your donations allowed Elsa's boys to confidently enter their classroom with a new name, and new school supplies.Here is a letter from one of our volunteers who delivered the supplies to Elsa and her twins:*Letter has been edited to protect volunteer identitiesI can not begin to express how full my heart is having delivered the gifts of school items to Elsa and her 2 boys. The angels are having a party to celebrate the happiness and joy that you have brought the family.Alvaro was so sweet, he put his rucksack...

Elsa, the boys, and their school supplies.
Putting on their book bags.
Elsa and the twins- Alvaro and Diego

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Los Ninos, El Futuro..Sports Day

September 28, 2011

Changes for New Hope, Peru

   Changes for New Hope has accomplished many of our goals this year, and there is still time left to accomplish even more. One of the things that hasn't happened until this past Sunday was to have all the groups of children in our project meet each other. They knew there were other groups and they were curious to meet them. Katherine, our director, had a plan to develop a Sports Day event for all the children to meet, get to know each other and participate in an event of sports activities.     She soon realized it was going to require more than just stuffing 90 kids into a combie, (a minivan used as busses here in Huaraz) drive to a field and roll out a soccer ball. The event began...

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Stephanie's blog, working at PEP

September 27, 2011

Honduras Child Alliance, Honduras

Here is a blog from one of our volunteers who worked at PEP (otherwise known as the Porvenir English Project.)  PEP provides a free English program to elementary age children in our community of El Porvenir.   Starting in February of 2012, we will be adding PEP-Extensions to the project which means that our volunteers will bring the PEP program to some of the public schools in the community and so we will be reaching children who would not ypically be able to attend.  Note that the PEP program is totally free to the children who attend and we now even provide a snack!http://95daysinhonduras.blogspot.com/2011_04_01_archive.html ...

PEP-Extension at Marco Aurelio School

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Photo exhibition by La Boca children

September 26, 2011

Voluntario Global, Argentina

We went in a big group, everyone from the VG house, and a couple of people also working for Voluntario Global, but who are living elsewhere. Everyone is looking forward to the exhibition. It is getting dark as we arrive. We enter the hall, greet whoever is sitting there, and hurry upstairs where the action is taking place. We are at the photo exhibition, where the artists are children and the inspiration their own home – La Boca neighbourhood.As we enter the room, there is a feeling of anticipation. Children are running everywhere, not considering the seriousness of being an artist. We are introduced to the exhibition by little pieces of text explaining the ideas behind the work in the words of the children, and showing a slightly more thoughtful...

Community Center Los Pibes

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Why I Volunteer

September 26, 2011

Compassionate Journeys, Ghana

The first time I cried was about two weeks into my first trip to Ghana. I was teaching in an orphanage, and I'd arrived full of hope and confidence, with all kinds of warm, fuzzy feelings about helping others and making a difference.After days of eagerly reporting to my job and spending long hours sweating and stumbling through lessons in a concrete classroom next to the kitchen, where an open fire on the floor heated up the building like a brick oven, I realized that what I thought I knew about life, poverty, children and human suffering really amounted to less than the tiny sliver of chalk I was sharing with two other teachers.I grew to love my students, and in doing so, I began to learn about their lives....

Amanda, Samuel, Abigail and Charles - October 2009

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City Farm, Chicago

September 23, 2011

Compass Green, United States

Compass Green made its way to Chicago’s City Farm this weekend. Check out the photos below! We just arrived back in Brooklyn to prepare for the Right2Know march and an October packed full of events.Check out the Right2Know march website and show your support!More stories to come shortly... 

City Farm, Chicago

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