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Empowering Young People With Aldeas de Paz

Aldeas de Paz

Image source: Jardinesdeacuario.blogspot.com

Aldeas de Paz is a Venezuelan NGO with a history of inspired service. In 1995 a German entrepreneur named Manfred Mönninghoff was volunteering on a humanitarian project in Merida, Venezuela. The project was focused on integrating street children and at risk youth into more stable environments via school, community projects, and foster families. It was a grassroots effort, as so many humanitarian projects are, and it inspired Mönninghoff to do more, to dedicate his life (and his life savings) to the service of children with an organization dedicated to their care. In 2001, he formed Fundación Aldeas de Paz, a volunteer-based NGO in Caracas. Today, that NGO is based in Santa Elena, a gold and diamonds mining town in the heart of the remote Canaima National Park, on the border with Brazil and Guyana. The location is isolated, beautiful, and culturally and ecologically important.

Honeymoon Volunteering: One Couple’s Story

A Volunteer Couple (this is not Jane and Travis)

Image source: Worldendeavors.com

My friends, Jane and Travis, just got married. Initially, they were planning on a cruise in the Caribbean for their honeymoon. They’ve never been on one and Jane thought it would be the best of both worlds: legitimately fun and kitschily ironic. Travis was on board (so to speak) but he had reservations. He is a community activist in our city and he kept worrying that a cruise was just too wasteful, predictable, and commercial. I agreed with Travis but since it wasn’t my honeymoon I stayed out of it. Then I remembered: they’d never been on a cruise before! I, on the other hand, have been on several. Each one was a family vacation, paid for by my grandparents, and each one seemed more quintessentially American than the last. The ships were like giant malls complete with expensive cocktail bars, clothing shops, and fake plants. Sure, the accommodations were comfortable but it all felt so generic, so spring break, if you know what I mean. My experiences have left me rather jaded about the whole cruise thing and I didn’t want my friends to be disappointed. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I had to say something.

G.R.A.C.E: Helping Children and the Elderly in Ghana

School Children in Ghana

Image source: Blog.er-d.org

Many of the volunteer organizations that are active today are concerned with a variety of projects in a variety of places. In many cases, this is because they want to appeal to a variety of volunteers. Indeed, volunteering with a large organization like Cross-Cultural Solutions or Habitat for Humanity means you have a lot of choices about where you go and what you do. You can volunteer with the same organization many times and each time, work with a different community on a different project. I think this does appeal to volunteers and I understand why. But there is also something to be said for the focused organization with a single community in mind. Focused organizations put down roots in one place. They have lasting relationships with local people and they do sustainable work that builds over time. Volunteering with an organization like this means you get to participate in enduring change. You get to see how that change has affected children, children who are now thriving adults. You witness the good an organization can do in ten or twenty years. I think, of necessity, this is missing from a lot of volunteer opportunities and I think seeing this kind of change can really inspire in a way that more transient projects just can’t.

Go Abroad: Helping Students Volunteer

Students Studying Abroad

Image source: Studyabroad.uark.edu

Every year, thousands (maybe even millions) of students decide to volunteer abroad. They do it for many reasons—they’re not ready for college, their families needs time to save money, they’re interested in studying abroad, or they simply want to give back. Whatever the reasons, all of these young people need help finding the right opportunities. Some of them want to study while others simply want to live in a new place and to experience a foreign culture. There is nothing more important during this time in a person’s life than finding a good match. I firmly believe that traveling is a critical part of anyone’s education and traveling alone as a young person is transformative. For many, it’s the first time they will be independent, learning how to navigate a new place with a foreign language. Young people have different needs than adults. They may need guidance—program personnel they can rely on for advice or a homestay family they can go to for emotional support. Each young person has unique needs and if these needs are met in an international volunteer context, each young person can thrive.

NOAA: Research, Conservation, and Education

Breaching Humpback

Image source: Bigsurcalifornia.org

When I was a little girl (like many dreamy-eyed little girls) I wanted to be a marine biologist. I was fascinated by whales: their enormous bodies, buoyed by undulating ocean currents; their ultrasonic songs, traveling hundreds of miles through the water like whispers with wings; and their mysterious lives, hidden from the prying eyes of researchers, lived deep beneath the shimmering surface. To me, nothing was more beautiful, more magical, or more exciting. Then I learned about whaling and the bloody history of commerce on the open water. I learned about strandings, the result of sonic pollution, and saw pictures in the newspaper of hundreds of glorious humpbacks drying to dust in the noon sun.