Volunteering

Friends of the Orphans: Raising Children, Transforming Lives

Two Girls

Image source: Friendsoftheorphans.org

Of all the many suffering people in the world, there are none more helpless than the children. Children often suffer the brunt of hardship. They can’t protect themselves. They can’t strike out on their own. They are dependent on the care of their parents and guardians—people who love them and look out for them—but these guardians are in peril too. So many people are dying preventable deaths around the world—in wars, from drought or famine, and from disease. They are dying young, when they still have young families to support. They are leaving homeless, helpless kids to fend for themselves in an impossibly difficult world. Some of these kids will die. Some of them will join gangs of other homeless, parentless children. Some will suffer abuse and torment at the hands of adults. And some, the lucky few, will find their way to a well-run orphanage with the best interests of the children at heart.

Volunteer Travel: Families Navigate the New Mainstream

Family Volunteering

Image source: Handsonblog.org

Just a few short years ago, volunteering with your family may have sounded like a strange, foreign concept. There have always been outgoing families, ready for adventure. But in the mainstream culture, volunteer vacations weren’t something people did very often. Volunteering has traditionally been under the purview of the young and unattached. The stereotype was of the hippie explorer, wide-eyed and idealistic, with his backpack and bare feet. It was the PeaceCorps—more of a commitment than a discreet project—a two-year foray into a career of service, not a two week vacation with family. But today, that has all changed, and in a big way. Mainstream media outlets are touting the benefits of family volunteering, and families are listening. It’s a great time to have kids. Organizations are catering to young families too—families with five and six-year-olds, kids whose lives can be forever altered by experiencing new cultures in new places.

Volunteer and Explore with Geovisions

Geovisions South Africa

Image source: Geovisions.org

It’s been a while since I wrote about a volunteer organization on the business side of the volunteering equation. The for-profit volunteer industry is one of the main engines driving our global increase in volunteer travel. These are travel companies that provide a vital service for communities in need while they offer great travel and volunteering adventures to their customers. The links between tourism and volunteering continue to blur as itineraries increasingly include volunteering stints amidst sightseeing and outdoor adventure. Often volunteering opportunities are half-time and include room and board, permitting a much more long-term vacation than would otherwise be possible.

Be the Change You Want to See With ProWorld

ProWorld Volunteer in Cape Town

Image source: Proworldvolunteers.org

In America, we love the quick fix. We are bombarded by advertising campaigns designed to appeal to our short-term thinking. Lose 14 pounds in 2 weeks! Detoxify your body in 3 days! Take this pill to cure every malady under the sun! It’s natural to want our problems to melt away while we sleep—to disappear as apparitions on the wind because we ate acai berry, took a vitamin, or practiced positive thinking. Of course, deep inside we all know the truth: that real, meaningful, sustained change takes hard work and time. The equation is no different on a larger scale. The world’s problems are maddeningly complex. They’re the product of centuries of conflict, many of which were born of deep-seated philosophical differences. Cultures have developed within the framework of war, suffering, corruption, poverty, and loss. Changing something so vast, something with such a complicated and firm foundation must, of necessity, take great effort.