Beyond the Millennium Development Goals

Global Volunteers has offered volunteer assistance and project funding for over 25 years on the most appropriate community level to strengthen our host partners' inherent capacities for self-sufficiency and human development. Our contributions encompass these broad areas of need:

Vulnerable child care	English skills instruction	Community infrastructure
Our volunteers are a lifeline for at-risk children in host communities worldwide. Many who are orphaned, abandoned, or disabled are also homeless. Most live with families too impoverished to provide sufficient food, clothing, and medicine. An example of the significance of Global Volunteers’ work worldwide: in 2008, Global Volunteers contributed 9,400 hours of care for at-risk children in Romania alone. This included direct assistance feeding, bathing, diapering, stimulating and comforting vulnerable babies and toddlers under age 3.
English has become the international language of technology, commerce and opportunity. Our volunteers teach English to students, adults and teachers worldwide. Each year of service builds upon the previous one. Over time, students in some rural communities have obtained more than two decades of exposure to native English instruction – virtually unavailable any other way. In this way, each volunteer makes a lasting investment in the English language literacy of the host community. For instance, Global Volunteers’ 20-year partnership with hosts in Siedlce, Poland has provided approximately 200,640 hours of English language instruction in over 100 classrooms and offices – impacting more than 10,000 adult, secondary and primary school students.
Global Volunteers began in 1984 with simple labor projects – typically digging latrines, laying water pipe and building community structures. Twenty-five years later, community infrastructure remains a part of our work in ten countries. For instance, in 2004 and 2005, Global Volunteers teams helped finance and construct a “state-of-the-art” school in rural An Shang, China. In 2008 and 2009, Global Volunteers teams helped build a community library in Senchi Ferry Ghana, funded primarily by volunteer donations. And since 1987, in Pommern, Tanzania, volunteer teams have built lavatories, classrooms, dormitories and a school library.
Health care assistance	Elder support and care	Classroom assistance
Access to basic medical services in developing communities is often very restricted. For 25 years, our volunteers have augmented available medical services and assisted with basic procedures. Health care students and professionals on Global Volunteers teams have helped perform pre-natal exams, well-baby checks, blood pressure and diabetes checks, tooth extractions, eye exams and assisted with physical rehabilitation, immunizations, and outreach in remote areas. For example, in Ghana alone, in 2008, Global Volunteers health care volunteers tended to 1,272 children and adults requiring basic medical interventions and preventative care.
Seniors in host communities can be among the most impoverished and vulnerable residents. Global Volunteers teams are sometimes asked to contribute to projects providing nurturing and stimulation to community elders. For instance, in Browning, Montana, volunteers have entertained and interacted at the Blackfeet Tribal Care Center and helped serve meals at Eagle Shield Assisted Living on more than 60 teams since 1999, providing a contribution of more than 8,000 hours of nurturing and care.
In most of the economically challenged parts of the world, parents often do not have enough time or applicable skills to assist their children with school work. Yet, these children of poverty deserve direction and the extra attention our volunteers provide both in the classroom and in after-school tutoring sessions. Help with math, science or English homework is invaluable to those students. For instance, in the Cook Islands, volunteers on selected teams in 2007 and 2008 helped develop curricula for improved English pronunciation, and assisted with lesson reviews and drills on classroom subjects. On some service programs, up to 10 hours a week per volunteer are dedicated to concentrated assistance in this way.
Capacity building	Early childhood support	Environmental protection
Global Volunteers team members assist local entrepreneurs, community leaders, youth and women’s groups on skills-building in many areas: small-business management, micro-finance, sales and marketing, internet research, bookkeeping, records management, inventory control, workplace safety, market development and promotion, and related capacities. For instance, Global Volunteers teams have assisted the women of Malungeni, South Africa resume a sewing center and update plans for a community-based baking business.
All Global Volunteers service programs center around assistance to host communities’ most vulnerable populations – children – sometimes disabled or abandoned. Intervention at an early age can make the difference between a child’s self-reliance or a life of poverty. For instance, in Peru, volunteers contribute between 30 and 40 hours per week on educational and recreational activities with toddlers and pre-schoolers, investing in their self-esteem, physical capabilities and long-term educational development.
A community’s relationship with the natural environment reflects a part of a society’s culture. For instance, "Pura vida" - Costa Ricans' traditional greeting which is literally translated "pure life" - means to walk lightly and respect the earth. Since our partnership began in the villages of Monteverde in 1992, Global Volunteers teams have helped restore acres of the cloud forest by building trails and rain shelters, assisted with coffee harvests, biological fertilizer production, and planting community gardens.
All Global Volunteers partnerships center on services to assist children and families at risk. For instance, at the "Caritas" Institute in Poland, volunteers teach English, assist in art classes, play games, assist with therapeutic activities and provide much-needed companionship to adults with physical or mental disabilities. Between 1999 and 2001, Global Volunteers also attended to physically and mentally handicapped students in classrooms, during meals, and at after-school activities at a boarding school for mentally and physically handicapped children in Siedlce, Poland. Meanwhile, in Costa Rica, some teams work at APAPNEM - Asociacion Para Adultos Mayores y Necesidades Especiales de Monteverde – to provide work opportunities for the senior and special needs population.
English teachers in Global Volunteers’ host communities greatly improve their skills through intensive language practice with native English-speaking volunteer tutors. Our specialized English classes provide teachers with knowledge and confidence they confer to their students. The benefits multiply rapidly within a single community. For instance, in 2008, Global Volunteers English teaching volunteers taught conversational English skills to 1,714 teachers in our Chinese host communities so they, in turn, can directly impact more than 850,000 children and adults throughout their nation.
In many host communities, lack of recreational opportunities for adolescents and teens contributes to social and health problems such as vandalism, drug abuse, theft, depression and suicide. Global Volunteers’ hosts sometimes request help with intervention programs such as Boys and Girls Clubs, drop-in centers, school field trips and organized sports. For instance, since Global Volunteers’ service programs began in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica, the youth of the host communities have played a leading role in our work projects. Working with both formal and informal youth groups, team members have become integrated in youth sports, arts and music programs on many service programs.
Family support projects	English teacher tutoring	Youth recreation

As an NGO in special consultative status with the United Nations, we devote our efforts towards projects to improve the lives of the most challenged and vulnerable in our host communities.

In partnership with our local hosts, community leaders have directed our volunteer assistance and project donations to the areas needing the most attention. This vision was articulated in 2000 by the United Nations in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which serve as targets for reducing poverty and hunger, combating HIV/AIDS, improving maternal and child health, and promoting universal education, gender equity, global partnership and environmental sustainability by 2015.

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