Statement of the Problem: Typically, international volunteer programs recruit individuals to participate on projects for which they are negligibly qualified for—it is unlikely, e.g. that one who has little or no pedagogical or practical experience can effectively teach English to non-native speakers in a week or two. Often, this inefficiency is further compounded when one considers the fact that capable human resources already exist within a given community but are seldom drawn upon. More to the point, entire communities are at times excluded from the very decision-making processes that are supposed to benefit them!
Our Approach: Our volunteer projects are of a different variety in that they are locally designed and place trust in the capacity and the competence of communities to identify and resolve their own problems. Thus, our volunteers can expect to work on projects that are frequently labor intensive, which we hope will expose them to on-the-ground-realities, encourage curiosity, and foster humility.
All volunteers participate on several projects, which may include: assisting with the design of desktop publications for an AIDS awareness campaign, conducting demographic studies through face-to-face interviews with the help of a translator, or working as a day laborer on a tea estate. Longer-term opportunities are also available for those with business, ESL, grassroots organizing, and Information Technology backgrounds.
Volunteers are provided modest, secure village accommodations that include lodging, safe drinking water, as well as typical vegetarian Indian cuisine. During their stay, individuals will experience a standard of living comparable to that of the community they will be working with. One can expect to raise and retire with the whims of the sun, interact, as equals with their host community, hand-launder clothing, participate in regional recreational activities, and travel using public transportation.
At part of each trip, our volunteers sample several of the scenic highlights of North India, as well as numerous off-the-beaten-path experiences, and our program offers a great deal of latitude in determining a given itinerary, as well as plenty of room for the serendipitous. As such, no two travel experiences will be exactly the same. Local guides provide volunteers with a friendly, nuanced perspective of the many intricacies of everyday life and accompany our travelers from arrival to departure, ensuring a safe, rewarding experience from day one.
Volunteer Abroad