Global Volunteers

We aim to provide 12 essential services, as prescribed by the United Nations, to every partner community who requests volunteer assistance in the areas of hygiene education, nutrition, and conversational English teaching/classroom tutoring.

Teaching and modeling hand washing with soap: Of the approximately 120 million children born in the developing world each year, half will live in households without access to improved sanitation, at grave risk to their survival and development. Poor hygiene and lack of access to sanitation together contribute to about 88% of deaths from diarrheal diseases, accounting for 1.5 million diarrhea-related under-five deaths each year. Hand washing with soap is the single most effective – and accessible – intervention to reduce and prevent disease and death. From a cost-benefit perspective, washing with soap is three times more effective than building latrines, nearly 60 times as effective as providing clean running water, and more than 300 times as effective as any single immunization. Global Volunteers' direct access to at-risk children and families in host communities worldwide is instrumental in advancing the practice of hand washing.

Teaching and supporting container gardening: Hundreds of millions of children may not have eaten today, and have no idea where their meal might come from tomorrow. Hunger is debilitating in every sense: physically, socially, intellectually, and spiritually. But hunger is not inevitable. We have all the tools and agricultural technology necessary to ensure that nearly every hungry family can grow their own food to feed themselves and their children. Many of these tools and technologies are appropriate for those who farm on extremely small plots and may have limited education. School and household gardens in raised containers are an effective means for transferring agricultural technology and skills. Global Volunteers helps supply and maintain small gardens to help meet the essential nutritional needs of school-aged children.

Teaching conversational English and other classroom subjects: Increasingly, English language skills have become crucial to success in virtually any profession, as it is regarded the international language of commerce, technology and opportunity. Global Volunteers is committed to helping host communities advance in their understanding of, appreciation for, and fluency in English. Children living in poverty typically have access to only inadequate educational resources. As they progress through each grade, they lose greater capability if instruction and material resources are insufficient to advance their intellectual development. We provide classroom and after-school tutoring at all levels in science, math, geography, and life skills, and provide special education support.

Through a sustained, year-round, long-term stream of volunteer assistance, professional expertise and material resources, we directly address childhood stunting and other conditions which cause cognitive delays and restrict children's ability to reach their full potential.

Teaching and modeling hand washing with soap
1. Modeling proper hand washing in schools, kitchens and at work sites
2. Focusing on children – the most susceptible to disease, and also the most open to change
3. Providing soap – the critical ingredient missing in current village hand washing habits
4. Teaching hygiene education in classrooms and assisting with hand washing events
5. Supporting a sustained, year-around targeted hand washing campaign
6. Engaging and encouraging community leaders, teachers and administrators to model proper hand washing

Providing school and household gardens
1. Helping demonstrate the use of raised container gardens and how they provide critical micronutrients for pregnant women, new mothers and children.
2. Teaching horticulture, ecology, biology, basic garden management, nutrition
3. Helping install and maintain school and household gardens as community demonstrations
4. Helping communicate demonstration garden techniques to community farmers
5. Providing support and year-around resources to the host community garden manager(s)
6. Conducting gardening sessions and competitions

Conducting classroom, small group and camp projects
1. Providing in-classroom instruction and support for English language classes
2. Conducting small-group conversational English classes
3. Assisting at intensive English-language “camps"
4. Tutoring students who have trouble reading and writing in English
5. Teaching English language skills and techniques to foreign English teachers
6. Providing classroom resources for improved English comprehension

Conducting parent workshops on nutrition, health, pregnancy and the like
1. Starting and maintaining household and school gardens
2. Health, nutrition and hygiene education
3. HIV Aids, malaria, Zika and dengue fever prevention
4. Parenting and early childhood milestones and development

Home visits with local caregivers to reinforce workshop lessons and technology

1. Supporting mothers with newborn stimulation and
2. Modeling appropriate child behavior modification and discipline
3. Providing educational toys and demonstrating their use
Providing direct patient health care
1. Pre-natal exams
2. Well baby check ups
3. Dental exams
4. Deworming


Assist with basic labor projects to improve community capacity
1. Build/renovate schools, health clinics and community centers
2. Construct potable water systems, fuel efficient stoves, sanitary latrines and water catchment systems
3. Manufacture container gardens on site with locally resourced materials

Global Volunteers has the experience, know-how and commitment to carry out each of our stated community service strategies. Our legacy of service is demonstrated in more than 36,000 short-term volunteers of all ages and backgrounds over 36 years contributing to long-term development programs in more than 200 partner communities in 34 countries on six continents.
We're led by experts in human and economic development with profound service credentials:
• Country managers who are highly educated local nationals and fluent in English.
• Senior executives with advanced degrees in in International Development, Law, International Communications, Public Affairs, English, and Business Administration.
• Management team embodying 100+ years of international living, academic and career expertise.
• Global staff sharing a broad vision of comprehensive community service.
• Co-founders with five decades of executive expertise in business, non-profits, and federal and state governments.
• Devoted hosts and community partners in all parts of the world; from pre-schools, crisis centers and orphanages to colleges, universities and health clinics.
• Providing essential services in special consultative status with the United Nations – Economic and Social Council

We offer year-round volunteer assistance to help deliver 12 Essential Services to every partner community. We extracted the 12 Essential Services model from the innovative work of the World Food Program (WFP), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Our landmark work organized these essential services into three broad categories: Hunger, Health and Cognition. These are the areas where volunteers have the greatest impact. In over three decades, we've proven the efficacy of this model, as measured by volunteers, community partners and outside evaluators.

Through volunteer opportunities abroad, children are fed, clothed, taught and cared for. Their health and cognition is improved. Schools are built, clean water is provided, dormitories are enlarged, teachers are supported, household gardens are planted, libraries are equipped, pregnant women and mothers are counseled, homes are restored – all with rippling effects throughout each community.

In every partner community, our strength is our long-term relationship with community decision makers. An obvious example of this intention is our most ambitious program to date: In Ipalamwa, Tanzania. Working alongside local people to define a long-term vision for the district, we've completed an RCP Center/Guesthouse with a $200,000 volunteer donation, and have secured a $5.6M grant enabling us to have built a state-of-the-art rural health clinic to serve five communities and beyond. We've assembled a wide cross-section of professionals for our Reaching Children's Potential Advisory Committee, which assesses and evaluates every element of our program delivery.

In partner communities where we've primarily offered conversational English language instruction, we've taught up to 200 students per day, five days per week for every week we have volunteers on site. We've provided this classroom assistance for over 25 years in China, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, Vietnam, Peru, Poland and Romania.

We have offered broader capacity building in partnership with local leaders to provide essential services in the Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, India, Nepal, Peru, Romania, St. Lucia, Tanzania and the USA. These programs employ these interrelated elements:
A. Local Staff
1. Country and Regional Directors
2. Community Team Leaders
3. Facilities Staff
B. Focused educational components to transfer knowledge:
1. Parent workshops
2. Home visits
3. Handwashing with soap and general hygiene campaigns
4. Classroom training
5. After school tutoring
C. Introducing appropriate technologies:
1. Household container gardens to produce bountiful fresh fruits and vegetables
2. Fuel efficient stoves to eliminate in-house smoke
3. School gardens to improve feeding programs
4. Micronutrient supplements and bio fortified foods to ensure sufficient iron, zinc, folic acid, vitamins, etc.
5. Chicken coops for protein
6. Water catchment and purification systems for better health
7. Handwashing stations
8. Deworming tablets to ensure children benefit from the nutritious foods
9. Bed nets for malaria protection
10. Quality preschools to establish the foundation for life-long learning
11. School bathrooms to encourage teenage girls' school attendance and improve health.
D. Delivering Essential Services
1. Eradicating Hunger
• Household and School Container Gardens
• Nutrition Education
• School Gardens
• Micronutrient Supplementation
• Fuel Efficient Stoves

2. Improving Health
• Pregnant Women Care and Counseling
• Home Visits
• Interactive Parent Workshops
• Mother's Social Activity Clubs
• Public Health Education
• Handwashing with Soap and Water Campaigns
• Malaria, Dengue Fever, Zika Prevention
• HIV-AIDS Education
• Pre-Pregnancy Counseling


3. Enhancing Cognition
• Community-wide Kindergartens
• Primary and Secondary School Enrichment
• Sanitary Systems
• Potable Water Systems
• Girls Education Promotion
• Home and School Child Psychosocial Support