Giving Back

From GapYearWiki

I know: we all talk about giving back. This is your opportunity to make a difference for some one or some place, or maybe most of all for you.

Action Aid relies on volunteer work for its community building projects in Cambodia, Nepal, South Africa and elsewhere. http://www.actionaid.org

Africa and Asia Venture offers five week to five month teaching and community placements in Africa and Asia. http://www.aventure.co.uk. 01380 729009

African Conservation Experience - conservation projects on reserves in southern Africa. http://www.conservationafrica.net

Americorps Each year, AmeriCorps offers 75,000 opportunities for adults of all ages and backgrounds to serve through a network of partnerships with local and national nonprofit groups. Whether your service makes a community safer, gives a child a second chance, or helps protect the environment, you’ll be getting things done through AmeriCorps! Check out the listings at this site for possible programs to which you could apply. There are deadline issues here, mainly because Americorps takes forever to reply. http://www.americorps.org

Australian Trust For Conservation Volunteers offers a wide range of conservation efforts ideal for short term volunteering. The cost is slightly under $1000 Australian for six weeks. http://www.atcv.com.au

Blue Ventures specializes in marine conservation such as coral reef preservation off Madagascar. http:///www.blueventures.org

Changing Worlds offers paid and voluntary placements from farming to orphaniage work. http://www.changingworlds.co.uk

City Year offers the chance to work in a number of cities across the United States, doing some form of community service, usually with a component that involves working with students in primary schools and in after school programs. http://www.cityyear.org

Coral Cay Conservation gives opportunities to preserve coral reef and rainforest environments. http://www.coralcay.org

Cross Cultural Solutions For those who want something different, something akin to a mini-stint with the Peace Corps, there is Cross-Cultural solutions. http://www.crossculturalsolutions.org

CSV offers volunteer placements in Great Britain, including summer renovation of cathedrals. http://www.csv.org.uk

COMUNIDAD CONNECT We are a non-profit in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua devoted to community development. This is a big undertaking and we need your help. So what we can do is help you have the vacation of a lifetime in the surfing capital of Nicaragua, less 2 hours away from the natural wonders of Ometepe Island, and what you can do is help us add sustainability to tourism in Nicaragua. VolunTourists, as we call people who seek a different type of a vacation stay with local families, giving them an extra source of income, and participate in projects that include small-business development, mobile library, appropriate technology, teaching English, and volunteering at the local health clinic. We can find projects that match your interests and expertise with the needs of the community. Spanish classes as well as guided excursions for groups are also available. Visit our site to learn more: http://www.ComunidadConnect.org

COMUNIDAD CONNECT - NICARAGUA

Give back while learning to surf, learning Spanish, and learning about your role in the world. Comunidad Connect arranges short and long term VolunTourism projects in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. Participants stay with local families to experience the Nicaraguan culture and have complete flexibility in schedule to arrange their projects in everything from education, to healthcare, to scuba-conservation to, the ever-present, teaching English. You can learn more on our page: ComunidadConnect.org.

Cosmic Volunteers This American-based program offers volunteer programs in Africa, Asia, and South America. Programs include teaching English, orphanages, healthcare, journalism, HIV/AIDS, conservation and more. Volunteer abroad and contribute to the world in a meaningful way.http://cosmicvolunteers.org/index.html

Dynamy Internship Year - A central theme of the Internship Year experience, is community engagement. Each Dynamy intern works with a personal advisor to identify individual goals and priorities then thoughtfully and intentionally takes action to meet those priorities. Community service is a substantial component to the Internship Year experience and is highly customizable to meet the goals and priorities of each Dynamy intern. Dynamy Internship Year is the oldest and only residential internship program in the United States. Their mission is to offer young people, ages 17-22, a transformational gap year (or semester) opportunity. Located in Worcester, Massachusetts, Dynamy Internship Year integrates full-time mentored internships in over 240 organizations with urban and backcountry leadership experiences, personal and college/career advising, city apartment living, optional college seminars and the company of a remarkable group of peers. Phone 508-755-2571, http://www.dynamy.org

Earthwatch offers 120 research projects in 50 countries from marine conservation to archaeology. http://www.earthwatch.org

Eco Africa combines conservation and community projects with adventure. http://www.ecoafricaexperience.com

El Casal English language tutoring, coaching sports, assisting children with special needs, community building.... El casal, gap year adventures in Barcelona [1]

Frontier Conservation offers conservation projects from Madacascar to the Amazon. http://www.frontier.ac.uk

Gap Kenya offers a directory of projects in Kenya, from healthcare to horticulture. http://gapkenya.com 01686 412042

Gap Year South Africa offers sports coaching, HIV awareness programs and environmental work in South Africa. http://www.gapyearsouthafrica.com

Global Crossroad offers travel and volunteer abroad experiences to thousands of volunteers/travelers. Whether you're looking for a volunteer abroad experience, career break, or just a meaningful travel experience, Global Crossroad offers a variety of volunteer abroad programs to match your varying interests. http://www.globalcrossroad.com

Global Vision Global Vision International (GVI) was formed in 1998 to provide support and services to international charities, non-profits and governmental agencies, through volunteering opportunities and direct funding. http://www.gvi.co.uk

Global Volunteers is a private, nonprofit, non-sectarian international human and economic development organization working in close partnership with local people worldwide. Each year Global Volunteers sends nearly 200 teams of short-term volunteers to work on long-term development projects in over 100 communities in 20 countries on five continents. At the invitation of local host organizations, under the direction of local leaders, and hand-in-hand with local people, volunteers teach conversational English, care for vulnerable and at-risk children, construct, repair, and paint community buildings, deliver health care, and provide any other service requested by communities. http://www.globalvolunteers.org

Greenforce provides one to six month environmental expeditions worldwide. http://www.greenforce.org

GVI offers four week volunteer programs that address iliteracy in Nicaragua. http://www.gvi.co.uk

HELPS International - organized in 1984, is a US 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation that partners with individuals, businesses, corporations, local and national governments to alleviate poverty in Latin America. HELPS integrated programs include: medical care, education, community and economic development, and agricultural innovations in order to improve the quality of life for the indigenous people of Latin America. Read more about HELPS projects and check out the site links for volunteer opportunities, success stories and the needs of families in Guatemala and Mexico. http://www.helpsintl.org/

Hidden Villa is a nonprofit educational organization that uses its organic farm, wilderness, and community to teach and provide opportunities to learn about the environment and social justice. Hidden Villa stretches over 1600 acres of open space in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, about 40 miles south of San Francisco. Hidden Villa's mission is to inspire a just and sustainable future through our programs, land and legacy. http://www.hiddenvilla.org

Institute For Tropical Marine Ecology The Institute for Tropical Marine Ecology (ITME) is a not-for-profit organization focusing on the biological investigation of tropical marine environments in regions where such work has not been carried out, only marginally, or not in recent times. The principal objectives are to generate and compile environmental baseline data relevant to local conservation initiatives and to make them accessible to a broad audience in order to facilitate monitoring and research ventures. Projects are designed to deliver technical and educational consultancies while incorporating academic/research training and community outreach where requested. http://www.itme.org

International Partnership for Service Learning Opportunities for academic work combined with service abroad. http://www.ipsl.org

Involvement Volunteers Involvement Volunteers Association Inc (IVI) helps you to make a difference in the world. They organise cost-effective, international volunteering opportunities. http://www.volunteer.org.au

Lattitude offer volunteer placements worldwide in teaching, medical and conservation work. http://www.lattitude.org

Madventurer offers two to six month volunteer work and expeditions such as six weeks' teaching and building in Asia. http://www.madventurer.com

Operation Crossroads Africa The programs of Operation Crossroads Africa are designed to promote understanding of Africa and the African Diaspora based on the belief that one can truly enter another culture only by living and working in it. Called the "progenitor of the Peace Corps" by President John F. Kennedy, Operation Crossroads Africa has sent over 11,000 persons in the last 49 summers to more than 40 African countries, 12 Caribbean countries, and Brazil in pursuit of its goals. http://www.pamwe.org/

Organic Farming and environmental work and worldwide volunteer work, mostly organic farms. http://www.organicvolunteers.org http://www.interexchange.org/

Oyster provides teaching, child care and conservation placements. http://www.oysterworldwide.com 01892 770 771

PROJECTS ABROAD

Are you interested in getting out and seeing the world while also helping others? Projects Abroad offers you the ability to do just that, through hundreds of voluntary internships and service projects in 22 countries! We have even created two-week summer specials specifically for volunteers between the ages of 16 and 19. Since our founding in 1992, we have grown to a team of 200 people that sends more than 3,500 volunteers annually. Our most popular programs include: environmental conservation, archaeology and cultural preservation, teaching English, care work in orphanages, as well as business and journalism internships. Here's a link to get you started: [2]

SPW has health, education and environmental programs in Africa and India. http://www.spw.org 020 749 00100

The Leap offers volunteer living alongside indigenous tribes with projects that include orangutan conservation in Borneo and reforestation in the Peruvian Andes. http://www.theleap.co.uk

The National Trust preserves Britain's history and heritage and provides conservation projects, such as dry-stone walling and reforestation, across Britain. http://www.nationatrust.org.uk

WorldWide Volunteering offers a database of more than 1,600 volunteer organizations and over a million placements in 214 countries worldwide. http://www.wwv.org.uk

Venture Co To travel to adventurous destinations is a privilege: the opportunity to work closely with indigenous communities is a revelation: the experiences you earn and memories you return with will become part of who you are. Giving something back is at the heart of VentureCo's ethos and their objective is to work in partnership with responsible travellers to achieve a mutual exchange between the traveller and the host community. http://www.ventureco-worldwide.com

YOUTH INTERNATIONAL (EXPERIENCE THE WORLD), INC.

Help build an orphanage in Bolivia, live with a tribal family in Thailand, meditate with Tibetan monks in the Himalayan mountains, do conservation work in the Ecuadorian rainforest, visit the Taj Mahal, search for wild animals on safari in the Kenyan savanna or while sailing through the Galapagos Islands, help build clean drinking water tanks for African tribal families, hike the Inca trail through the Peruvian Andes to Machu Picchu, and much more!

Youth International is an experiential education program that combines international travel, inter-cultural exchange, adventure, community service, and home stays. Teams of up to 14 people between the ages of 18 and 25, along with two group leaders, travel together to different regions of the world for a 12 week semester. One program travels to Asia (Vietnam, Thailand, and India). A second program travels to Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, and Namibia). A third program travels to South America (Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador--including the Galapagos Islands). Each program is offered twice a year: Sept.-Dec. and Feb.-May.

Visit our website for full program information and itineraries: http://www.youthinternational.org [2], or call 1-416-538-0152 to talk to Brad Gillings, the Director of Youth International, about upcoming programs