You really wanted to join the Peace Corps, but little things like marriage, kids and a mortgage annulled your good intentions. You can still fulfill your need to reach out to struggling communities across the globe by taking a volunteer vacation.
Make vacation plans to make a difference
BY JACKY RUNICE
Posted Friday, January 07, 2005
You really wanted to join the Peace Corps, but little things like marriage, kids and a mortgage annulled your good intentions. You can still fulfill your need to reach out to struggling communities across the globe by taking a volunteer vacation.
Bring the kids along and forge stronger familial bonds as well as real friendships between those in need and those who come to help them. It's an opportunity to experience life without the hardware that fuels and dictates a kid's life - video games, computers, cell phones and television - and feel the simple joy of serving others. At last count, there are some 50 million people worldwide who use their vacation time to help those less fortunate and it's growing by leaps and bounds. Airline Ambassadors International, or AAI, a network of volunteer Ambassadors of Goodwill, grew from 76 missions in 2003 to 98 in 2004, hand-delivering more than $5 million in aid. The group foresees well over 100 missions in 2005.
Another nonprofit group, Globe Aware, booked 14 trips in 2003 and 65 trips the next year. Why the boom in volunteer vacations? Nancy Rivard, president of Airline Ambassadors, thinks her organization is on the leading edge of a new travel trend. "Most people want to make a difference. They simply don't know how," she said. "Airline Ambassadors gives travelers a chance to become a living link of love between resource and need. Ordinary people of all ages and professions find that they can substantively contribute to development projects that have a longterm positive effect on peoples and cultures, and it's also a way to express their fundamental generosity, selflessness and compassion."
Airline Ambassadors has founded orphanages and established feeding programs, schools and clinics. Families are welcome on AAI's humanitarian missions; you just need to join the organization. For example, adult membership costs $35 and a mission fee is $50; membership for children between 13 and 17 costs $25 and their mission participation fee is $25; kids younger than 13 needn't pay anything. Of course, all mission participants are responsible for their own travel expenses.
For families that can't make a trip at this time, Airline Ambassadors International offers other ways to help. Volunteers hand-deliver cards from U.S. kids to children in orphanages who are thrilled to receive them. Just have your child or student write a card telling the recipient something about him or herself and include a photo, if possible. Cards can be in English and volunteers will translate - or use this as an opportunity to practice some words in Spanish.
Take a look and get involved at www.airlineamb.org.
With a tag line of "Help People - Have Fun," Globe Aware offers short-term volunteer programs in Latin American and Asian countries that develop lifelong advocates for a better world. The "mini Peace Corps" adventures last from one to two weeks and focus on cultural awareness and sustainability. All program costs, including the cost of air fare, are tax deductible. Participants needn't have special skills or foreign language ability to befriend people of other cultures and sense the reward of helping them on meaningful community projects.
For example, in Costa Rica a community needs help clearing paths, marking trails and learning English. Volunteers enjoy healthy Costa Rican dishes and there are opportunities to take nature hikes, ride horses, fish and engage in other activities. You might have to forgo the hair dryer for a week - electricity is available, though on a relatively limited basis - but bad hair days are not an issue. In Thailand, the Globe Aware program involves working with Buddhist monks including helping at a nursery, training for the disadvantaged, emergency relief, elderly care, teaching basic English in impoverished schools and giving basic com-puter instruction.
Get the details by calling (214) 823-0083 or visiting www.globeaware.org.
Since 1995, Cross-Cultural Solutions has brought more than 2,500 participants to 10 countries around the world to work side by side in an atmosphere of respect and generosity. The organization, based in New Rochelle, N.Y., and the United Kingdom, welcomes families in all of its programs and especially embraces children and teenagers to experience other cultures and par-ticipate in meaningful volunteer work.
The minimum age for a child traveling with a parent or guardian is 8 years old. If you can get a group or extended family together, a volunteer is entitled to discounts that vary depending on the number of people participating in a program.
Programs include teaching teenagers conversational English, taking care of children in day-care centers and orphanages, caring for and developing activities for the elderly, observing and assisting with a local medical practice and taking care of people with mental and physical disabilities or those with AIDS.
Programs take place in Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Ghana, India, Guatemala, Peru, Russia, Tanzania and Thailand. Make a difference and make a vacation out of it at www.crossculturalsolutions.org/what_you_can_do.cfm or call (800) 380-4777.
