NGO Archives - Journeys for Good

Civic Engagement with UBELONG

Image source: Ubelong.org

Through volunteering, far away places become real to us. Every day it seems like we’re hearing about another international conflict—another community struck by hardship. Some of the hardship is civil, between governments and citizens. Sometimes it’s environmental, the result of a drought or natural disaster. Whatever the calamity, it’s easy to feel disconnected, like these stories are happening in another world. We go about our lives focused on what we do—our work and our families—immersed in our own everyday dramas. But for those of us who have volunteered, international conflict affects us viscerally, in real and immediate ways. We know that each of these places is as real as our hometowns and our back yards. We don’t just know it intellectually, we know it in our bones. UBELONG is a volunteer organization focused on promoting this kind of understanding. Their mission is to create “a world where people are united behind their shared humanity and committed to working together for positive change.”

Empowering Young People With Aldeas de Paz

Image source: Jardinesdeacuario.blogspot.com

Aldeas de Paz is a Venezuelan NGO with a history of inspired service. In 1995 a German entrepreneur named Manfred Mönninghoff was volunteering on a humanitarian project in Merida, Venezuela. The project was focused on integrating street children and at risk youth into more stable environments via school, community projects, and foster families. It was a grassroots effort, as so many humanitarian projects are, and it inspired Mönninghoff to do more, to dedicate his life (and his life savings) to the service of children with an organization dedicated to their care. In 2001, he formed Fundación Aldeas de Paz, a volunteer-based NGO in Caracas. Today, that NGO is based in Santa Elena, a gold and diamonds mining town in the heart of the remote Canaima National Park, on the border with Brazil and Guyana. The location is isolated, beautiful, and culturally and ecologically important.

G.R.A.C.E: Helping Children and the Elderly in Ghana

Image source: Blog.er-d.org

Many of the volunteer organizations that are active today are concerned with a variety of projects in a variety of places. In many cases, this is because they want to appeal to a variety of volunteers. Indeed, volunteering with a large organization like Cross-Cultural Solutions or Habitat for Humanity means you have a lot of choices about where you go and what you do. You can volunteer with the same organization many times and each time, work with a different community on a different project. I think this does appeal to volunteers and I understand why. But there is also something to be said for the focused organization with a single community in mind. Focused organizations put down roots in one place. They have lasting relationships with local people and they do sustainable work that builds over time. Volunteering with an organization like this means you get to participate in enduring change. You get to see how that change has affected children, children who are now thriving adults. You witness the good an organization can do in ten or twenty years. I think, of necessity, this is missing from a lot of volunteer opportunities and I think seeing this kind of change can really inspire in a way that more transient projects just can’t.

Global Volunteers: Leave Your Mark on the World

Image source: Petergreenberg.com

It’s been a while since I’ve written about a long-standing NGO—the kind of organization that has roots overseas, and in US politics. Global Volunteers has been working on grassroots international aid projects since 1984. They work with the United Nations, UNICEF, and the Food and Agriculture Organization. They are known as the “grandfather of volunteer vacations.” Indeed, they are pioneers. They “engage short-term volunteers in long-term projects,” a model that hundreds (even thousands?) of volunteer organizations use today.

NGO Profile: All Hands Volunteers

Image source: Vimeo.com

All Hands Volunteers is focused on “providing hands-on assistance to survivors of natural disasters around the world, with maximum impact and minimum bureaucracy.” There are several things that make this NGO unique. For starters, they provide housing and food for volunteers, so all you have to do is cover travel expenses. Since budgeting is such a huge problem for so many eager workers, providing these services means more people get to the scene of the disaster, and they get there fast.

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