Global Volunteers

Orphanage adventure in service in Barlad, Romania

Submitted by Dave Blesener - No. St. Paul, Minnesota United States | May 30, 2018

My husband Dave and I found a way to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary on an Orphanage Adventure in Service trip with our Global Volunteers team in Barlad, Romania May 19-29, 2017! Nurses at the Municipal Hospital allowed us to hold, change, and feed infants & children. Dave helped paint hospital rooms but came into the childcare room once in awhile to say hello to our infants & children. We enjoyed going for walks and eating out at night with teammates! During the day, we worked from about 9:00-1:00 p.m. and then were given two hours for lunch during which time we ate with teammates, then napped while the children napped. About 4:30 p.m. each day, Dan Cirjontu, our Country Manager, usually brought back bananas which we fed as a snack to our children. Mihaela Cirjontu, Dan's wife, often taught and reviewed the Romanian language with us before meals. Romanian nurses did not speak English. We learned enough Romanian to make it through each day, anyways! Umed scutec meant wet diaper; scutec murdar meant dirty diaper. Barlad is located about six hours West of the Ukraine and about six hours East of Bucharest. Residents still tell stories of how life was growing up under Communism which ended about 29 years ago in 1989. When we took a train back to Bucharest for the last stretch of our trip, we found St. Joseph Cathedral Bucharest (Catedrala Sfantul Iosif) which was the only Western Roman Catholic Church, which was located in downtown Bucharest, just in time for a Saturday 5:00 p.m. Mass which is the same Mass worldwide throughout but just spoken in Romanian! Most anyone with a nurturing heart may provide love & care to infants, children & families!

Program: Be Significant. Be a Lifeline of Hope for Romanian Children

Global volunteers experience in Cuba

Submitted by Roberta Kayne - Dublin Ireland | May 16, 2018

I went to Cuba for two weeks with Global Volunteers to tutor English and learn about the Cuban culture, and I was amazed, enlightened, fulfilled, and rewarded beyond words with my experience there. G.V. is very organized, the cultural activities were very good, the local contacts were brilliant, the students I tutored were wonderful and grateful, and the people of Cuba are very welcoming. Thanks Global Volunteers.

Program: Volunteer in Cuba and Build a Bridge of Friendship

There are joys and challenges yet to be discovered

Submitted by Cisco - Melbourne Australia | April 23, 2018

You never know how well your experience is until you try Global Volunteers, They are efficient at helping you through the process from inception to conception. This includes registration, orientation, project operations and settling in at your destination. You are looked after from the day you arrive until the day you leave. You’re always in communication.

Volunteering aims to be a personalised experience, how much you put in is what you get out. What you do varies from department to department. You may volunteer with pre-schoolers through to adult ages. Whatever you do, you'll have a responsibility and even more creative liberty in all facets of education and development.

If you want to do something important and influence individuals volunteer in Portugal they will love and respect you because you made their life important. I highly recommend if you want to grow, this is a good opportunity. If you want to be a great, think about what social problem you could solve. You never know that the things you’re doing are that meaningful to society.

A+

Program: Volunteer in Portugal. Incredible Chance to Teach English!

Volunteer

Submitted by Cindy Murray - Orlando United States | April 17, 2018

Via Global Volunteers, I have had the privilege of volunteering and serving as a volunteer team leader with 3 service programs in Ciego de Avila, working alongside local people. The work projects vary from weeding in an organic garden cooperative to enabling local people, ages 5 to 85, to practice their English. Global Volunteers enables local people and volunteers opportunities to build friendships, make connections, and increase mutual understanding and respect for one another. Cuba is incredibly "rich," depending upon your definition of rich. The words that come to mind are culture, family, dance, music, creativity, no billboards, resourcefulness, unplugged, people working together, roosters and salsa beats serving as alarm clocks. Food is pure and fresh. People are incredibly friendly. Me gusta la gente de Cuba.

Program: Volunteer in Cuba and Build a Bridge of Friendship

My trip to Cuba

Submitted by Ellen Connally - Cleveland, Ohio United States | June 25, 2017

Overall I had a good experience, but I felt that my skills were totally under utilized. The so called "English tutoring" program involved people showing up at the Council of Churches and the volunteers standing around and in a basically helter skelter manner people connected. There were no lesson plans, grouping of people with similar skills - nothing. There were times that we had difficulty finding a place to work with our students. In my case it ended up with several volunteers to one or two students. I spent my mornings at a church were ladies gathered to do various types of needle work. Fortunately, that is something I do. I sat there and knitted and talked to the ladies and made a couple of things that hopefully they can sell to help the church. But other volunteers who had no skills in that area just sat and talked and I tried to teach them some needle work skills. But for an earlier group that had left yarn and needles we would have had no materials to work with. And it was not like we could go out and buy things. I felt that we should have been told what we were going to be doing so that we could have brought supplies. While I had a interesting experience with Global Volunteers and would not travel with them again. There were too many rules; I felt like I was in Jr. High School and not enough planning.

Program: Volunteer in Cuba and Build a Bridge of Friendship