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Globe Aware trips are more than just vacations. The experiences you have will not only have a positive effect on the people you help, but may also change your life forever as well. The Globe Aware community will be with you to answer your questions before your trip or share in your experiences after you return.
To learn more about Globe Aware volunteer vacations and our volunteers, join the community on Facebook or on Twitter. You can also read the stories of other volunteers to destinations such as Costa Rica, Peru, Laos, or Thailand in our alumni journals.
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Globe Aware, a nonprofit 501 (c) (3), develops short-term volunteer programs in international environments that encourage people to immerse themselves in a unique way of giving back.
Our award-winning, short-term programs promote sustainability and cultural awareness in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations. Featured on the NBC Today Show, CNN, Wall Street Journal, ABC World News Tonight, The New York Times, PBS, and various documentaries, Globe Aware organizes international volunteering programs in countries worldwide. We have no religious or political affiliation. We accommodate small groups to special school/church/corporate groups of up to 300 participants. We work side-by-side as equals with communities working on projects of their choice and method. NPR (National Public Radio), Newsweek, Budget Travel, Travel & Leisure Magazine, Men's Fitness, Toronto Globe and Mail, and many others.
Globe Aware has also been the subject of several major documentaries, including a nine-part series titled Journeys of the Heart, which is shot in high definition and chronicles a group's developments in our Care for Cusco program. This series, produced by Concrete Productions, runs on the Dish Network's Equator Channel. Asterisk Productions produced another documentary on Globe Aware called Vacations from the Heart, which aired several times coast to coast in Canada on the Global Network and the UK. Asterisk is a world-renowned production company specializing in social and environmental issues. Read on for more on their inspiring work.
Every activity we engage in is intended to accomplish one of two things: promote cultural awareness and/or promote sustainability. For us, the concept of cultural awareness means recognizing and appreciating a culture's beauty and real challenges, not changing it. The concept of sustainability is to help others stand on their own two feet, to teach skills rather than reliance.
Chosen projects meet several key criteria: safe, culturally interesting, genuinely beneficial to a needy community, and involve significant interaction with the host community. Globe Aware reviews volunteer feedback weekly to incorporate changes and continually meets with the communities to monitor and review projects. Simultaneously, Globe Aware organizes several optional cultural excursions throughout every program, designed to highlight the local culture in a way the typical tourist can rarely experience. The organization has no political or religious affiliation.
Volunteers help to empower the host communities in creating renewable, sustainable programs. While Globe Aware's financial assistance benefits the community economically, the involvement and collaboration between the volunteers and the community are the greatest mutual benefits. Globe Aware is not a foundation that focuses on giving out charity but rather an organization that focuses on creating self-reliance.
We feel it is important to respect the culture and heritage of our volunteers. The goal is not for volunteers to change the host communities but rather to help them with the needs that the host community has identified as important. Those who will enjoy the experience the most are those who bring an open mind and willingness to help. The natural, healthy exchange of ideas and opinions leads to a mutual understanding of cultures.
Unlike a regular vacation, during which you may spend a good deal of time on a tourist bus and in lines at museums, our trips allow you to learn things such as how to cook local cuisine, sing with local school children, and work side by side on local community projects. Few vacations provide a way to bond so closely with local cultures in so short a time. The experience will likely change how you see the world.
Together, Globe Aware's founders have been arranging cultural missions since the year 2000 and with 501 c 3 nonprofit status since February 2003. The first programs were run in Peru and Costa Rica, with several in Asia to follow.
Locations are chosen based on a huge number of factors but generally are communities that are safe, genuinely needy, organized (in terms of proper NGO status), have significant cultural differences from the typical North American lifestyle and are willing to accept our involvement. Our nonprofit status was recognized in 2003.
In addition to being granted not-for-profit status by the United States Internal Revenue Service, Globe Aware is also registered with The Texas State Attorney General's Charities Bureau, which is responsible for supervising the activity of charities to ensure that their funds are properly used.
Why Volunteer Vacation?
There are so many reasons! Perhaps you would love to have joined the Peace Corps, but now the thought of a 2+year commitment is not feasible given the obligations and responsibilities of your life. One of the best reasons to volunteer for vacation is the satisfaction you get by helping people who are trying to build a better life for themselves. By travelling with Globe Aware, you will interact with local community members, getting a chance to see and understand the culture on a much deeper level. You can go to the market and help choose the groceries, help cook, dance, sing, and talk with wonderful, warm community members. You will understand their challenges, see how they have chosen to address these issues, and then take part in working on one or more of their community projects. Make no mistake, it can be challenging. The new environment means a change from your everyday life but will also present you with a wondrous new world.
Some of the objectives of Globe Aware volunteer vacations include:
- To promote contact between people of different cultural and social backgrounds, breaking down linguistic and cultural barriers and creating and understanding an appreciation of others.
- To provide worldly education through experience. To enable volunteers to learn concrete action's positive effects and recognize the interrelationship between theory and practice.
- To provide an intercultural learning experience and the opportunity to explore a new country and a new culture more deeply and respectfully than as tourists.
- To integrate participants into the local community to learn from their hosts about the issues which concern them.
- To help develop small-scale infrastructure or environmental improvement and or to preserve cultural heritage and traditions.
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Explore Globe Aware's Community Forum to learn more about why Globe Aware is a great resource to explore the world and take exciting, unique, life-changing volunteer vacations.
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Global Wings serves disadvantaged youths who would otherwise have difficulty experiencing our wider world. Recipients have the opportunity to engage in a Globe Aware Program and learn about International Affairs & Development over the course of their summer, culminating with direct exposure through one of Globe Aware's international programs. This program is made possible through the support of our sponsors and caring donors like you!
In a globalized world, adaptability and knowledge of life beyond our shores gained through study/work abroad can be valuable assets in getting jobs or entering a university. Yet too many disadvantaged young people may never have an opportunity to experience life beyond their neighborhood. They are left behind; doors are forever closed to them. Globe Aware is hoping to change this. YOU CAN HELP! Here's how
- Buy a raffle ticket. For a $7 donation you can win a round trip ticket to Costa Rica! Click here to donate.
- Become a raffle fellow and help by selling raffle tickets in your community.
- Join our Facebook page.
- Host your own dinner party or other event (previous donors have arranged marathons and concerts)
- For $1,500, you can sponsor a youth.
- For $500, you can sponsor a flight.
- For any amount, you can change the world a little at a time.
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Just want to talk to a human being? We understand!
Feel free to call us at Toll Free: 877-LUV-GLOBE (877-588-4562), or email us your number at info@globeaware.org and we'll have a volunteer coordinator call you!
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Globe Aware trips are professionally planned and lead. You do not need special skills or the ability to speak a foreign language. Globe Aware employees lay the ground work prior to your arrival; accompany you during your volunteer vacation, and assist with transfers and departures.
- Globe Aware's volunteer vacations are appropriate for solo travelers, multigenerational family travel, corporate or custom groups.
- Immerse yourself in a new culture.
- Meet new people in remarkable, interesting countries.
- Experience a life-changing adventure. Help communities by working on meaningful projects. Click here for dates and costs.
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Insurance
Globe Aware's program fee covers mandatory medical insurance/evacuation insurance for international programs. Should you need to cancel your participation on short notice, Globe Aware suggests you purchase trip cancellation insurance, which most travel agents can help you with. It is important that you realize that Globe Aware cannot be responsible for the terms and conditions of the travel agency with whom you make your travel arrangements. Therefore, if the airline makes any changes or cancellations for any reason whatsoever, or if the airline imposes any related penalties, Globe Aware cannot be held responsible.
Risks
Any travel comes with certain risks, and travel with Globe Aware is no different. Of course all reasonable precautions will be made to prevent any dangers. If at any time a volunteer feels that he or she is not comfortable with any given activity, he or she may freely abstain.
Travel to different countries mean that conditions will vary - sometimes quite significantly - from those in the United States. These reasons are some of the primary reasons volunteers are drawn to Globe Aware adventures, but can also be the basis for possible risks. For example, the condition of roads, infrastructure (such as phone lines, water lines, etc) and hygiene conditions, are likely to differ from, and often be considered inferior to, those found in the volunteers' home. In addition, Globe Aware cannot be held responsible for forces of God, war, public transportation, level of medical service, availability of medical treatment and medical personnel, political stability, and the like.
The volunteers should also be aware that environmental conditions may provide certain challenges to some. For example, higher altitudes in some locales may mean volunteers with difficulty breathing may find it even more difficult in new climes. For those with sensitivity to dryness, certain climates may be uncomfortable.
Health
In some countries, it is a good idea to get vaccinations prior to your trip. The Center for Disease Control will give you up to date recommendations as well: see www.cdc.gov. These suggestions will be in your orientation packet, and volunteers are solely responsible for getting and paying for these. In addition, each volunteer needs to access his or her medical needs, and overall health prior to joining in a Globe Aware adventure.
I volunteer to participate in this program with Globe Aware. I understand that Globe Aware and its volunteers assume no liability for any personal harm or illness or for loss or damage of any property that may come to me while serving as a volunteer, and I, my heirs, and my personal representatives and assigns, hereby absolve Globe Aware, its staff, and volunteers and hold them harmless from any claim or demand that I, my heirs, my personal representatives or assigns might conceivably assert for any such harm, illness, loss or damage. I intend to be legally bound by this statement.
