Traveling as a short-term volunteer departs from conventional adventure travel and cultural immersion experiences in one very important way. The purpose of a volunteer vacation is foremost to serve, and thereby, to learn first-hand about the host community and its people. It's not simply an alternative to a standard vacation, but an opportunity to use your skills and interests in an unconventional setting to benefit others in a community requesting outside help. International and USA volunteer vacations are also frequently referred to as "working vacations", "service-learning travel", or "service vacations." Your opportunity to broaden your global perspective and truly make a difference has never been greater. Consider these advantages:

• Give back to society in a practical, compassionate way.
  
• Wage peace personally and promote justice.
  
• Learn first-hand about the 12 Essential Services.
  
• Contribute to the successes of local development work.
  
• Share cultural insights with like-minded team mates.
  
• Employ your talents and skills in an unconventional setting.
  
• Experience a foreign culture from inside - as a "non-tourist."

You're an essential link in a long chain of those who have come before, and will follow, to ensure long-term development support. Global Volunteers was privilged to help lay the very foundation of this type of international volunteerism in 1984 and to make genuine community development accessible to the "average" volunteer. Our purpose was to establish working partnerships with under-served rural communities striving to become self-reliant, by mobilizing short-term volunteers in their service. Since then, our programs have expanded from the developing world to emerging democracies and most other types of host communities around the globe.

"One of the best things about a Global Volunteers program is that you can be dropped into a setting in another part of the world for just a few weeks. Things are already set in motion, and you pick up where the last team left off. Being part of one team in a series, part of a long-term commitment served by many teams, I realized that I was participating in something much bigger. It was perfect for me because I only get a few weeks' vacation each year. And yet, it was one of the most thrilling and rewarding things I have ever done."
~ Jim Hausler, Tanzania volunteer