I'm looking for a program where I can volunteer as a teenager out of the US.?

Question

Such as the Caribbean, or the Pacific Islands etc.

I'm 16 years old and too young to join the peace corps. I'm looking for something I can do to help during the summer months.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Free the children has a some great programs their international office is in Canada but they have many fundraising ideas as well as trips to go on over seas and many more check it out:

www.freethechildren.com

I am in Grade 8 and am going to Mexico on a mission trip hopefully this summer. Please don't let your age hold you back.

As well if you might consider taking the vow of silence to raise awarness about children who don't have a voice you will be joining me as well as many others around the world! Thankyou for changing the world!

Answer 2

Due to your age most organizations will require you to have an adult with you so that they are not responsible for your well being. If you have someone, you could contact your local Habitat for Humanity chapter - Habitat for Humanity has chapters all over the world and often volunteers will lodge other volunteers from different places while they help with a current project. Cross Culteral Solutions offers a lot of summer volunteer programs in different locations, but you will need to pay for your travel, room, and board.

Answer 3

Ask your school counselor. Some high schools have volunteer abroad programs that they will give you credit for.

If they don't, ask around at a community college. You might find something you get college credits for :-D

Here's one that a friend of mine participated in. She got a few college credits for it, but I think that high schoolers are also allowed to participate.

http://www.isvonline.com/

Answer 4

www.paperhouses.org

They make frequent trips to the colonias in Mexico.

Answer 5

There is a listing of the more-than-30 member organizations of the International Volunteers Program Association (IVPA) that is a good place to find reputable volunteer-for-a-fee programs -- programs that place unskilled volunteers, and the placements are just for a few weeks or months:

http://www.volunteerinternational.org/

Be prepared to pay yourself for your flights, in-country transportation, health insurance, accommodation, food, security, translators, training, staff to supervise and support you in your service, liaisons with the police and local officials, etc.

Here is a web site that can help you learn more about the skills and experience desired by long-term placement organizations, and how you can gain that experience locally, wherever you are right *now*, no matter your age. You are never too young nor too old to start engaging in activities and training that will make you a viable candidate for long-term volunteer placement agencies after you graduate from university:

http://www.coyotecommunications.com/volu...

Answer 6

If you use the advanced search utility for "Peace Corps" you'll get sponsored ads for a bunch or organizations. They offer vacations with work - instead of going to some sandy beach, you go to a place that needs an orphanage painted or something. They have a guide/work leader and you pay them for air fare, lodging, etc. I don't know if they will take people under 18.

In the USA, The Student Conservation Association

http://www.thesca.org/

lets you do manual labor in national parks. They take 16-year olds. You pay your own air fare and your share of the crew's food, the NPS provides tents. My daughter did that one summer; she loved it. You get weekends off in the most beautiful parts of the country.

About 10% of the 16-year olds in the USA would love to get out of the house, spread their wings and do something adventurous during the summer, preferably 8,000 miles from home. There are enormous legal and financial problems if you have a group of minors far from home. The problems multiply really quickly if you are in a foreign country with teens who don't know very much about that country. (The Peace Corps spends 3 months training its volunteers; language, culture and history. They are not experts, but they know a lot more than a tourist. No PCV would order a ham sandwich from a Muslim coffee shop owner, for instance, or rub a Thai child on the head.)