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Volunteer Vacations
Trips That Feed the Soul
By Teri Brown
Pre-training is one of the things you should watch for when looking for an organization through which to volunteer. It is crucial to your success as a volunteer family. Culture shock is a very real risk and your family needs to be prepared before you arrive at the host community. Global Volunteers, and other organizations like them, understand that and should be able to provide pre-trip support.
Michele Gran, co-founder and vice president of Global Volunteers, believes that support from the organization is crucial to success, both for the volunteers and the community they are helping. "We provide a very comprehensive orientation manual to every team member that guides them through the pre-departure preparation process," says Gran. "We ask volunteers to come with an open mind and a full heart, ready to serve the host community to the best of their ability. To become prepared personally, we recommend that they read about the host community, the local culture, learn a few words of the local language, complete our skills inventories and read our philosophy of service."
Though Global Volunteers is one of the only organizations that accepts entire families, other groups are considering doing the same and are looking for ways to integrate youths and adults onto the same team.
Another global volunteer group, i-to-i, is one of those organizations. Steve Snyder, director of marketing for i-to-i, says family teams are on the docket. "Our current minimum age requirement is 18 years old," says Snyder. "This is primarily for two reasons: one, insurance and two, in-country accommodations, many of which are home stays with limited space or communal living situations (dorm, ranger station) with limited privacy. However, due to the frequent requests we receive from familes, our development team is currently working on family-friendly programs, especially for countries where projects and accommodations would currently be suitable. For this, they are currently interviewing families who have inquired about programs to ascertain their needs and wishes to make sure that we can provide placements that meet our standards."