The Value of Volunteering

Globalteer is an "organisation independent of government, politics and religion with the objective to help projects and communities around the world." It is a non-profit charity that aims to help those in need.
According to Globalteer's website, the organization's mission includes: 

• Support - To provide support to communities and projects in need.
• Awareness - To raise awareness in developed countries of the plight faced by poverty stricken countries.
• Education - Educate locals and volunteers about environmental issues and the need to protect wildlife.

Currently the charity has projects to help children in Cusco, Peru; Medellin, Colombia; and Siem Reap, Cambodia, as well as wildlife and conservation ventures in Thailand, Indonesia and Cambodia.

Globalteer says: "We send volunteers to schools to provide free education to children who are unable to pay fees to go to local schools. We work closely with centres that care for children providing support and funding to allow a safe and comfortable environment in the most important and vulnerable time in their lives. In developing countries the poorest people are often overlooked as there is little governmental funding available to provide support. We work with projects that help the most vulnerable children and communities. By providing an education and vocational training to children we give them an opportunity to break the relentless cycle of poverty and support their own families by becoming a useful and productive member of their society."

Want to help? Make a donation or volunteer!

Do Something!

DoSomething calls itself the "largest org in the US for teens and social change." The organization further describes itself as: "A driving force in creating a culture of volunteerism, DoSomething.org is on track to activate two million young people in 2011. By leveraging the web, television, mobile, and pop culture, DoSomething.org inspires, empowers and celebrates a generation of doers: teenagers who recognize the need to do something, believe in their ability to get it done, and then take action." Indeed, DoSomething's causes include helping with disaster response and relief, addressing and finding solutions to teen violence and bullying, bringing attention to human trafficking and child labor among other international human rights issues, and offering information and action ideas on animal welfare.

One project being highlighted currently is "Rainbow Caps." Eleven-year-old Mahima Aggarwal is making crochet caps for kids with cancer in India. Contact her at rainbowcaps.com, send her yarn and hooks, or help her make the caps.

Another project is the "Battle for the Bands." This campaign aims to promote music education. Then there's an effort to provide jeans to homeless youths.

So if you have a cause that needs funding, if you want to start a club, if you want to contribute to a cause, then do so with DoSomething!

Global Changemakers

Since the community was founded in 2007, the British Council Global Changemakers have grown into a group of over 600 teenagers from 110 countries whose stated mission is "to empower youth to catalyse positive social change." They call themselves activists, volunteers and social entrepreneurs, and run their program around three pillars: learning, doing and advocacy.

Take changemaker Dan Cullum from New Zealand, for example. His goal is to prompt young people to make a difference simply by wearing a certain tee-shirt for a year. His says, "I am Dan." Interested in the plight of the underprivileged near his home, Dan has been working with Maori and Pacific Island minors in South Auckland who have become involved in drugs, alcohol abuse and violence, engaging them in local camps and sports activities.

Trevor Dougherty from the US is an "online activist" who uses social media such as YouTube and Facebook to effect social change. He is already one of CNN's top citizen journalists. His goal is to promote Internet access as a right for all youth everywhere, rather than a privilege for some, and to turn the "me" online community attitude to the "we" online spirit.

Mai Shbeta from Israel has a Palestinian Muslim father and a Jewish mother and lives in the only village in Israel where Palestinians and Jews reside together. As her background and experience have proved to her that peace between the two peoples is possible, her goal is to foster peace in the Middle East by bringing Palestinian and Israeli youth together through peace camps.

If you wish to join the network of Global Changemakers, register here.

Women Making a Difference

Unite for Sight, an organization founded in 2000 to provide "high quality eye care for all," was created by Jennifer Staple-Clark. The non-profit's website celebrates having provided eye care services to 1 million people, performed over 36,800 sight-restoring surgeries and trained 7,450 fellows to help eliminate preventable blindness. The eye care is administered by local optometrists and ophthalmologists to patients in their own villages. Unite for Sight also supports eye clinics worldwide.

First Book, also a non-profit social enterprise, was founded in 1992 by Kyle Zimmer, who realized that the children she tutored at a soup kitchen had no books. Today, First Book lays claim to having delivered more than 70 million new books to children in need in communities across the US and Canada. It thus addresses "one of the most important factors affecting literacy -- access to books". Volunteer to distribute books to the needy by contacting First Book.

Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE), founded by Elizabeth Scharpf, aims to "improve the quality of life for people in developing countries" via market-based means. A major project has been the development of a low-priced sanitary pad from natural raw materials for women in Africa and Asia. The idea is to help women start their own businesses making and locally distributing eco-friendly pads. Meanwhile, SHE is helping girls stay in school rather than staying home during menstruation because of the lack of sanitary facilities.


These women are not drops in the bucket. Every person they educate, every person they help can in turn help others and teach others to acquire the skills needed in their own villages and towns. Altruism is indeed contagious. Thanks to The New York Times' Nicholas D. Kristof for pointing that out.