Human Services and Childcare
Placements with this focus include social work, counseling, youth engagement, and childcare. This focus tends to be where volunteers are needed most. Local staff members are often overburdened with their work. Both staff and the people they serve are grateful for the care, attention, and time given by volunteers. There are many current opportunities in human services and childcare.
Social Work and Counseling
On a social work or counseling placement you will be working with individuals one-on-one, or in a group setting. One-on-one counseling, particularly in a cross-cultural context, is a very sensitive matter. Therefore, it is only conducted by professionals with experience in counseling who have decided to pursue an Internship Abroad program (at least two months). However, social work extends far beyond the traditional one-on-one format. In other social work placements you will be acting as a mentor, for example for at-risk youth or marginalized women. You will also be helping to run programs at your host organization which aim to, depending on the population served, develop life skills, rehabilitate, and offer support to individuals. Placements in social work and counseling are invaluable learning opportunities for someone pursuing a related career. In addition to the skills developed working with the local community, you will gain an understanding of social, cultural, and economic factors affecting quality of life in the country where you are working.
Youth Engagement
Youth make up a large amount of the population where we work. In particular, where our partners are located in Africa, youth make up almost fifty percent of the population. That is huge in comparison to countries like the United States and Canada, where youth make up less than twenty five percent of the population. Based on numbers alone, organizations serving youth, such as schools and community centres, are stretched beyond capacity. Furthermore, when youth transition into the labour market, jobs are few and far between, making options such as drugs, gangs, prostitution, and violence seem like the only options available.
While Volunteering Abroad or Interning Abroad with a youth engagement focus, you will be working with impoverished youth. The programming at youth centres demonstrates the positive alternatives youth have available to them, provides a basic education to youth who may not otherwise have the opportunity to go to school, and develops critical life skills. You will either help to deliver the programs to youth, or will develop program materials for staff and future volunteers. Both are important ways to lend a helping hand.
Childcare
In areas where we work, not only do children make up a significant amount of the population, many have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS or war. In Africa there has been an emergence of child-headed households, homes where an older child takes on the role of his or her deceased parents. When possible, they will live in an orphanage. It is notable that while it is well-known that HIV/AIDS has led to many orphaned children in Africa, this has also happened in parts of Latin America, such as Colombia.
We work in orphanages providing vital childcare to orphans who have no other alternative. The need is dire, and local staff members are severely overworked. Participants help to relieve the burden by caring for, tutoring, and mentoring children. In addition, participants can choose to help develop new programs for the children. Local staff are extremely grateful for the care, attention, and time that our participants donate to the orphanage.
Where We Have a Human Services and Childcare Focus
We have Volunteer Abroad and Internship Abroad placements focused on Human Services and Childcare in every location where we work. This includes the Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Peru, and Colombia.