Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
VOLUNTEERS FOR PEACE
contribute to an international work camp
THE UNITED STATES & WORLDWIDE
These days, people are more inclined to use travel as a way to affirm their
connection to humanity, to measure the things we all have in common. It's
less about being jolted out of your own world than about feeling bolted to
the wider one.
Newsweek
44 | Stage a challenge race for the disabled from Fairbanks to Anchorage. Or help set up
Solar Fest, a renewable energy fair that takes place on a horse farm in Tinmouth, Vermont.
These are just two of the thousands of volunteer camps that Volunteers for Peace (VFP) sets
up each year. Other projects might be tagging sea turtles in Mexico or tutoring Native popula-
tions in British Columbia. Name a topic you're interested in or a country you're interested in
visiting, and VFP will undoubtedly have a work camp that fits.
Volunteers for Peace is a nonprofit organization that enlists volunteers for United Na-
tions-sanctioned community projects all over the world. At last count, there were about 3,000
programs held in more than a hundred countries. Projects range from historic preservation and
archaeology to ecology and social work.
You'll work in what VFP calls a “work camp,” a group of between 2 and 20 international
volunteers who come to help a local community with a project on which the community needs
help, typically for two or three weeks. At the Sadler's Ultra Challenge Camp in Alaska, for ex-
ample, you might drive the wheelchair athletes' pilot cars, assist them with food and clothing,
and learn about disabled athletes. At the Solar Fest Camp, held each year in July, you would
help clear the brush on the horse farm where it's held and make sure it's ready for the thou-
sands of folks who come to sing, dance, and celebrate renewable energy.
You'll work about 30 hours a week and live in cooperative living environments, some-
times in a school or a church and other times in private homes or at a community center. Vo-
lunteers themselves coordinate and share the day-to-day activities of food preparation and free
time.
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