Volunteers For Peace (VFP)

Volunteering abroad with VFP was one of the greatest experiences in my entire life so far! I went to countries and visited cultures that were new to me. I met incredibly inspirational people. I felt that I really made a difference. The work was so rewarding and fun. At one site, we restored the pathway inside a large rose garden around a museum made from a palace that was abandoned during the communist period. The other site was a huge farm that needed help harvesting strawberries! The work was Monday through Friday for about 6 hours. On weekends we were able to go to site seeing in nearby cities. I made friends from Holland, Japan, England, Germany, New Zealand, and many other parts of the world. If you want a well-run program like this, then choose VFP.org.

This workcamp takes place in an exceptional place, the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve. The work they do for the environment is important to all. The people who work there are committed and fun to work with. While there the volunteers get to meet lots of local people, scientists and of course the international group. We all had a chance to learn about other cultures and find our own voice within the group. We learned lots of useful skills as well. We laughed a lot. I, as a facilitator, learn more about others and myself every year. Hopefully we are teachable no matter what our age. We had two Korean woman in their early twenties and an American of German descent in her mid seventies, an interesting mix and we all got along and loved spending evenings together.

I really enjoyed ST VINCENT, France work camp in a cemetery. The reasons are it was an an international experience, each member was from a different country. We were able to share our unique background and cultural similarities. I enjoyed not feeling embarrassed by our age. Each volunteer was a different age and it did not affect our work behavior. Our work schedule was organized in a professional manner and it made it fun for us to finish the project. The project was taking down the cemetery wall. We removed the grout and stucco and put on new one. We used hand tools such as a chisel, to take it off the old grout, and a float to grout and stucco the cemetery wall. Every day our meals were prepared by some of the volunteers and it made the work experience different and more fun. Our afternoon were free from work, and it gave us the time to visit the village, or swim at our own leisure to also enjoy the country side. I recommend work camp for those who are able to commit to a project, and to also discipline oneself to volunteer.

One of the Turkish girls had me over to her Grandparents house right on the sea of Mamara. They owned a fruit farm and I got to try an amazing assortment of home grown fruit. And the food was all home made and delicious. I just remember the beautiful sunset over the water. I could see for miles down stream. No one really spoke English, so we had to rely on pure emotion as a form of communication. It brought a tear to my eye that night and still does.

Volunteered with children who had Agent Orange. They required a lot of care to be provided to them on a daily basis. I remember a little boy whose head and body were twice or thrice the size of his legs and had to kneel on his knees the entire day, everyday. It was very painful to see. I'd recommend this programme especially to medical students who may be more well-aware on how to handle and love the children. It was really difficult for me, not having the experience needed so all I really did was to show my affection, feed them and sing to them. I guess that helped soothe their pains as well.