Sep 14, 2007
Operating arduous volunteer vacations, an organization called Global Citizens Network makes no concession to dilettantes
Some -- not all, but some -- of the so-called "volunteer vacations" are obvious fakes conceived to satisfy the ego needs of the organizer, and conferring no real benefit upon the communities to which the volunteers go. Nor do the volunteers really participate in the life of the communities they visit.
The Global Citizens Network of St. Paul, Minnesota (tel. 800/644-9292 or 651/644-0960) is, by contrast, the real thing. It sends groups of Americans to indigenous communities of underdeveloped areas (including our own Navajo reservations), where they share the lives of the people they visit and labor at much-needed community projects . In its write-up of a trip to Kenya, the organization bluntly warns: "There may not be running water or electricity. Participants will likely use latrines and bathe using bucket baths." On a trip to remote Mexico, it writes: "Meals will be simple, traditional fare -- rice, beans, tortillas and vegetables." At the Navajo Nation in Arizona, "Team members stay in the Chapter House, sleeping on the floor in their community room. Many bring air mattresses if desired."
Trips vary considerably in length and price: as, for example, eight days to the Navajo reservation, for $800 per person (plus the cost of airfare to Arizona); 10 days to a remote Mexican village for $1,400 (plus airfare to Mexico); two-and-a-half weeks to Kenya, in the Maasai Mara, for $2,100 plus airfare. All prices are substantially reduced by GCN's insistence that these payments are tax-deductible because charitable in nature.
You'll have the full flavor of an unusual program suitable for only the most dedicated Americans, by going to www.globalcitizens.org.
Write and read comments about this post.
The Global Citizens Network of St. Paul, Minnesota (tel. 800/644-9292 or 651/644-0960) is, by contrast, the real thing. It sends groups of Americans to indigenous communities of underdeveloped areas (including our own Navajo reservations), where they share the lives of the people they visit and labor at much-needed community projects . In its write-up of a trip to Kenya, the organization bluntly warns: "There may not be running water or electricity. Participants will likely use latrines and bathe using bucket baths." On a trip to remote Mexico, it writes: "Meals will be simple, traditional fare -- rice, beans, tortillas and vegetables." At the Navajo Nation in Arizona, "Team members stay in the Chapter House, sleeping on the floor in their community room. Many bring air mattresses if desired."
Trips vary considerably in length and price: as, for example, eight days to the Navajo reservation, for $800 per person (plus the cost of airfare to Arizona); 10 days to a remote Mexican village for $1,400 (plus airfare to Mexico); two-and-a-half weeks to Kenya, in the Maasai Mara, for $2,100 plus airfare. All prices are substantially reduced by GCN's insistence that these payments are tax-deductible because charitable in nature.
You'll have the full flavor of an unusual program suitable for only the most dedicated Americans, by going to www.globalcitizens.org.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: volunteer
Fifty years ago, 
Arthur Frommer is generally acknowledged to be the nation's foremost travel authority. He is the founder of the
