Volunteer Global

A few days ago, Malcolm Trevina of Meaningful Volunteer sent me a story about Grassroots Uganda, a small group that started with a young woman named Alaisa Nandudu and a bracelet.

"Alaisa had been up all night and making this seed bracelet. I was suitably impressed. Alaisa was living in a small house with her husband, four of her own kids, two HIV orphaned nephews, and a bunch of chickens. Alaisa and her family were eating maybe one meal a day. She had it rough.

"One thing led to another and I eventually released GrassRootsUganda.com."

With the help of volunteers and women’s groups in the area, Grassroots Uganda has proven to be a successful enterprise – it has allowed Alaisa the chance to build a new house and keep her children in school. More information about Meaningful Volunteer and its initiatives can be found here.

Last year, my cousin gave me some jewelry from another Ugandan women’s group called Bead for Life. Their materials are made from recycled paper, which is rolled into colorful beads and strung into necklaces, earrings, and bracelets. Their initiatives help to educate and care for orphaned children, promote environmentally friendly business practice, and provide healthcare for those affected by malaria or HIV/AIDS.

These aren’t the only jewelry and crafts initiatives to assist community development projects – and it’s not just women’s groups working on them. Volunteers can travel worldwide to create business plans, design new crafts, and assist with outreach both within the host community and on a global scale.

A few examples of these organizations that I host on Volunteering Global include:

ArtCorps (El Salvador, Guatemala, & Honduras) - www.artcorp.org
Volunteers assist with community development initiatives by promoting arts as a celebration of heritage. Past participants have organized parades, plays, and workshops, painted murals, and more.

Artesania Sorata (Bolivia) www.artesaniasorata.com
Volunteers teach creativity workshops with children, provide classroom assistance for deaf children, and help artisans with crafts design and marketing.

Art in Tanzania www.artintanzania.org  
Volunteers assist with handicrafts and arts development, as well as NGO assistance, orphanage work, sports coaching, and environmental conservation. Related groups also operate in Ethiopia.

If you’re interested in helping on one of these, or other, projects, I encourage you to see what’s out there. You can weave blankets in Peru, preserve historic buildings in Nepal, and even catalogue artifacts and research cultural art projects in the Caribbean.

If you don’t have the time or money to travel abroad on one of these programs, it’s easy to help from home. Bead for Life offers advice on hosting bead parties, the proceeds of which can be donated to the organization. I also recently read about an initiative to sew dolls from donated clothing, and another fundraiser in which a group hosted crochet parties to create scarves, hats, and gloves. There really is no limit to the types of work you can do in crafts assistance at home and abroad.

Heard of a volunteer group that works with artisan assistance? Email me at info@volunteerglobal.com, and I’ll take a look. If you’ve worked on one of these programs before, send your story or pictures along!