Opportunities may vary in length from one week to several years, depending on the program sponsor. Many of these organizations require participants to pay a program free as well as their own travel expenses. This listing was compiled in 1999 by the Florida Office of Collegiate Volunteerism for publication in its Volunteers 101 newsletter. It provides information about undergraduate study abroad programs with strong service and service-learning components. Amigos de las Americas Sponsors volunteers, primarily between the ages of 16 - 25, in public health and environmental projects in Mexico and Central and South America.
Programs offer a mix of community service and recreation.
Past projects have included building a vocational training center for street children on the Amazon, building additional rooms onto a health clinic in the Bolivian Andes, and doing some historic preservation and environmental cleanup in the Greater Yellowstone Area. Volunteers do not need any special skills, just a willingness to help. Cross Cultural Solutions a non-profit organization that sends volunteers abroad to provide humanitarian assistance with Volunteer Work Programs in China, Ghana, India and Peru. Their three-week programs give volunteers from all over the world the opportunity to come face to face with global issues and become part of productive solutions. They developed close partnerships with social service pioneers in the host countries targeting health care, education and social development as the focus of work.