Most organizations focus on helping communities, usually in third world countries, experiencing extreme poverty. Partners of the Americas a network of citizens from Latin America, the Caribbean and the United States, who volunteer to work together to improve the lives of people across the region, through nonpolitical, community-based activities. Besides providing technical assistance and training to communities in Latin America, the Caribbean and the U.S., Partners' network of volunteers promotes collaboration in the region's social and economic development through working relationships among professionals and institutions across the hemisphere. Civil Society Education and Culture Agriculture and the Environment Women and Families Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation NGO Strengthening and Leadership Training Peace Corps Opportunities are available in education, business, the environment, health, agriculture, and community development. Most assignments require a four-year college degree or three to five years of work experience.
Volunteers receive a stipend.
Every year, the program recruits around 250 Western volunteers, aged between 18 and 25, and partners them with local volunteers from other countries. Together, they receive intensive training before working in rural communities, raising awareness of important health, social and environmental issues, particularly amongst young people. TFT began in 1990 when an English teacher from Pennsylvania travelled to Romania as part of an international adoption agency team. She was invited by the the Romanian state of Hunedoara to return to Romania to teach English to area children. Her first summer classes were held at Paclisa, a neuropsychiatric children's hospital in rural Transylvania.