by Haley Whitewood

Created on: December 24, 2007

Spring Break vacationing has become a big business, attracting hundreds of thousands of students and the money out of their pockets towards destinations throughout the US, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Many students are opting to spend those precious 1-2 weeks of freedom doing humanitarian work, making a difference helping with projects worldwide in a small window of time

IFRE
Tell your parents you've gone to help the orphans of San Jose! Not Silicon Valley's San Jose, but San Jose, Costa Rica, helping with the IFRE orphan's project. Volunteers teach the children basic hygiene, assist them with homework, teach English, and prepare extracurricular activities. To treat the volunteer, IFRE, or Institute for Field Research Expeditions, offers Spanish dance lessons and weekly field trips to places of interest. The program begins at around $999 for 1-2 weeks. For more information on this and programs in 17 other countries, visit http://www.irfevolunteers.org/.

Global Crossroad
Show your parents that you can be a doctor after all! Well, not exactly. Global Crossroad has a General Health Care Project in Northern Brazil. As a volunteer, you will be contributing to the functioning of small, understaffed clinics in the area. This price tag for this program starts at $1349 for a 1-2 week stay. Global Crossroad volunteer programs are in progress in a variety of locations, from Spain to Namibia to Tibet. Information is available at http://www.globalcrossroad.com.

Volunteer Visions
Time to don some kente cloth and head to the Motherland! One of Volunteer Visions' projects is a Community Development program in Ghana. Starting at $950 for a 2-week stint, this is a great opportunity to make an impact in this African nation at a grass roots level. As a volunteer, you will be helping to build such necessities as public toilets, library buildings, and community centers. To see more of the projects available in Ghana and other countries through this organization, visit http://volunteervisions.org.

United Planet
Know how your professor feels! United Planet is recruiting volunteer teachers for schools in Kathmandu in need of English speakers willing to give as little as 1-2 weeks of their time to Nepalese school children. For as little as $1295, you are given housing, travel assistance, and a chance to (kindly) boss little children around, as well as make a positive difference in their life. United Planet offers several projects in each of 50 countries. Type in the url http://www.unitedplanet.org.

There are literally hundreds of humanitarian opportunities available in every region of the world, whether you want to stay just for Spring Break, or for a year. Visit http://www.volunteerabroad.com for a complete list.

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