Although having only working at Profugo for a short time, the incredible results of their projects are evident. When reading the students responses to the opportunities given through The Student Sponsorship Program, I found one student stood out to me. Sujeeth, after two years in the English Speaking program, explained “I am learning many new English words. After each class my parents ask me what I have learned, so I am also teaching them a
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During the academic year I volunteer at Henderson Middle School, an under-funded school in the city of Richmond, Virginia. I’ve been mentoring and tutoring the same group of students for two years now. In this short span I have already been able to form a strong bond with my students and witness them mature and develop their interests in and out of school. All of the students at Henderson have so much potential, but they
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In 2015, U.N. officials and leaders of international development programs announced that volunteers would be an essential part of efforts to meet the newly proposed Sustainable Development Goals. It was also a year in which volunteers demonstrated their potential to create change. Thousands of volunteers responded to the Ebola crisis in Guinea and helped to strengthen social services in Togo; however, despite the scope and significance of volunteers’ accomplishments, their contributions are often unrecognized or
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Imagine mostly inaccessible water, tainted with toxic chemicals. Then imagine being forced to travel long distances to drink that harmful water, because it is your only choice for survival. In the United States and other developed countries, access to clean water is something we take for granted. But in many parts of the world, such basic necessities are not so easy to obtain. According to Indian governmental surveys, 54% of homes in rural India do
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98 teddy bears – looking back, that’s what marks the beginning of my longtime commitment to volunteering. As a child (and with the help of an obliging mother), I volunteered several hours of my time to collect donations of teddy bears to be sent to a local children’s hospital. 98 bears and 15 years later, I can say that volunteering has been one of the longest “constants” in my life. However, my thoughts on the
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