UNIVERSITY COALITIONS for GLOBAL HEALTH

Hey All—Check out a word from our partners at SPW! If you’re looking to volunteer abroad then they’re your people!

Students Partnership Worldwide (SPW) was a founding member of UCGH, and currently works as part of the professional development working group. SPW was established in London in 1985, and has developed a respected international reputation for its youth-led health and environmental education programs, with endorsements from the World Bank, UNESCO, WHO and UNAIDS.

SPW harnesses the energy and enthusiasm of trained volunteers (aged 18-28) to run targeted, peer-led education programs to empower young people in rural communities in Africa and Asia. Nearly 1000 volunteers a year participate in SPW programs: over 85% of the participants are African or Asian, while the other 15% are recruited from North America, Europe and Australia. This diversity brings an enormous range of skills and experience to each program, as well as an enjoyable opportunity for meaningful cultural exchange.

Following 3-6 weeks of intensive training, international volunteers are placed in pairs or small groups with national and local volunteers within rural communities in Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Zambia, India or Nepal. These teams live and work together full time for 5-12 months. SPW volunteers use a range of formal and informal methods (school lessons, extracurricular activities, community seminars, youth resource centers, and community-wide festivals) to teach about issues such as sanitation, nutrition, organic farming techniques, HIV/AIDS, and child rights. To promote sustainability, the focus of each project is decided on through collaboration between the volunteers and local community members and leaders.

Want to learn more? Join our next FREE Information Session conference call! The information session will last about an hour and will give you a chance to hear more about our programs, our application process, and why SPW is unique among international volunteer opportunities. Just shoot an email to info@spw-usa.org to register for the free call. For more information, please see our website www.spw-usa.org

This entry was posted on Friday, February 15th, 2008 at 1:39 pm and is filed under Events, HIV/AIDS, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.