Interview conducted by Intern Jessica Miller From providing a network of volunteering opportunities abroad to working on collaborative initiatives, Village Volunteers seeks to empower communities around the world. With a variety of initiatives and partnerships with... read more
For many of us, menstruation is a normal process that occurs every month. While we might suffer from minor annoyances such as pain and discomfort, it doesn’t usually have impact our personal and professional development. For many girls in the world, this is not the... read more
Graining Mills: the Khalwenge Posho Milling Project helps a local village produce their own food, by Regina Williams, Journalist Intern from Seattle University. The Posho Mill project in Endebess Sub County was funded through WASSA Dance, an annual Thanks-giving... read more
Since the 2005 opening of his first Mama Maria Clinic, Peter Kinthene has seen remarkable success in his home at Muhuru Bay, a small village located near the border of Tanzania, but also in the work he has done. In 2007, Peter was the recipient of a CNN Hero Award for... read more
From Death’s Door To Mama Na Dada by Michelle Henderson Living in Kunya village has been a remarkable experience thus far. It could not be farther or further from San Francisco, aside from the fact that it is right on the coast of Lake Victoria, so I enjoy... read more
In Kenya, preventable water-borne diseases like diarrhea are the leading cause of death for children under the age of five. Over one million Kenyan families lack access to clean water. They rely on boiling water to make it safe, which in addition to being... read more
INDIGENOUS SEED PRODUCTION IN KENYA The Green Revolution (AGRA) is considered a milestone in Kenya’s quest for self-reliance in food grain production. The revolution has helped countries like India to increase grain production from a modest 50 million ton in 1950-51... read more
I remember sitting in Richard Gregory’s Community Development class at Medicine Hat College, being shown a film on female circumcision and wanting to do a field trip to Africa. That was in 2000 and in 2010 I realized my dream through an organization called Village... read more
Last year Village Volunteers helped raise funds to establish a goat dairy farm at Lenana Girls High School (Kitale, Kenya) through the annual WASSA Thanksgiving Day Dance, held in Seattle, WA. Thanks to generous donations, Common Ground for Africa (the umbrella... read more
Mama Maria Clinic, Muhuru Bay, Kenya: Earlier this month, several women – community health workers, ‘opinion leaders’, village elders, mothers of children with sickle cell anemia – participated in a training workshop on planting, harvesting and using the moringa tree... read more
LENANA GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL DAUGHTERS OF CHARITY. Lenana Girls High School Daughters of Charity is an organization developed by the girls at Lenana Girls High School for girls in high school and beyond. The organization started in 2014 with the aim of opening more doors... read more
Sister Freda is all heart. Any volunteer who works with her expresses how fortunate he/she is to have worked alongside someone so utterly immersed in service. But while most of what we talk about regarding the Sister Freda Foundation has to do with the copious medical... read more
Over the years Village Volunteers’ partnering organizations have shared their knowledge and experience of working with volunteers, and this has helped us greatly in refining our volunteer program. We’ve come to the core understanding that through our... read more
I met Joshua Machinga of Common Ground for Africa in 2001, Joshua and I knew almost immediately that we would work together to support local farmers as we shared a deep concern for the erosion of sustainable farming methods. But what also struck me was his... read more
At the outset, this article does not claim erudition on the vast subject of the importance of girls’ and women’s education in the 21st century. Nor is it an endless ramble of facts around women’s education for the reader to digest, like the fact that... read more
Experience: October 2011 Mary Beth Conlee My experience in Nepal could not have been richer. I loved being at the farm with this group of very dear young men, who went out of their way to show me hospitality and feed me wonderful fresh food! I want to always remember... read more
“So, how did this happen?! When did you decide?” Volunteers are often asked that question when they’re heading to or returning from volunteering abroad. Any serious volunteer would embrace that the decision to pack a bag and live in an unfamiliar... read more
A marvelous group of students from Wilmington College, Ohio volunteered at Namunyak Masai Welfare, Kilgoris, Kenya in December, 2014. To catch a glimpse of the kind of invigorating and life-changing experience a volunteer can have at one of our programs, read on …... read more
A while back an article in The Guardian posed the question – ‘Is “sustainability” going the way of “eco” and “green”?’ The newspaper spurred its readers to tweet and poll on ‘#sustywords’ that invoke... read more
Sometimes you just want to say things out loud – like how much we appreciate working with some incredibly plucky, heroic local leaders and visionaries, how rewarding it is to receive a genuine thank-you from a volunteer who had a life changing experience in... read more
