Thank you for visiting the Global Service Corps blog! Global Service Corps (GSC) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to design and implement volunteer vacation and service-learning community development programs that benefit the volunteers and positively impact the communities they serve.
Visit the Cambodia, Tanzania or Thailand in country pages to hear first hand from volunteers about their experiences on the ground in the communities we serve.
We are pleased to report the latest news of the Global Service Corps (GSC) International Health (IH) Programs in Southeast Asia. These programs in Thailand and Cambodia provide the opportunity to observe and participate in the functioning of health care facilities in developing countries while also providing needed services to the host community.
Both health professionals and non-professional pre-med, health and medical students are invited to participate in these programs. Professionals are able to work alongside counterpart professionals and learn and teach about their area of expertise. Pre-med, health and medical students spend part of their program shadowing healthcare professionals and part of their time teaching HIV/AIDS prevention and/or English while assisting at NGOs, schools, orphanages or homes for the disabled. All IH program volunteer participants are provided an initial orientation and training program prior to assignment.
For country specific information on these programs visit Thailand or Cambodia blogs or the GSC website.
A new partnership with The PILGRAM Foundation has allowed for a major expansion of GSC’s youth HIV/AIDS prevention program in Tanzania!
The PILGRIM Foundation and Global Service Corps-Tanzania’s (GSC-TZ) objective in this project has been to extend financial support to reduce the impact of the HIV/AIDS crisis on youth in Tanzania. The PILGRIM Foundation, through its support to GSC-TZ, has shown its awareness and concern for the need to address the current situation of HIV/AIDS prevalence in Tanzania and its spread among young people. As a result of this project, participating youth’s knowledge of HIV prevention is becoming more accurate, with the goal of translating this information into behavior changes which are reducing their risk of contracting the virus. GSC-TZ is impacting this situation in order to break this cycle caused by ignorance through peer education and student health club mobilization. This project report encompasses youth-focused events which have taken place in the past six months, and which will take place in the coming year in Arusha, Tanzania. Pilgrim Foundation has provided an on-going support for four staff (youth themselves) who have been engaged since July 2008 to ensure that there is a sustainable and on-going provision of monitoring and encouragement. These peer educators work in participating secondary schools where GSC-TZ has conducted day camps in the past – now numbering 21 schools in the Arusha area. The three key elements of support by Pilgrim Foundation involve peer education through:
I. Engaging four dynamic youth leaders as GSC-TZ Youth Counterpart staff to do follow-up visits on an on-going basis to the 21 participating secondary schools under supervision of the GSC-TZ Youth Coordinator.
II. An annual meeting of teachers, parents and peer educators (a workshop-based forum for teachers, students and a few parents from each school).
III. Art & performance competitions which promote HIV/AIDS messages among youth.
The first and third of these three elements have been enacted during the period, while the second is to be addressed during the first half of this 2009 calendar year. The goals and outcomes of all three activities are being accomplished, to assist peer educators to promote their health clubs as a means to increase ‘buy-in’ of other students in the training activities. Students are educating and encouraging each other to use life skills to safeguard their HIV status. Teacher and parent support for the health clubs is still lacking; this up to now has adversely determined the low level of clubs’ activity (especially in the government schools where teachers are over-worked and underpaid.) GSC-TZ’s efforts, through the peer education coordinators (PECs), has encouraged health clubs to meet at least once a month, and the frequent follow-ups are encouraging the groups to meet, make strategies and conduct at least one training each month. This may further improve as GSC incorporates lessons learned from other peer educator programs in Tanzania.
After the successful launch of the volunteer vacation program in Thailand this past summer Global Service Corps (GSC) is pleased to announce the launch of our new very affordable volunteer vacation programs to augment our popular service-learning volunteer programs in Tanzania. GSC Volunteer Vacations are designed for travelers who wish to participate in a cross-cultural learning vacation experience while also doing some volunteering in Tanzanian or Thai elementary schools or orphanages. TWO-WEEK PROGRAMS START AT Just $1170!
The newly launched Tanzania program begins with your arrival in Arusha, where you will be met by a GSC representative who will escort you to a comfortable guesthouse. Here you will stay for the first three days of orientation before moving to your homestay or alternative housing (available for an additional fee.) Following orientation activities, you will begin your volunteer service in schools and orphanages. Volunteer placements include teaching English and providing much needed services to underprivileged children.
With over fifteen years of experience operating volunteer programs abroad for students, active retirees, mid-career professionals and families, GSC has successfully leveraged best practices in international volunteerism to launch our newest volunteer offering, GSC Volunteer Vacations. GSC Volunteer Vacations are designed to be affordably priced and flexible volunteer abroad experiences in comparison to GSC’s more intensive two-week to six-month long service-learning programs.
GSC Volunteer Vacations in Tanzania and Thailand are offered year round with bi-weekly start dates and program lengths of two or more weeks.
Click here for more information about Volunteer Vacations in Tanzania!
GSC has been offering Conversational English and Orphanage Care programs in Thailand since 1995. In 2007, GSC launched its “English for Life” program in Thailand, which has brought English language and HIV/AIDS prevention training to secondary school students and their teachers. We are now working with selected local non-profit organizations to bring these unique and successful programs to Cambodia. Placements in these programs are now available in and around the Cambodia capital city of Phnom Penh starting in May of 2009!
The English for Life Program provides direct education, and builds the skills of local teachers in HIV/AIDS Prevention and English as a Foreign Language (EFL). English is not part of the Cambodian public school curriculum. However, many residential children’s centers for orphans, private nonprofit schools, and community-based organizations offer English language instruction, recognizing its importance to the future livelihoods of the children and youth in their care. GSC volunteers have the opportunity to help close this English language instruction knowledge gap, increase teachers’ comfort levels in teaching HIV/AIDS prevention, and keep future generations safe from this disease.
Global Service Corps provides HIV/AIDS and EFL training along with a variety of project placements in orphanages, private nonprofit schools, and community-based organizations. The Cambodia in-country program manager is Susan Hagadorn, EdD, MPA. Susan has over 25 years public health and education experience and has resided in Cambodia the past four years.
Click here for more information about GSC Programs in Cambodia!
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