Thankful for: 15 Years of Amizade Volunteers Making a Difference

Fifteen years ago, Dan Weiss organized a group of friends for a volunteer project in the Brazilian Amazon. The group saw things they had never before imagined and made a difference in a way they hadn't previously thought possible. When he returned to the United States, Dan founded Amizade - using the Portuguese word for friendship - to provide people who want to make a difference around the world with the opportunity to do so through volunteer programs. Since that time, Amizade has connected thousands of volunteers with community-driven service programs around the world - and also expanded to offer academically rigorous service-learning programs in cooperation with West Virginia University. Volunteers and students join our programs from across the country and around the world, and collectively, they have:

• Built classrooms, a children's center, a kitchen, community centers, and offices with Pastoral do Menor, a Brazilian organization that supports children's educational opportunities and safety.
• Provided thousands of hours of tutoring at schools in the Navajo Nation while learning in-depth about Navajo life, history, and culture.  
• Cooperated with an exceptional community development organization in rural Jamaica, The Association of Clubs, to provide children with tutoring support, computer skills classes, photography and videography workshops, and  educational and fun summer camp experiences. 
• Raised awareness, improved understanding, and completed historical landscape preservation at and around Auschwitz in ongoing efforts to support Holocaust Remembrance and Contemporary Anti-Genocide Programming. 
• Learned about and supported efforts to address severe poverty, hunger, and homelessness in Washington, DC. 
• Provided volunteer support in health clinics and hospitals and also nearly finished construction of the first library in the area in Jukwa, Ghana. 
• Built an orphanage and school classrooms in Cochabamba, Bolivia, while also providing thousands of hours of direct service with children in orphanages and a Center for Children with disabilities.
• Supported youth programming and built a peace labyrinth in Northern Ireland, all while learning more about the Peace and Reconciliation process there.
• Ensured the environmental preservation and historical restoration of the OTO Dude Ranch, the first guest ranch in the American West, in Gardiner, Montana.  
• Beautified a school and supported English as a Foreign Language learning along the Mayan Riviera. 
• Cooperated with organizations and individuals in Pittsburgh, PA, to enhance literacy and numeracy tutoring programs for newly arriving refugee populations. 
• Increased water access and improved basic women's rights in rural Tanzania by cooperating with local organizations to install water harvesting systems, an effort now marked every spring in Pittsburgh and Morgantown with the Annual Water Walk for Women's Rights. View the video from a previous year's water walk below. For more information, or to get involved in the 2010 Water Walk, email Laura Hoch in Pittsburgh (Laura@amizade.org) or Anna Phillips in Morgantown (Anna@amizade.org). 

• Amizade volunteers have completed all of these things and much, much more, and I'm thankful to be part of these Amizade efforts! 

Oregon Man to Volunteer Around the World with Amizade

A fantasy volunteer globe-trotting community-driven service expedition that few have imagined and even fewer have completed. Lee Spangler, a 63-year-old retired individual who keeps a daily photo blog in his hometown of Bend, Oregon, is only about a month away from embarking on a three-month journey during which he will serve and learn with Amizade in Brazil, Bolivia, Tanzania, Jamaica, and the Navajo Nation. Lee has already started blogging in preparation for his experience, mentioning the beautiful Pico Iyer travel essay that's part of the Amizade Journal.

Lee's journey also demonstrates a substantial commitment to giving one's time, energy, and resources in efforts to support communities worldwide. That commitment brings to mind another striking and important essay featured in the Amizade Journal, Princeton Philosopher Peter Singer's "What Should a Billionaire Give -  and What Should You?"

Check out Lee's Amizade Adventure blog and sign-in as a follower. It's sure to be an adventuresome several months!