São Paulo – To do volunteer work in the Middle East or another region of the world during one’s vacation period. This is the proposal of Volunteer Vacations (VV), a company which takes Brazilians to work in areas most in need in the country and abroad, including refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan. A group is being formed to stay in Lebanon from April 28 to May 7 of next year.
Volunteer Vacations offers 25 volunteer programs to 16 countries. The first group trip to the Arab world will be the one to Lebanon next year, according to one of the project’s co-founders and partner, Mariana Serra. In each region, VV operates in partnership with non-governmental organizations and in Lebanon and Jordan it works together with Família Aziz, a project created by Brazilians to support refugees.
In Lebanon, the chosen destination is Zahlé, near the Syrian border and host of many Syrian Kurdish refugee camps. In Jordan, it’s possible to do volunteer work in Iraqi and Syrian refugee camps in Fuheis. No group trips to Jordan are scheduled yet, but Brazilians can take single trips to any destination offered by Volunteer Vacations any time throughout the year.
Serra says that the situation in the Middle East had touched her and other VV staff’s hearts, but they were only able to develop the program in the region once they found the right partners. She visited the region in October and organized the itinerary. “The political and religious context is very different from what we’re used to in Brazil,” she says. She says that the neighborhoods are identified by the people as Christian, Shiite, Sunni, among others.
Serra highlights also the history of the two countries and how welcoming they are of Brazilians. “The receptivity is very nice,” she says. She was very moved by the reality faced by the refugees, who she describes as people who used to have their professions, lost it all in a few hours and now depend on donations. “The cold in Zahlé reaches below zero and they live in tents,” she says.
Among the activities that the volunteers do in support of the refugees are English classes for children, lessons in math and other subjects, medical and dental care (if they have the necessary training), emergency care such as food baskets distribution and support to paperwork issues such as visa requests.
Via the VV programs, it’s possible to travel and do volunteer work in countries such as Kenya, India, Tanzania, Afghanistan, Thailand, Indonesia, Haiti, South Africa and Ghana, among others. Mariana Serra also says that in the majority of these countries the volunteer work is done in support of the local poor population. This is the case with Kenya, where 700 children become orphans daily. Kenya is the fourth most impacted country by HIV in the world and has a very high rate of teen pregnancy.
Volunteer Vacations sends nearly 300 people per year to do volunteer work abroad. To register for programs abroad, applicants need to be older than 18 with intermediate English-speaking skills. According to Mariana, the majority of people searching for this type of travel are women (92% of the total), aged between 18 and 35, and in the A and B income brackets (due to the trip’s costs). Before travelling, they go through an online training program.
The trips can be taken solo or in groups. Group trips include Missões VV (VV Missions), which are domestic trips in Brazil and can last one or more days, and Semanas VV (VV Weeks), which are group trips to other countries. For the group trips, the company sets up a schedule for each country and makes them available for those interested to register. Group trips have the presence of VV staff, with individual trips being managed by a local partner.
The volunteers buy their own air tickets, but VV can provide a list of partner tour operators. The traveller pays for the Volunteers Vacations package, which usually incldues support from the Volunteer Vacations team, local ground transportation, lodging, T-shirt, meals, work materials, local assistance, online training and a certificate, among other items. The trip to Lebanon, for instance, costs around USD 1,357.
The Volunteers Vacations
Volunteer Vacations is owned by Mariana Serra, Alice Ratton and André Fran. Serra, who has a degree in Foreign Affairs, worked in the Institutional Relations Division of construction company Andrade Gutierrez and was included in Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list as one of the top promising young leaders under 30 years old in Brazil.
Ratton has a degree in Chemical Engineering, a master’s degree in Chemistry in Renewable Energy Processes and is currently pursuing a doctorate in Transportation and Environment Planning. She is also an advisor in urban sustainability. Fran is a writer and lecturer and was one of the creators of the show “Não Conta lá em Casa” (Don’t Say Anything Back Home), aired by cable channel Multishow, on unusual trips.
VV is a profit-seeking enterprise, but it also aims to have a social impact. The creator of the project, Mariana Serra, was encouraged to do volunteer work by her parents since she was a kid and called her childhood friend Aline Ratton to create a travel website. Volunteer vacations was supposed to be only a section of the website, but became the focus of the whole project. Together with André Fran, they opened Volunteer Vacations on April 2014 after one year of planning.
Contact info:
Volunteer Vacations
Website: http://volunteervacations.com.br/
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
