About uVolunteer, About Us
uVolunteer is specialist volunteer service organization focusing on voluntary work programs in Latin latin America. Our organization is run by ex-volunteers for volunteers. Our goal is to provide a fresh, personal, but more importantly, an affordable approach to volunteer vacations abroad. To be able to offer this service we base the majority of our operations in region we work within.
Fresh and personal: We want to be close to our volunteers and project placements whenever possible. By doing so we can give personal assistance and guidance to our volunteers. This enables us to monitor closely the work and projects in which we and our volunteers participate, while being close to the communities we work within
Affordable: We realize that short to medium term volunteer vacations can be quite an expensive activity and one of our primary goals is to introduce reasonably priced programs; we hope that this will allow more people to volunteer abroad.
Along with affordable prices, we still manage to offer a comprehensive package that includes standard volunteer management and coordination services such as:
- Airport Pick-Up Service
- 24 hour host country co-ordination
- Home stay and or dormitory accommodation
- 2-3 meals a day, depending on the type of accommodation
- Training skilled and knowledgeable host country staff
- Introductory language lessons
- Host country orientation including city tour and health briefing
- 24/7 Emergency host country & international help line
- Many people ask, how we can offer so much and yet keep our prices so low? By basing our operations and headquarters in the regions we work in, we can minimize our organizational overheads. We employ our staff from the countries we work in and from our pool of alumni volunteers and as a result of this, we help to create employment in the regions of operation whilst maintaining our motto of 'Run by volunteers for volunteers'.
Home country representatives
Because of the nature of our organization we get to know our volunteers very personally. In fact, a large part of our staff are former volunteers and members of the local communities that we help. Due to this we have a number of alumni volunteers (reps) who still volunteer for our organization when they return home. Our home country representatives act as an informative point of contact for prospective participants.
Because our representatives are volunteering their time by replying your emails, in order that they are not overwhelmed by lots of questions please keep your questions specific to subjects answerable by alumni.
American Representative - Caitlin Orrison
Caitlin, has been involved in community organizing and activism since childhood, traveling solo to her first major conference at fourteen. Since then she has coordinated and staffed numerous conferences for youth and adults. Holding a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies with a concentration in Religion and Social Change, her time in university was spent almost entirely overseas with the Friends World Program (recently renamed Global College) of Long Island University. The experiential nature of the program allowed her to gain invaluable first hand knowledge of the communities she lived in while studying Culture, Religion, Peace and Reconciliation, Environment and Agriculture, and Women's and Children's Issues. While studying in Central America she interned with Casa Alianza, an organization devoted to the rights and lives of street children and those victimized by CSEC (Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children). She is currently on the staff and governing board of the Southeastern Unitarian Universalist Summer Institute where she coordinates programming and workshops for the Young Adult Dorm in addition to policy and budget work with the board. As uVolunteer's American Representative she utilizes her travel and work experience to inform and assist potential volunteers as well as passing on her continuing passion for responsible community development, effective volunteerism, and ethical travel.
American Representative - Amanda Cordova
Amanda grew up in Seattle, Washington and after residing in Portland, Oregon for two years, she and her husband are moving to Nashville, Tennessee to be closer to his family as they start their family. Amanda is studying to become a teacher within an international setting, and her husband is studying to become a film maker -- making them a great match for travel and service!
Amanda additionally has genuine interests in health, yoga, environmental sustainability, Spanish, and art. Her love of travel has taken her to the United Kingdom, Mexico, all through out the United States and most recently, Costa Rica. Her travels have provided her with an enriched understanding of culture and diversity.
Having volunteered with Habitat for Humanity International, Portland Habitat, local elementary schools, art events, and faith communities, she understands the beauty of volunteerism. As a representative of uVolunteer, Amanda is excited to see people and communities shaped by the development work of this organization.
Canadian Representative - Mickey Correa
Mickey grew up and still resides in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He has earned a BSc. in Archaeology from the University of Calgary and through his studies on the existence and behaviors of people of the past has gained a greater understanding of present-day cultures and living traditions. While in university, Mickey was part of Model United Nations and attended the international conference held annually in New York City focusing on issues such as the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. Currently, Mickey also serves with the Canadian Naval Reserves as a Naval Communicator and has been posted to ships in the Pacific and Atlantic as well as having been involved in search and rescues, base and port security operations and exercises, and joint exercises with naval fleets of other nations. He is an active volunteer for the Canadian Red Cross in the Public Relations department and the Disaster Management Team. Having seen the real difference uVolunteer makes to the surrounding communities, Mickey is eager to inform and support any other potential volunteers as they consider taking on a project with uVolunteer in providing encouraging and sustainable endeavors.
UK Representative - Oliver Mackay
Oli decided to volunteer in order to combine his desire for travel with the opportunity to actually absorb oneself into another culture and give something back to that place and its people - rather than just scratching the surface. His background as an Anthropology student certainly contributed to this, particularly after having studied various cultures and their organizational structures, the identity of certain groups of people and the way in which their identity is moulded by various pressures and changes over time.
French Representative - Julie Jobard
I grew up and still lives in a small town in the French Jura. I have always had a real interest in travelling, discovering new cultures, learning languages, which lead me to different countries such as Russia, the United States, Senegal, Cuba, and a lot of European countries. After a degree in English literature and civilisation, I spent nine months in Bath, in England, working as a language assistant in schools. Back in France, I went on with my fourth year at university, specializing on intercultural relationships for my dissertation. As a French representative for uVolunteer, I would like to help and inform people who want to take on a project in Costa Rica, sharing my experience and telling them they can make a real difference !
