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VISIONS 2012 Program Locations & Dates ~ Our 24th Season

Nov 18, 2011

VISIONS joins you in welcoming another season! Summer 2012 dates and availability are now posted.

2011 marked our 23rd season of quality community service programs for teens and middle school students. We received wonderful feedback from participants and parents alike, and we are pleased that more than a few already have decided to return next summer.

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Preview of Summer Community Service Programs

Mar 26, 2011

High School Volunteer Programs Abroad and in the Unites States Include Assortment of Summer Opportunities for Teens and Middle School Students

Spanish-Immersion Community Service Programs

Peru - Continue expansion of irrigation systems for rural Andean communithy, install clean-burning stoves, adobe construction; Machu Picchu weekend, explore historic Cuzco, Maras Salt Mines, artisans markets

Ecuador - Environmental and construction projects in Galapagos and Andean village; explore Quito, visit Banos hot springs, mountain hikes, make quimbolitos with Lupe; play with Patate children

Nicaragua - Build medical clinic, work with children at Jinotega disabled center; visit eco-coffee plantation, weekend trips to Granada and sprawling Masaya market

Dominican Republic - Block and mortar construction of homes and in barrios of Santo Domingo; organize and supervise campamento (children's day camp); explore beaches, historical zone, marketplaces, Santo Domingo Colonial section; hike in the Dominican Alps; learn merengue, salsa and bachata; weekend escape to island paradise

French-Immersion Community Service Program

Guadeloupe - Traditional carpentry applied to small-scale community projects for parks and public spaces; harvest medicinal garden; tutor at Petite Anse Library day program; swim, snorkel, rainforest hike, explore Pointe-a-Pietre and Terre-de-Haut markets and shops; practice your French

Asia and Africa Community Service Programs

Ghana - Construction projects for regional orphanage complex, social service with resident orphans; explore Volta Region's national parks, beaches, historic ruins; learn traditional trades and crafts

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Community Service Programs Include Work with Children

Mar 24, 2011

Community service with kidsVISIONS takes on a diverse range of construction service projects in a single season in all of our high school volunteer programs abroad taken together. Every program also offers other volunteer opportunities -- environmental work, internships with farmers, craftsman and artisans, the creative challenge of designing and executing massive murals for schools or other community buildings, and more.

VISIONS participants also volunteer with children when possible. If we serve a community's children, we serve the lifeblood of the community.

Young children are quintessential ambassadors. Driven by powerful curiosity, they bypass language or cultural barriers to get to the objects of their curiosity. And teenagers are compellingly curious to little children. Even when work with little kids is not "formally" on our projects' docket at some service program sites in a given season, local children always manage to find us and lure us into playing with them.

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Spotlight on our Extended Volunteer Family in the Dominican Republic

Feb 24, 2011

VISIONS has been leading teen community service programs in the Dominican Republic since 1991. Our project partner since this program’s inception is the Lions Club of Sabana Perdida. Sabana Perdida has long been our home base neighborhood on the northern outskirts of Santo Domingo where VISIONS student volunteers are welcomed as family during their stay. Our dear friends and DR family, who participants will come to know well, are Santos, Lidia and Alberto Ramos.

The Ramos Family - Santos, Lidia, and Alberto
In many ways the Ramos’ are characteristic of Dominican families, warm and outgoing, loving, hard working, ready to laugh. In other ways, the Ramos family is unique. They are legendary in their community for their integrity and selfless service. For nearly two decades the Ramos family has been our family in the Dominican Republic. They embrace us, guide and advise us, provide loving wisdom and active support. Their contributions to their own community and to VISIONS embody the commitment to service that VISIONS strives to pass on to our participants. Indeed, the service model of the Ramos family transcends the borders of their or any other country.
Santos and Lidia are long-standing, still active charter members, and both past Presidents, of Club de Leones Sabana Perdida, El Milloncito (affiliate of the Santo Domingo and international Lions Clubs).

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Vietnam: Service Work with Ties to History

Jan 10, 2011

One of VISIONS Vietnam service projects can be viewed through a time lens, as a tapestry of time weaving past and present, cause and effect, conflict and repair. Over 35 years ago, during the Vietnam War, Agent Orange was sprayed from the air onto the crops and jungle foliage of Vietnam. Agent Orange is a chemical defoliant whose debilitating health effects continue to be researched and more clearly understood. A July 2010 news story reported an ongoing medical study on lingering health issues of Vietnam War veterans. Veterans who were routinely exposed to Agent Orange are three times more likely to succumb to Graves' disease and other autoimmune diseases than veterans who had no exposure.

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Student Reflections from Custom Program

Apr 5, 2010

The experience in Nicaragua was unforgettable. We played soccer with a Jinotegan team, went grocery shopping in a market, and enjoyed dinner with host families. For me, the best part was becoming close with Nicaraguans. From children like Reynaldo or Alec whom we played with, to teenagers like Jennifer who we could relate to, or adults like Victorino a role model who gave us support, the people were the key to making this a true learning service trip that I will remember for the rest of my life. - Rebecca Lowy

**

When I got home from Nicaragua and faced the challenge of readjusting to my life, which I had been blissfully separated from, my friends and family asked me about the trip. I gave various enthusiastic responses, frequently just saying "amazing" or sometimes going more into depth, describing experiences.

I told people about our work, digging trenches to lay pipes for potable water for people's houses. I explained how our group worked with Visions, AVODEC, and the locals of Chauite Grande to bring tangible and necessary life improvement. I was flooded with memories describing some activities we did after work: visiting a collaborative pottery workshop; exploring a beautiful coffee farm on horseback; having dinner with a family of Jinotega; dancing at a discoteca. The group itself had the kind of dynamic, positive attitude that

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VISIONS Scout: Rebuilding together in the Gulf Coast

May 15, 2009

Friends,

I’m going to write a lucid account of the trip to Mississippi, and sort into subjects or topics because I learned so much while there.  An organized account is in order.  For now, I just wrote a note to another friend and thought to send it on to you as a beginning.  Of course, we took tons of pictures.

I was 8 days on the ground in coastal Mississippi.  I miss it very much. Miss the people, first.  Miss the place, surprisingly to me.  It took me no time to feel the allure of the Deep South (not NC or SC or VA or Tennessee or Kentucky).  The communities of North Gulfport and Turkey Creek are vibrant (where we will be working); everyone we met was welcoming, engaging, interesting, easy to talk with and gracious.  And a few were downright larger than life such as Rose Johnson, a fearless native of North Gulfport who took on the good old boy developers who tried to commercialize parts of Turkey Creek and whose uncle was the last black man lynched in Waveland, Mississippi, and whose body they left in front of his mother’s (Rose’s grandmother’s) house in the early hours of the morning.

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1,100 Ways to Make a Difference

Apr 25, 2009

The service accomplished by VISIONS participants in two decades is mind-boggling.

VISIONS participants don't just ferry buckets of nails to carpenters or hand off cinder blocks and adobe bricks to maestros to put in place. Our participants do the work.

For construction projects we work with local masons and adobe maestros. Where we build with wood, we employ bona fide carpenters as full-fledged members of the leadership team. In the Caribbean where every home, school, community center and clinic was built to hurricane specifications, to date all structures remain sound, having sustained only minimal damage from hurricanes.

Here are data on VISIONS service projects since 1989. The list starts with construction and ends with the non-construction service that

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Service Projects and Community Work Accomplished by Student Volunteers

Apr 6, 2009

The service accomplished by VISIONS participants in two decades is mind-boggling. VISIONS participants don't just ferry buckets of nails to carpenters, or hand off cinder blocks and adobe bricks to maestros to put in place. Our participants do the work.

For construction projects we work with local masons and adobe maestros. Where we build with wood, we employ bona fide carpenters as full-fledged members of the leadership team.

In the Caribbean where every home, school, community center and clinic was built to hurricane specifications, to date all structures remain sound, sustaining only minimal damage from hurricanes.

Here are data on VISIONS service projects since 1989. The list starts with construction projects and ends with the non-construction service that every program offers in addition to construction. What's equally impressive is that

» Read More
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