Volunteers from 44 states participated in international volunteer programs with the volunteer organization Projects Abroad this summer
NEW YORK – September 12, 2013 – As summer vacations enter the past and students and teachers return to school, Projects Abroad is pleased to report a successful summer of international volunteering by participants from all over the United States.
In total, volunteers came from 44 states, plus Washington DC, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands.
The most popular types of volunteer work were in the medical and childcare fields. A third of all volunteers participated in medical projects, in areas including general medicine, dentistry, nursing, physical therapy, and public health. Another third volunteered with children in some capacity on Care projects, including orphanage work and helping in special needs centers.
Other popular projects include teaching English, environmental conservation, law and human rights internships, and international development and microfinance programs.
The states with the most volunteers were California, New York, New Jersey, Texas, Illinois, and Colorado. Ten other states also had double digit numbers, and include Florida, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Michigan, Connecticut, Maryland, Ohio, Washington, and Wisconsin.
Vermont had the most volunteers per capita, with one for roughly every 150,000 people. New Hampshire, Hawaii, and Rhode Island are other notable small states with relatively high numbers.
Volunteers traveled to all 28 of Projects Abroad’s destinations spread throughout Latin America, Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and the South Pacific, except the Philippines, the newest destination.
“It is great to see that our volunteers are so widespread both in where they come from and where they go,” said Projects Abroad Vice President Thomas Pastorius Jr. “This summer was great progress toward our mission to encourage people from all over to volunteer doing worthwhile work in the developing world, and for this to become the norm. We hope to soon regularly receive volunteers from all 50 states, traveling to experience and help in 50 or more countries.”
Projects Abroad was founded in 1992 by Dr. Peter Slowe, a geography professor, as a program for students to travel and work while on break from full-time study. The program had its genesis in post-USSR Romania, where students were given the chance to teach conversational English. After a few years just sending volunteers to Eastern Europe for teaching, the company expanded to sending volunteers of all ages around the world on a wide range of projects.
Projects Abroad is a global leader in short-term international volunteer programs with projects in 28 countries and recruitment offices in the UK, Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Holland, Hong Kong, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden and the United States.
For details on volunteering overseas, visit Projects Abroad’s web site at
www.projects-abroad.org.
