Volunteers for Prosperity

Learn more about international voluntary service -- watch VfP public service announcement

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Match Your Skills to a Sector

Are you a professional who would like to use your skills to help people in developing countries? Select a category below to find VfP partners that utilize skilled American volunteers overseas.

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A Presidential Initiative that gives America's highly skilled professionals new opportunities to serve abroad.

In Rwanda, a mother and child are examined by two doctors from Physicians for Peace

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Winrock volunteer Martin Connaughton, a recipient of the President's Volunteer Service Award, helps El Salvador farmers build affordable greenhouses and trains them in agricultural advancements.

USG Humanitarian Assistance to Haiti

On January 12, USAID/OFDA stood up a Washington D.C.-based Response Management Team (RMT) to support the USAID/DART that deployed to Haiti early on January 13 to assess humanitarian conditions and coordinate activities with the humanitarian community.
To date, USAID has provided nearly $55 million in humanitarian assistance for the Haiti earthquake.
USAID/OFDA continues to communicate with partners on the ground to assess and prioritize humanitarian needs, including for emergency relief supplies, shelter and food assistance, and health and water, sanitation, and hygiene services. The humanitarian community is currently focusing on life-saving search and rescue operations.
On January 13, U.S Ambassador to Haiti Kenneth H. Merten declared a disaster due to the effects of the earthquake. In response, USAID/OFDA provided an initial $50,000 through the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince for the implementation of an emergency response program. USAID/OFDA is providing additional assistance in accordance with the findings of USAID/DART and humanitarian community assessments, as access to affected groups expands over the coming days.

How Can I Help?

Monetary Donations
For those interesting in helping immediately, simply text "HAITI" to "90999" and a donation of $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill. Or you can donate to other relief organizations working in the affected region.

Monetary donations are the most effective form of assistance because they allow humanitarian organizations to purchase (often within the affected region itself) the exact type and quantity of items needed by those affected by the crisis. Read about the advantages of monetary donations...

Commodity Contributions
While monetary donations are preferred to commodity contributions, there may be rare instances when a commodity contribution would be of value to relief operations.

See a list of conditions which are necessary to ensure that a commodity contribution is appropriate...

Read about handling appropriate commodity contributions...

If a commodity collection has already been made, but there are problems identifying a need in the affected region for the commodities or an organization to accept them, read about some alternate ideas...

Volunteering

Volunteer opportunities in disaster settings are extremely rare, and are usually limited to people with prior disaster experience and technical skills (such as health, engineering, etc). To register your skills and experience for a possible volunteer opportunity, go to the Center for International Disaster Information's registration page. For opportunities to volunteer overseas in non-disaster settings, visit Serve.gov. Or read about Volunteers for Prosperity, a volunteer program managed by USAID.