Overseas Volunteer Trips Shed Light on the Global Nature of Poverty

Volunteers and Kenyan community members working hand in hand.

This summer hundreds of bright-eyed, enthusiastic youth joined our organization to volunteer in Kenya and immerse themselves in the local culture of the Maasai Mara. The participants worked hard building schools, hiking through the communities and playing with the eager and appreciative children. 

Although this was a rewarding experience for the participants, they struggled with the harsh reality that surrounded them: the reality of poverty. The Kenyan children who came to school every day with wide smiles and loads of energy were often going without food or clean drinking water. Though frustrated, the volunteers were able to see the tangible difference they were helping to make in the community first-hand. Slowly they realized that through projects like theirs, change was starting to happen. But it doesn’t stop there. In fact, helping out overseas is only part of the equation for ending global poverty.

Poverty is not only a reality for the people of the Mara or communities overseas, but is a real problem here at home as well. Assisting those in need in your own neighbourhood provides a hands-on way to stay engaged with the issue of poverty. The powerful experience of seeing absolute poverty in rural Africa made the volunteers attentive to the basic human rights that people in their own communities were lacking, and got them thinking about how they could help to create change locally, as well as globally.

Taking the lessons learned abroad and applying them locally is a wonderful way to begin working in solidarity with our neighbours to strengthen our local communities. In the Maasai Mara, when one “momma” does not have enough food to provide for her family, a neighbouring momma reaches out and gives whatever she can.

There are many amazing social service programs in North America that allow individuals hoping to make a difference the opportunity to do so. You can start with Free The Children’s Halloween for Hunger campaign, which helps youth collect non-perishable food items for their local food bank on Halloween night.    

There is never a shortage of opportunities to help out in our society, and the rewards are always satisfying. The challenge is in finding ways—big or small—to contribute to your own community and see first-hand that even through small actions, big change is possible. Let’s help our neighbours, strengthen our communities and move closer to the eradication of poverty everywhere!

Free The Children is the largest network of children helping children through education in the world, with more than one million youth involved in our innovative education and development programs in 45 countries. Founded by international child rights activist Craig Kielburger, Free The Children has an established track-record of success, with three nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize and partnerships with the United Nations and Oprah’s Angel Network.