From masonry to carpentry, environmental to humanitarian, VISIONS teen travel program participants completed large and small projects alike this summer. Worksite training kicks off every program, but the process to completion involves more than just physical work.
Relationships and collaboration, problem-solving and doing, foreign language skills and communication, leadership and following instructions, challenges and celebration. All are part of the experience and process.
The wonderful byproducts of the cross-cultural teamwork amounted to more than 30 completed construction projects, heartwarming new relationships with seniors, time with children, and 900 planted trees, just to name a few.
Our 2014 high school and middle school volunteers join an alumni group now spanning 26 summers, and having completed more than 1300 projects over those years. Each teen volunteer program has at least three projects running concurrently. Here are a few of this summer’s highlights.
- Built the second story of a community center and medical clinic in Nicaragua. This is a multi-year project done in collaboration with our local grassroots partner, AVODEC.
- Completed new bathroom facilities at an elementary school in Peru. Among other projects, VISIONS participants have built 7 schools in our 15 years working in Peru. Ongoing improvements and additions occur every year.
- Built a cinder block shed for a soccer league in Cambodia. Major renovations to a library and a day camp for young kids also comprised the Cambodia projects.
- Started a new partnership on the Montana Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation with the Senior Center. Shared stories, served meals, and received reports that the seniors had never stayed as long after lunch as they did when our participants were there.
- Worked with more than 60 kids at an educational day camp in the Dominican Republic, where we’ve now done construction projects and assisted children for 23 years.
See all projects from all sites.
Thank you to our summer participants, leaders and local partners.