As famine, poverty, pollution, environmental destruction, insufficient health care, and inadequate educational programs prevail on our tiny planet, the demand for services far exceeds the supply. Many people want to help but do not know where to start. At the same time, many human service and environmental groups need volunteers but do not have the time or resources to develop projects which fully utilize the talents, skills, and desires of the volunteers. For some organizations, training unskilled volunteers takes up more resources than it is worth. The result is that organizations and volunteers become disappointed and disenfranchised with the process. Amizade was created to provide opportunities for individuals and groups to be able to take part in educational, environmental, health, welfare, and other service projects around the world. Volunteers do not need to have any special skills. They just need a willingness to help. Amizade collaborates with existing community-based organizations to develop projects which will are both beneficial to the community and enjoyable to the volunteers. Most of these are building projects centering around the construction of schools, health posts, environmental centers, etc. Local members of the communities are encouraged to work with side by side with Amizade volunteers.
In July of 1995, Amizade ran a pilot program in Santarem, Brazil. The volunteers built an orthopedic shoe workshop for APAE. APAE, the Association of Parents and Friends (Amigos) of Exceptionals, is a Brazilian non-profit organization which provides health, education, and social services to low-income handicapped children. Over 100 children are born each month with impeded motor skills that require some form of corrective intervention. Unfortunately, orthopedic shoes and boots are only manufactured in big cities and come to Santarem at a great cost. Thus, it is difficult to acquire the orthopedic shoes and insoles that are needed. For this reason, Amizade and APAE developed a program in which a trained shoemaker, with the assistance of some of the APAE students, will make orthopedic footwear for the community.
Future projects in Santarem include building a vocational training center for street children, building a carpentry workshop for APAE, building a children’s center for Fundacao Esperanca - a nonprofit health care organization, building schools in rural villages, and planting trees for a re-forestation project.
The goal of Amizade is to establish programs in Brazil and to expand community service program sites in different regions around the world. Other program sites are being proposed in Chicago, Yellowstone, Bolivia, and Eastern Europe. Once program sites are established, Amizade will run annual and possibly bi-annual volunteer programs in those regions. Furthermore, in order to truly promote international relations and cultural awareness, Amizade is striving to develop an international client base so that the volunteers are not just originating from the United States.
On each program, volunteers may also have the opportunity to take part in other service projects such as renovating a hammock factory that will be used to provide jobs for developmentally disabled adults, tutoring health care workers in the English language, and working on a re-forestation project.
A trip to the Amazon would be incomplete without a boat ride down the famous river and a hike through the jungle. Recreation and cultural activities are also a major element of any Amizade trip. Volunteers will take a boat ride down the Amazon or Tapajós rivers where pink and gray dolphins play off the shores of Santarem. Hiking through the jungle, volunteers will get to see some of the rich flora and fauna of the lower Amazon basin. Participants will also spend at least one entire day at a quaint little beach town thirty miles outside of Santarem called Alter do Chao.
Accommodations: Volunteers will stay in a dormitory. There are two people to a room. The rooms are spacious and have both beds and hammocks. Every two rooms share a bathroom. Rooms are cleaned everyday, and laundry is done every other day. Amizade will provide all of your meals. Fish is the main dish in the Amizade kitchen and in restaurants. However, chicken and meat are served regularly. While tropical fruits are common, vegetables are not. We try to accommodate any dietary needs that volunteers may have.
Group Size: Group sizes for each session range from 6 to 16 participants.
Dates: The following dates are tentative and subject to change depending on flight availability:
Other Considerations: Why Do I Have to Pay to Volunteer? Your donation to Amizade is tax deductible and covers the cost of the program which includes all of your meals, lodging, and round-trip airfare from Miami to Santarem (in the case of Brazil programs). It also helps pay for some of the professional staff such as carpenters and masons as well as the administrative cost of organizing and coordinating the program.
Age Considerations: All participants must be 18 or older.
Reservations: There are a limited number of spaces on each trip. A reservation is held for a trip applicant, if space is available, when we receive your completed application form and deposit of $350. If the program is full, your application will be put on a waiting list in the order it was received.
Payment: Full payment for the trip is due 45 days prior to your trip departure. If payment is not received on time, the reservation may be canceled and the deposit forfeited. No payment (other than the required deposit) is necessary for those on the waiting list.
Cancellations and Refunds: If you need to cancel your trip prior to departure, please contact our office. The amount of your refund will be determined by the date and conditions of the cancellation.
After we receive your completed application form and deposit, we will send you an information packet that includes more specifics on your trip. If you have any questions, please feel free to call or write us:
If you would like to become a sponsor or wish to advertise on Seniors-Site please contact us.
Last update 5/8/96