As a MissionServ International volunteer, you'll work side-by-side with local people to help achieve important community objectives. The volunteer work is carefully selected from partner programs overseas, all of which are dynamic and inspiring community-led initiatives. These include orphanages and child care centers, schools, health clinics and hospitals, homes for the elderly, centers for people with disabilities, and other community organizations. By working with local partner programs on projects that each local organization has defined and set up, you will have the opportunity to directly contribute to the objectives of the local community.

First of all, you will get to experience a rich culture full of unique people and customs. Translators are provided if needed to help you break through language and customs barriers.

Making a difference can be as simple as spending time with orphans, sharing love and affection with those who need it, sharing stories and photos with the elderly in a community, or practicing basic English with students of all ages. Or it can be as involved as building structures, tending to the sick and wounded, or ministering to hungry souls. The choice is yours.

Past volunteers have expressed how much they enjoyed the VOLUNTEER BRAZIL experience. Whether they nursed a broken body or a broken spirit, whether they helped mix mortar so buildings could be constructed or visited a single mother with too many mouths to feed, all our volunteers unfailingly express the joy and satisfaction they felt in having been a part of improving someone else's life.

Young people tend to achieve a completely new outlook on life from this experience. Witnessing for themselves the primitive conditions that some people cope with on a daily basis tends to open their eyes to how fortunate they are. The realization that their efforts make such a difference in someone else's life provides them with a life-changing experience.

This life-changing experience does not end when the volunteers return home. Many decide to take an active role in bettering their own community. Some will continue to remain active in global issues, and some will want to educate friends and family about the realities of the country they volunteered in. For everyone, returning home is an opportunity to share the enthusiasm and inspiration of their experience and be a voice for greater social involvement. By sharing your international volunteer experience with those in your home community and finding ways to incorporate what you learned into your daily life, you will play an important role in fostering cultural understanding between peoples.