Global Volunteers Reaches Out to Belarus Citizens

  In an innovative citizen-to-citizen program, a small group of Americans soon will be exchanging ideas and friendship with the people of Belarus – considered one of the most authoritarian and closed nations of Eastern Europe.

The St. Paul-based nonprofit organization Global Volunteers will offer a rare opportunity for U.S. citizens to share their English-language

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 skills with young adults from Poland and Belarus on a two-week service program in eastern Poland this summer. The dates for this English-language summer camp

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 are Aug. 5-19 and the locale is a retreat center just outside of the city of Siedlce, Poland.

Poland has played a pivotal role in helping Belarus in its rocky transformation from authoritarian regime to democracy, and, it is in that spirit that Global Volunteers’ host organization in Poland, the county government of Siedlce, has initiated this program uniting citizens of Poland, Belarus and the United States. Specifically, the Belarusian contingent will be comprised of 10 high school and college students ages 18-25.

“It will be incredibly important for these young people to spend two weeks in Poland with the Global Volunteers team and with Polish students to learn

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English and, more importantly, to learn about life outside of their country,” said Bud Philbrook, Global Volunteers co-founder and president.

If the program is a success, there may be more such exchanges in the future, he added. Global Volunteers has been sending volunteer teams to Poland since shortly after the Solidarity movement ended decades of Soviet communist rule and opened doors to fresh breezes of democracy and economic reform.

To reserve a spot on the special Poland-Belarus service program or to learn about other volunteer opportunities, visit www.globalvolunteers.org or call 800-487-1074. The tax-deductible Poland service program fee is $2,495 for two weeks and that covers all meals, hotel lodging, project expenses, ground transportation in the community and team leader services. Airfare is extra. However, all project-related expenses, including airfare, are tax-deductible for U.S. taxpayers.

Global Volunteers, a nonsectarian, nonprofit international development organization founded in 1984 in St. Paul, Minn., offers short-term service programs in 20 countries.