Our Accomplishments and Initiatives Supporting Cross Cultural Understanding and Addressing Shared Challenges

Quest Volunteer Abroad Program-- International

• United Planet volunteers served from one week to one year in over 40 countries and provided over 250,000 hours of international community service work in healthcare, education, women's empowerment, orphan/street children care, construction, environmental conservation, teaching, disabled care, elderly care, and more.
• Ten more children receive attention, tutoring, and educational activities for every volunteer who works at a school, orphanage or after-school program for street children in Romania, Cambodia or Guatemala.
• One hundred children receive state-funded Hepatitis B vaccinations for every volunteer nurse or doctor who spends two weeks at a rural clinic outside of Cusco, Peru.
• Five low-income families receive a roof over their head for every high school or college-age student who joins the Homebuilding Quest in Chile.
• Provided doctors, psychologists, and nurses to help in disaster relief efforts in the worst hit areas of Thailand (Pangnga) and Indonesia (Bandar Aceh) after the 2005 Tsunami.
• Provided teams of over 100 non-medical volunteers to help reconstruct villages and rebuild fishing boats destroyed by the Tsunami in Ranong, Thailand.
• Brought valuable donations and supplies around the world to assist our partner organizations. Our Pangnga medical team carried valuable medications to the camp of 7,000 displaced Tsunami victims. Our Northeastern student team brought thousands of dollars of needed supplies to a home for abandoned
  children in Irapuato, Mexico.
• Provided doctors, dentists, and nurses to clinics around the world, from Asia to Central America.
• Enabled students, professionals, retirees, families, corporate teams, and school groups to make  a difference in communities abroad, work in international teams, and expand their cross-cultural sensitivity and global perspectives.
• Established 1-52 week programs in over 40 countries, from Jordan to Mozambique.
• Provided valuable support to orphanages, schools, environmental conservation projects, foreign NGOs, hospitals and clinics, and more.
• Arranged a Tibet cultural immersion program led by Steve McCurry, photographer of the world's most well-recognized photograph and National Geographic's most famous cover of the green-eyed Afghan girl.
• Encouraged volunteers to share and exchange cultures and experiences in schools both while abroad and upon their return through our Cultural Awareness Project.
• Worked in Romania to build essential housing for orphans and protect the orphanage from flooding.

Community Development Projects -- Local

• Developed the micro-empowerment concept to provide essential funding/micro-finance, combined with volunteer support and ongoing mentoring, as a sustainable development model.
• Launched the first micro-empowerment project, the Lavenderia Planeta Unido , in Guatemala to provide a steady revenue stream for a shelter for abused women so that the children of the shelter could  have
  fresh milk daily and the women could gain valuable training and skills.
• Supplied volunteers and financial support to build a library at a vocational school teaching HIV/AIDS education to the community of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. The library allows educational materials that the
  volunteers, teachers and students use to be housed in a safe and clean environment.
• Established Anna's Cambodia Memorial Fund, which provided for the expansion of the Imagine Children's Center in Siem Reap, Cambodia in order to significantly increase the space available to accommodate more orphans.
• Established a carbon offsetting program in Ghana. For every volunteer that participates in the Ghana Quest, ten trees are planted in the village they volunteer in to offset the carbon used during their international flight.
• Dr. Jon Ryder, UP Board Member and UP Healthcare Director, developed the United Planet "Adopt-a-Dentist”, “Doctor”, and “Teacher" Program to help provide the crucial resources needed to improve the desperate conditions in the world's poorest countries. These programs help provide financial aid and valuable resources to dentists, doctors, and teachers in developing nations and help raise healthcare and educational standards throughout the country.

Ambassador Clubs -- Local

• Worked with several high schools and colleges to bring about the launch of UP Ambassadors clubs worldwide. 
• Dominique Charles successfully launched the first UP Ambassador club in 2005 at DePaul University. Below is a partial list of some of the many events the DePaul club has participated in:
  • Latin night in collaboration with Latino organizations on campus at a local lounge
  • Mini-series focused on the roles of young people in shaping the image of the United States across the world. This series took place after attending a conference with keynote speaker Hillary Clinton and Gov. Rod Blagojevich for the 1st American Democratic Institute
  • DePaul club conducted a summit on the effects that 9/11 has had on Islam and Muslims in the West.
• The United Planet Ambassador Club of Boston University is organizing an International Volunteer Group for next summer, where team members will participate on an international service abroad. They will also be giving their first Cultural Awareness Presentation to the Club on November 18, 2008.
• Biram Saidybah is President of the United Planet Ambassador Club of University of The Gambia. The Club has already been accepted at the Student Union and is planning its agenda for next year.
• The United Planet Ambassador Club of Togo is successfully running the "Meals of Diversity" project. Club President M.Kokou H. SOTIA has developed an exciting action plan for its community, including a training program for rural women and a library building project.

Cultural Awareness Project-- Local

• Worked together with Barnes & Noble to regale young children with stories from around the world and introduce diverse countries and cultures.
• Conducted volunteer presentations in Istanbul, Turkey to the community at large regarding cross-cultural relations and international cooperation.
• Invited presenters to speak at classrooms in Chile regarding their cultural backgrounds in personal dialogue with students in Santiago-based schools.
• Provided experts from Rwanda and Indonesia to speak at the United Nations Association International documentary film festival in Boston.
• Worked together with Barnes & Noble to share stories from around the world with young children and introduce diverse countries and cultures.
• Performed cultural presentations for targeted television audiences, such as AT&T Broadband's "Extra Help," which reaches 180,000 households in Massachusetts.
• Introduced a range of multi-cultural presentations and speakers to elementary to high school students, including performances by a Japanese Koto player and foreign policy discussions by volunteer presenters from the Middle East.
• Linked academics, college students, and international clubs from key universities, i.e. Harvard, with local schools to enrich students' cross-cultural understanding.
• Inspired and provided the model for a program instituted by Boston City Hall to facilitate cross-cultural understanding and friendship among City Hall Employees.
• Created a global online database to bridge cross-cultural presenters and interested groups, such as schools, organizations, and companies, in countries around the world.

Voices of Earth Cultural Exchange -- Online

• Harnessed the Internet to engage people from over 150 countries in fun and interactive cultural exchange on a wide-range of cultural and humanitarian topics including: culture, history, the arts, geography, current events, social and healthcare issues.
• Inspired over 5,000 people from more than 150 countries to share their voices in the form of over 20,000 articlesabout life and culture in their respective countries and important global issues.
• Utilized the Internet as an informational hub for the exchange of information related to the 2005 Tsunami disaster. This tool provided valuable support for coordinators and supporters of the disaster relief effort.
• Enabled United Planet members to learn and appreciate foreign languages, such as Arabic, Mandarin, and more, by providing language teaching forums and foreign language discussions online.
• Provided valuable information, including statistics and profiles, on over 250 countries and territories around the world.
• Allowed people from every country and territory on earth to share their voices and perspectives in interactive bulletin boards devoted to their countries and territories.

Most importantly, over 5,000 committed United Planet volunteers and members from over 150 countries have worked together to foster cross-cultural understanding and address shared challenges through a diverse range of programs to unite the world in a community beyond borders.

Grant -- International

• “UP Receives Grant: Timberland Advances Special Project”. For more information click here.
  

Financial Reports

View 2007 Financial Reports

Learn more about United Planet's Volunteer Abroad Programs in over 40 countries from 1-52 weeks