About

Volunteer Voyages LLC is an organization offering all-inclusive 10-14 day trips to various parts of the world. The primary focus of each trip for you is to immerse yourself into a meaningful project by volunteering your hands, hearts and time. The first half or so of the trip is spent doing volunteer work and working closely to the locals in need, and the second half of the trip is devoted to sightseeing, enjoying what the destination has to offer, and learning about the culture and history that brought these people to their present state.

Each trip and each project is unique.  We design our projects in partnership with the communities we serve.  We sit down with the leaders of the groups – mayors, community leaders, teachers, even tribal chiefs.  We first explain that we are not Santa Clause, so we aren’t going to simply give the community gifts and be done with our involvement.  We expect much more.  We ask them about the hopes, aspirations, and needs of the entire community.  What they would like to learn, what their biggest obstacles to advancement are, and what skills they need to develop, are all on our question list.  Together, we formulate a plan of action for our involvement.  A plan that focuses on the whole community, that is good for as many as possible, and that is sustainable.  Once those parameters have been established, we jointly design the project.  Then, when our volunteers arrive they are greeted with open arms… and open hearts.

It doesn’t stop there.  We treat each volunteer as if it is your first trip out of your home country.  We don’t want you to be uncomfortable, so we stay in air-conditioned hotels (yes, even along the Amazon River) and eat in safe, comfortable restaurants.  We travel in safe vans, busses, boats, tuk-tuks (three wheeled motorcycle-powered contraptions that are used everywhere we go), and even (sometimes) airplanes, and use professionally trained guides for the tours.  But if you’d rather rough it… we can arrange that, too.

We have provided multiple services projects in past trips that include (but are not limited to);

  • Medical assistance & health education
  • English-speaking instruction
  • Alternative methods of income-generating activities
  • Solar stove instruction & building
  • Water filter construction training
  • Crop planting & agricultural production
  • Animal rehabilitative sanctuary work
  • Community support & general collaboration

BACKGROUND

After a number of years of doing random volunteer trips to a variety of international locations, and marveling at the incredibly positive results these projects achieved for the local people, Dr. David Krier realized that there was something missing from the entire equation.  He had found these trips to be wildly fulfilling and his heart was bursting with satisfaction each time he returned home.  The organizations that had sponsored the trips were totally focused on the people they were serving – and that’s a good thing – but he felt that something was missing.  There had to be more to round out the trip.  Finally, after a lot of soul searching he realized that the missing link was the volunteer.  All of the organizations he had worked with were so focused on the recipients that they seemed to view the volunteers as simply commodities.  The hearts of these organizations were in the right place, but he knew there could be so much more.  David determined to change that.

In 2007, David yielded to his dissatisfaction and established Volunteer Voyages LLC.  Our mission statement reads, “Enriching lives through humanitarian service adventures”.  What it leaves out is a description of whose lives get enriched.  We won’t answer that question for you.  At the conclusion of your humanitarian service adventure – you can tell us.

So, each of our project trips combines multiple elements that are extremely beneficial to us.  We get to work hand-in-hand with people whose lives we are helping to enrich, and we also get to pamper and take care of ourselves.  All the while we are learning about a new culture, examining a rich history from the inside out, and making new, lifelong friends.

You, volunteer, are our most precious asset.  Please join us.