20 Years of Voluntario Global

Impact report from our last 10 years (2015–2025)

Over the past decade, at Voluntario Global we have continued to build and deepen a way of working that centers community organizations, exchange between people from different backgrounds and cultures, and the creation of strong relationships through a shared network. 

Through this report, we want to share with everyone who has been part of this journey — organizations, volunteers, and allies — what we have built over the years, what we have learned, and how this path connects with the mission and values that guide our work.

Our main achievements

Staying Power & Women-led Leadership

One of the most meaningful things we have achieved over these years is, simply, staying power. In a context shaped by economic crises, political change, and global uncertainty, we have managed to keep a steady flow of international volunteers and, more importantly, to sustain long-term relationships with the organizations we work with, both locally and internationally.

Between 2015 and 2025, we welcomed 514 volunteers. But beyond the number itself, what really matters is that these were not isolated experiences. They were part of larger, collective processes built together with the organizations.

It is also important to highlight that 72.8% of those 514 volunteers were women. In many ways, it has been women who have sustained — and continue to sustain — our network over time. We are the ones who have taken on not only the political work of care, but also a commitment that reaches into many areas of our lives. Voluntario Global is still standing today because of that support. Recognizing “sustaining” as something valuable is also part of that acknowledgment.

This women-led leadership is reflected across our network as well: 90% of the organizations in our network are led by women. Looking at these numbers from a gender perspective, it becomes clear that leadership in our community is in the hands of women committed to the struggles of a diverse community — women who believe in dialogue and collective action, often without looking for recognition.

Diversity that Transforms

The people who have come through Voluntario Global have come from all six continents, with especially strong participation from the United States, Denmark, and Germany. That diversity does not just expand our international network — it also transforms everyday life within the projects.

At the same time, half of our volunteers have been between 18 and 21 years old, which makes this a key space for young people who are just beginning to ask questions about their place in the world, about global inequality, and about the different ways they can get involved.

For us, cultural exchange is not something secondary. It is a central learning tool. When people encounter different realities, languages, and ways of organizing, forms of learning emerge that simply would not happen otherwise.

Supporting Organizations

Another core part of our work has been the ongoing support of the organizations that are part of our network. Through the involvement of volunteers with different backgrounds and skills, not only are specific day-to-day activities strengthened, but new capacities are also created.

These include:

  • the development of technical and organizational tools
  • the strengthening of educational, community, and care spaces
  • support for community communication
  • the creation of intercultural connections and collaborative networks
  • the promotion of participation, critical thinking, and social awareness

At the same time, this exchange also helps build less visible but equally important capacities, such as creativity, collective motivation, a deeper understanding of social context, and relationships based on reciprocity and equality across difference.

This process is not immediate or linear. It requires building trust, respecting each organization’s pace, and working from their own needs and proposals. Over time, this leads to stronger organizations with a greater ability to sustain and expand their work.

    What have we built? 

    • Step by step

      Looking back at these ten years as a whole, what emerges is not just a collection of activities, but a process. A process through which local organizations have gained access to new resources and networks, volunteers have gone through meaningful and transformative experiences, and a way of working has taken shape that can truly last over time.

      Step by step, we have built a model that brings together exchange, learning, and community action — one that today feels solid, consistent, and able to keep growing.

      In a world where inequality continues to deepen, and where responses are often fragmented or short-term, what we have built at Voluntario Global carries a particular kind of value.

      Our experience shows that volunteering can be something different: a space for learning, questioning, and building together. It also shows that when networks are sustained over time, they can become a real foundation for strengthening organizations and helping community projects continue.

    • Rethinking Volunteering

      Perhaps one of the most important shifts we have built over time has to do with how we understand volunteering. Far from charity-based or one-sided models, at Voluntario Global we work to create experiences rooted in reciprocity. That means recognizing that giving does not move in only one direction. Everyone involved contributes, learns, and is transformed.

      Reflection spaces, meetings, and learning processes have been essential in this. They have allowed us to name tensions, questions, and lessons learned, and to build a practice that is more conscious, more thoughtful, and more just.

    • A network in motion

      Over the years, we have built something that now feels very clear: a network. A network that not only connects organizations and volunteers, but also includes former volunteers, educational institutions, and many other people who, in one way or another, remain connected to this process.

      For us, this network is not only a space for exchange. It is also a source of opportunity, support, and long-term sustainability. In many cases, it is what allows projects to keep going.

    Who takes part, and how

    • Genre

      Participation has had a strong female presence: 72.76% of volunteers were women, 27.04% were men, and 0.19% were trans people.

    • Age

      Although, overall, 50% of our volunteers were young people, the 2024–2025 period also showed significant participation from older adults: 21% of our volunteers were between 66 and 72 years old.

    • Length of stay

      Volunteer experiences also tended to be on the shorter side, mainly lasting two or four weeks, although a significant group stayed for longer periods. Looking at the length of stay, which ranged from one to twenty-one weeks, 23% of participants chose to volunteer for two weeks, making that the most common option. This was followed by four-week experiences at 19.6%, then eight weeks at 9.9%, and twelve weeks at 9.3%.

    • Areas of work

      As for the areas of work, the most popular projects were kindergartens, English support, and community kitchens. This clearly shows where much of the support has been concentrated, and also reflects some of the most pressing needs within community work.

    What Voluntario Global means to us today

    • Valeria Gracia

      For Valeria, who co-founded Voluntario Global with Armin and Nelly in 2006, it all began with an idea deeply connected to her activism, her academic background, and a living mix of community, cultures, and dialogue. But that idea only became fully real once she could share it with the people who were part of her political work, her dreams, and her everyday life.

      Today, Voluntario Global is a place of encounter, learning, and transformation for her. It is the space where she is surprised, moved, where she teaches and learns at the same time — “where others hold me, and I hold others.” More than a network, the organization is a complex, wide, and diverse web that holds her and has made her happy from the very beginning. People say that truly valuing what surrounds us and being grateful is one of the keys to life, and she feels grateful to be part of this — one more piece of “this other possible world we have been building for 20 years.”

    • Jesica Franco

      Jésica joined the organization in 2008, drawn by the chance to learn how to work in a social organization, to trust others, and to gradually find a place where she felt she truly wanted to be. Becoming part of Voluntario Global also meant making a decision about how she wanted to live and what values she wanted to shape her life-path.

      Today, Voluntario Global is a place of belonging for her. Even though she left Buenos Aires and has been living in Mexico for more than fifteen years, she still feels Voluntario Global is her safe place — a space where friendship and mutual support take on real meaning, and where she can simply be, without conditions. Although her path in academia has widened her horizons, Voluntario Global remains the place that gives meaning to her everyday practice as both a teacher and a person. It is where she continues learning to be herself with other, reconnecting with shared purposes, with the utopia of a world without injustice, and at the same time with the certainty that small transformations are possible when people care and work together.

    • Milena Sapey

      Milena came to Voluntario Global through a job search, at a time when she was studying Psychology and needed work that could fit alongside her studies. Although she already had experience in care work and administrative tasks, she was looking for something more connected to social and community work. When she saw the opening for volunteer coordination, she felt it was exactly what she had been looking for.

      Since joining at the end of 2015, Voluntario Global has become an important part of her life. Today, she understands it as a space that supports her because, at its core, it is an organization that supports others. For Milena, Voluntario Global is a network in the deepest sense of the word: a fabric that holds organizations, volunteers, and activists together, while also being held by them. It is a space where very different life paths become intertwined in complicity. It is also an anchor, a place that pushes reflection, critique, and transformation. In a world marked by so much cruelty, Voluntario Global represents for her a network, support, a trench, and an embrace.

    • Maia Borysiuk

      Maia joined Voluntario Global in March 2012 after a job interview with Valeria and Armin for the role of administrative assistant. At first, what motivated her was a work opportunity, although from the very beginning she sensed that this was a very different kind of organization from the ones she had known before.

      That first step was a major shift for her, because internally Voluntario Global did not follow a conventional structure, but rather a much more organic, unusual, and human way of working. Over the years, that first impression turned into a deeper understanding. Today, Voluntario Global means companionship, empathy, commitment, care, and family to her. It is a space where people think about others, where they care and take action. Even if she were to step away from the day-to-day life of the organization, she would still feel part of it, because the connection she built goes far beyond any role or task.

    • Kristin Nordhaus

      For Kristin, her connection to Voluntario Global was shaped by the chance to enter a space that allowed her not only to learn, but also to question herself, grow, and discover a new way of seeing the world. Her time with the organization was marked by constant learning, valuable friendships, and encounters with deeply inspiring people.

      Today, from Germany, Kristin still feels emotionally connected to Voluntario Global. For her, the organization holds a very special place in both her memory and her personal journey. She remembers it as a unique, strong, and deeply committed institution. She believes that, despite many global obstacles, Voluntario Global has managed to stay standing, to keep reinventing itself, and to continue supporting the communities that need it most. For that reason, she sees it today as a true example of resistance, solidarity, and love for others.

      VOLUNTARIO GLOBAL

      Voluntario Global helps local communities by being available to discuss anything that local organizations need, and offering ideas for further change and development.
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      CONTACT

      Location: General Pacheco. Buenos Aires. Argentina
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