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Help Abroad

Who is A Broader View:

A Broader View Volunteers is a 501(c)(3) based non-profit organization based in Pennsylvania. With a love for humankind, and a motivated spirit to help others, A Broader View was created on the belief that one person can make a difference in the lives of others. Our US office is operated by an enthusiastic staff with almost 20 years combined travel and hospitality experience.

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About the Founders

A Broader View Volunteers was founded by Sarah and Oliver Ehlers, after a trip to Chile, South America. While there, they saw the overwhelming need of the children and incredible difference volunteers made in helping a local orphanage.

After returning home to the USA and researching different service organizations, they were stunned at how costly and restrictive many volunteering programs are. They decided to create an affordable, safe and worthy program so that anyone who wished to travel and volunteer - could easily afford to do so.

Oliver Ehlers was born and raised in Chile, South America. He holds a BA degree in Business Administration and Tourism. He has extensive experience in Business Development, Marketing and sat on the faculty of Economy & Business at the University of La Serena, Chile. He has traveled extensive throughout South and Central America, and spent time living abroad in Denmark and Spain.

Sarah Ehlers was born and raised in Philadelphia, PA USA. She holds a degree in Hospitality Management and Business. She worked eleven years in the area of travel management, focusing on coordinating international programs for the US market. She has traveled extensively throughout Central and Eastern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

Through their travels and backgrounds in Hospitality Management, Tourism, and Business, they have created an outstanding yet affordable program which offers the traveler the experience of their lifetime -- volunteering abroad and making a difference in the world.

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Why A Broader View?

What We Do

A Broader View Volunteers was created on the idea that one person can make a difference. We offer a range of affordable international service projects with the opportunity for cultural immersion abroad.

why ABV looks for, and collaborates with small non-profit organizations and humanitarian institutions that lack the means to recruit volunteers.

An extensive amount of research and time go into each program to ensure the best quality and safety of our destinations, accommodations and projects. Project sites, housing and host families are continuously monitored. ABV screens volunteers, assists with project selection, provides travel planning advice and is responsible for reliable customer service. Quite simply, we do all the legwork. We coordinate all the details and provide wide-ranging support, then send volunteers to projects where they are needed. In the meantime, ABV serves as your advocate - and is here to provide you with the most fulfilling, life changing travel experience possible.

why Arranging a program yourself can mean a lot of time and research. There can be uncertainty about the legitimacy of the hosting organizations, and the services they provide. Are the accommodations acceptable? Is the food provided safe to eat? Am I in a safe location? What support am I given while traveling? Will they meet me at the airport? ABV is a placement organization. We provide safe, affordable opportunities to volunteer abroad. We strive to keep our costs to a minimum.

What You Pay For
Consider expenses ABV and our host organizations come across - operating costs that indicated the need for program fees:

Overhead/Administrative: read more...

Website creation, construction and maintenance. Costs for advertising, internet, international phone service, sight inspections, staff salaries, office expenses. All of these come with a cost, we try to keep them to a minimum.

Overseas Management: read more...

Your program fees are used from the moment you arrive overseas, including airport pick up; cars, petrol and automobile insurance are required. English-speaking local project directors receive a salary. Many projects are located a distance away from the airport, our partners abroad must provide a means of travel, your accommodations, meals every day, and supervision while you working with them. They also remain in daily contact with our ABV office in the US, adding more international calls and internet usage. Then there is the airport drop off at the end of the program. If you become sick, have an injury or emergency, our partners abroad must have the means and know how to support you. Your program fees allow us to provide the best service for you –without putting a strain on the hosting partners many of which are already in dire financial need.

Acceptable Accommodation: read more...

Most projects include host family accommodations for our volunteers. Our hosting partners must find appropriate families, screening and monitoring them based on our standards. In other projects, our hosts must find appropriate hostel/guest house accommodations and then negotiate a reasonable fee for ABV volunteers. All this takes time, involvement and individual attention on the part of the local hosting organization.

We strongly urge you to comparison shop – you will discover ABV’s prices are extremely low compared to most volunteer travel organizations. Here are some of the bigger companies that offer similar services.

ABV offers affordable program fees. We know you are donating your time and money to volunteer abroad. There are transportation costs, visa/vaccinations expenses to consider, then your everyday living costs while you're away. Since the living costs are generally very low in our host countries, our program fees reflect this.
A Broader View strives to offer all people the opportunity to live and work abroad, to experience life from a different point of view and have a life-changing experience

Why a Volunteer Vacation?

Volunteering while traveling abroad adds a satisfying dimension to your overall experience. Volunteering creates a feeling of personal satisfaction. It grants you a privilege not afforded to the typical tourist: a unique opportunity to experience local everyday life while making a positive impact. Volunteering abroad immerses you in a new culture which improves your language skills, gives insight of a culture from the inside out and hopefully broadens your view of the World. read more...

children Volunteering abroad can be both challenging and very rewarding. It takes a special kind of person and not all are suited for it.The lack of home comforts and infrastructure that many fortunate people brought up in developed countries take for granted can be a strain for some.

There are many cultural aspects that you may find unreasonable and puzzling, that you will need to adapt to. The hosting countries of our programs have vastly different practices, attitudes, approaches to life, and language(s). There is the inevitable culture shock of living and working in a non-western country which one can not really prepare for. If you see these new situations as exciting challenges to overcome, rather than barriers, you are on the right track for a successful volunteer program abroad.

Have you ever considered doing one thing during your life that would make a complete difference to a child less fortunate? Have you thought about volunteering – a week, a month or even a year – your time in an overseas orphanage or school? What might seem to you an insignificant amount of time means everything to a child with little – or nothing. If you answered yes to any of these questions, a volunteer vacation may be just for you.

Imagine this:

There are approximately 350 million child-slaves in the world; millions of war-victim children; and starving, abandoned little victims everywhere! The International Labor Organization estimates that 352 million or 23 percent of all children between 5 and 17 years of age were actively working in the year 2006. This is reality - perhaps not in America, Canada or the UK - for millions of children around the globe. read more...

boys The amount of orphans in the world is staggering. In our host countries where we offer programs, there are over 200,000 Chilean orphans, over 2 million Peruvian street children living in extreme poverty, and an estimated 8 million AIDS orphans in Uganda, Kenya and Ghana.

According to the ONE campaign, "Around the world, more than 100 million children are not in school and more than 60 million of these children are girls. Whether a boy or a girl, every child deserves the chance to go to school and have a hopeful future."

Think about this:

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness... you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.
If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation...you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.
If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep...you are richer than 75% of this world.
If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace you are among the top 8% of the worlds wealthy.
If you can read this message, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read at all.

The children of the world need our skills, spirit, time and support. You too can make a difference. There is only one world - and we are all in this together.

Volunteering can be an exciting, growing, enjoyable experience. It is truly gratifying to serve a cause, practice one's ideals, work with people, solve problems, see benefits, and know one had a hand in them.

“You have not lived until you have done something for someone
who can never repay you” Anonymous