More on the Summer Abroad Component
As a participant in AJWS Volunteer Summer, you will travel to New York in mid-June for a two-day group orientation.
Orientation includes:
- An introduction to AJWS and the work of our partners overseas;
- Cross-cultural training;
- Jewish text study relating to international development;
- Country specific sessions;
- Time to get to know your AJWS Volunteer Summer group and group leaders.
In your host community:
Following the orientation, seven weeks are spent in-country. The AJWS Volunteer Summer group lives and works within a community while participating in a development project identified by the community as a local priority. The group also travels to sites of historical and cultural significance. In addition, the group celebrates Shabbat together.
AJWS Volunteer Summer operates on the premise that service and learning reinforce one another, together yielding a greater impact than either could alone. Knowledge is tested in hands-on projects, and participants have space for structured reflection and critical discussion of what they see and experience in their host communities. Several times each week the AJWS Volunteer Summer group gathers for Jewish study on social justice and international development-related topics.
Participants are hosted by AJWS project partners, independent non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working at the grassroots level to assist local communities in achieving their development goals. Participants learn directly from the host organizations' staff as well as other local and international experts on grassroots sustainable development.
Each weekday, participants work alongside members of the local community, engaging in a cultural exchange as they lay down pipes for a potable water system or bricks for a new school. Often the AJWS volunteers are the first Jews that the host community ever encounters.
