AFE's international volunteers are indispensable to its work.
They bring a global perspective to it's students and international expertise. The purpose of the short-term volunteer program at AFE is to give participants a longer experience working first-hand with the children and families of the garbage dump, with the hope that they will bring their stories home with them and become an ambassador for the children trapped in poverty.
Shane Clairbourne said it well when he observed:
“I had come to see that the great tragedy of the churchis not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor." (The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical)
When you volunteer at AFE, you come to know the poor,
and are forever changed by them.
"My time at AFE was one of the most difficult things I ever loved. By eating, playing, praying, and worshipping with the people of the dump community, I came to understand the way that my privilege and social location had affected the way I saw and related to God. Being exposed to another reality opened me up to experiencing God through the eyes of people who knew what it was like to depend on him daily and who had really, truly, fallen in love with Him in a way that I hadn't."
- Kelly Glenn, working toward a BA in International Studies at Seattle University.
Short-term volunteers serve at AFE for anywhere from one month to a year. Long-term volunteers typically make a three to five year commitment. Volunteers are accepted on a case by case basis through a phone interview and application process. Spanish proficiency and a commitment to AFE’s mission are required. Typically short-term volunteers live with a host family in the Linda Miller community.
Download the volunteer application here. Read more about our volunteer program here.