Why Give
When you give to Amizade, the impact of your donation is multiplied!
Generous contributions like yours allow us to create eye-opening and often life-changing opportunities for curious young people to connect with local communities in 17 countries. At the same time, your contribution directly benefits the organizations we partner within those communities: our partners receive fair compensation for their work with us, as well as a steady stream of volunteers to provide hands-on support. Contributions from supporters help us keep our program fees low and maintain strong relationships in communities around the world. Donate now!
Here are a few of Amizade’s major accomplishments that were made possible by donations:
MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS
OVER 26,000 ALUMS
Our alumni are more likely to vote, volunteer, graduate college, stay out of jail, join the workforce, display empathy, and much more. The impacts in their communities, as citizens, as neighbors, parents, and friends is difficult to quantify, but no doubt, extremely powerful and enduring. Our alumni are teachers, business people, doctors, politicians, and so much more. They report that their Amizade experience helped clarify their career path and changed their worldview, and they bring that experience to their networks.
FAIR TRADE LEARNING
We created the sector-changing framework of Fair Trade learning which has now been adopted by leaders and institutions around the world who manage volunteer programs abroad. We estimate that this has led to tens of thousands of cross-border collaborations being more ethically considerate and sustainable.
OVER 100 DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS CATALYZED
A prosthetic clinic in Brazil, beautiful parks in Trinidad and Jamaica, clean water tanks for hundreds of people in Tanzania, outhouses in the Navajo Nation, community gardens in Appalachia, hurricane relief in Puerto Rico, a school in Bolivia, preservation of a historic ranch in Montana, dozens of murals from peace walls in Belfast to derelict buildings in Pittsburgh, and so much more has been catalyzed, built, and sustained by Amizade.
THE GLOBAL SWITCHBOARD
We created and catalyzed The Global Switchboard, a coalition and co-working space in Pittsburgh which has effectively brought together over a dozen organizations to better manage global engagement in Pittsburgh.
GSL MOVEMENT IN NORTHERN IRELAND
Since 2012, Amizade has been helping to universalize global service-learning in Northern Ireland as a part of an anti-radicalization movement, meant to bring about shared education between youth. To date, this movement has led to several spin-off groups including those who have assisted those experiencing homelessness.
ABARE BOAT DELIVERS HEALTH SERVICES
Amizade has been sending medical students and volunteers to the Amazon for over 20 years. Because of our programming, health boats - that otherwise would not be able to operate - have been funded to visit remote Afro-Indigenous communities, and provide life-saving medicine and research.
JUKWA, GHANA LIBRARY PROJECT
Amizade funded and built a library in rural Ghana. It’s a large eight-room facility with computers, internet, meeting space, and thousands of books. Children who had no access to a library, now do.
CEOLI CARDS
Amizade manages a project that funds artists with disabilities in Bolivia to create and sell greeting cards in the US. The project has engaged and educated thousands of Americans about issues in Bolivia, while creating a living for folks who otherwise might struggle economically.
OTA INITATIVE IN TANZANIA
Amizade has helped catalyze opportunities for young people to have out-of-classroom enrichment activities all over the world. Two notable projects are the Ota Initiative in Tanzania (created and funded in part by an Amizade alum) and the AOC Summer Camp in Jamaica (which has impacted thousands of young people in the last 10 years and has been supported by Amizade volunteers and funds).
