​Want to volunteer overseas with us?
If you are under 25, we recommend you work with us through our formal internship program, Students for International Development (SID). Through SID, we host 15-30 volunteers per year in close-knit teams of 3-6 per site, typically for 10-12 weeks at a time. The program provides over 40-hours of pre-departure training resources and field-based training with a focus on professional skills for project management in developing countries. 

If you are over 25, you can still join us via SID, but we are also open to creating bespoke arrangements based on your skills, experience, availability, and living preferences. Email our founder (michael@pfid.ca) if you would like to chat about these options.

Providing Young Adults with the Training and Field-Based Internships needed to Reduce Global Poverty in Kenya and Peru. 

​Volunteering and Grassroots Organizing is in our DNA, as is partnering with local community members and stakeholders. We are a volunteer-run organization driven in tandem with full-time field-based coordinators. Together, our programs, training, and projects have been a success due to the partnerships and productivity produced by volunteers, organizational members, and field partners alike. A community effort meant to ensure relevance, sustainability, and quality long-term management.
How are we different from other International Volunteer Organizations?
  • Extensive pre-departure training and field-based professional development
  • Projects are complex, professionally challenging, and high impact
  • All work is done with support from local government
  • We are a volunteer-run not-for-profit
  • We ensure ultra affordable living costs through our team housing
Why Join Us?
  • Have a direct and lasting impact
  • Jump-start a career in international development
  • Work with a driven and fun team
  • More community based programs and fieldwork, less paper-pushing

WHERE WE WORK

Each country where we work offers a unique set of challenges and learning experiences. In Kenya, we work in the lush and densely populated rural and peri-urban areas around Kenya’s third largest city, Kisumu. In Peru, our volunteer teams work in Huanchaco, a Coastal Township on the outskirts of Trujillo, Peru’s second largest city. ​

WHAT WE DO

1Room

Make high school accessible to anyone, anywhere by designing a one-room schoolhouse for the 21st century.

1Room is a pilot-stage initiative to design an ultra low-cost, competency-based high school program that can serve the world’s most marginalized learners. 1Room aims to deliver a complete curriculum with as little as a single classroom and as few as 15 learners, for less than 15% of per capita national income per student. We achieve this through personal learning technology and staffing systems that can work offline and off-grid.

1Room is sponsored by PfID and several other NGO partners in the field. It is a complex initiative with many distinct components that draw upon, and that will build, a range of skill sets: curriculum design, digital content production, operations management, process engineering, monitoring and evaluation design, training and capacity building, partnership development, policy research, marketing, and market research.

Vulnerable Child Sponsorship

We find children at serious risk of illness or abandonment, and ensure they are healthy, in school, and learning well.
​
SID alumni have designed a sponsorship program for orphans that has statistically eliminate the academic disadvantage of being orphaned for a meager $80CAD per child per year. Actually, the program has done much more. In a country where only 45% of public primary school students pass the grade 8 national exams, our orphans in Kenya, who are selected on the basis of need, not academic merit, have achieved a 100% pass rate since 2013.

There are over 50 orphaned and vulnerable children sponsored through the program, which provides a simple set of supports: a mid-day meal, a healthcare spending account, uniforms and supplies, and school-run remedial programs.
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Most of the orphans do not yet have regular annual sponsors, and are still funded through general annual donations. Vigorous fundraising is an important part of this project. In the field, the project team’s work covers several areas: needs-based assessments for new program candidates, monitoring and evaluation, program renewal, guardian engagement, and the development of additional program components, such as peer tutoring, peer helping, and other activities to strengthen social capital, mental well-being and learning.

Public Health

Train and empower local nursing students to deliver hygiene and sanitation programs to thousands of children prone to water-borne illness.

Launched in 2014, AguaSalud, our health promotion program in Peru, teaches personal hygiene and sanitation to primary and secondary students. Informed by community members and executed in collaboration with local volunteers, this program strives to decrease the prevalence of gastrointestinal disease among children by improving water-related health behaviour through student-led workshops. As a secondary message in communities that face regular municipal water shortages, AguaSalud also teaches children about the household economics of water storage and conservation.
​
This project requires intermediate (conversational) Spanish and strong interpersonal and communication skills.

INTERNSHIP POSITIONS

Global Health - Kenya

Eligibility
  • 3+ years of post-secondary education, with coursework or past experience relating to global health and/or health services
  • 1+ years of training at a medical or nursing program at an accredited university (preferred)
Key Activities
  • Observe and support primary care in rural health centers
  • Clinical support tasks may include: determining BMI, taking blood pressure, assissting in assessments and procedures
  • Administrative support tasks may include: filing medical records, compiling public health data, supporting public health and patient education initiatives, writing funding proposals

1Room Project Manager - Kenya

Eligibility
  • Outstanding written communication
  • Ability to work independently
  • Curious and analytical – legal or policy research experience an asset?
  • Ability to speak confidently in front of small groups (i.e. meetings with government/school board officials)
  • Pursuing/completed a degree in education, political science, international development, or a related field considered an asset
  • Experience or studies in a policy- or law-related field an asset
Key Responsibilities
  • Research and analyze the impact of new or emerging education policies in Kenya
  • Work with local partner organization to bring 1Room’s program as close as possible to full compliance with any regulatory requirements so that partners, where applicable, can apply for government capitation funding for 1Room students
  • Write a stakeholder analysis to identify potential allies and opponents in both government and private sector
  • Prepare an engagement strategy for potential allies / funders within the country, both government and NGOs
  • Lay groundwork for favorable public opinion by conceptualizing and drafting media stories

OVC Project Manager - Kenya

Eligibility
  • Excellent oral and written communication
  • Ability to work independently and as part of a team
  • Enjoys working with kids
  • Pursuing/completed a degree in education, political science, international development, or a related field considered an asset
  • Work/volunteer experience in education/alternative education considered an asset
  • Experience working with kids/vulnerable populations an asset
Key Responsibilities
  • ​Identify the children in the school that have the greatest need for support from a tutoring/mentor-ship program
  • Coordinate with other OVC PMs to ensure consistency and sustainability
  • Develop a proposal for a remedial education program/resource center for OVCs with learning challenges
  • Research need for remedial education programs such as a preparation program for national exams, basic reading and numeracy for young students who have fallen behind
  • Develop hands-on activity-based learning modules and/or adapt those from other NGOs to the local context for upper primary students preparing for national exams
  • Develop individualized remedial education activities for at-risk upper primary students preparing for national exams
  • Pilot and evaluate the program
  • Collaborate with other OVC PMs, particularly those working on the peer tutoring program
  • Perform intake assessments for new OVCs at the ECE and Standard 1 levels
  • Conduct home visits to ensure continued eligibility for program
  • Audit partner school’s implementation of sponsorship programming (meal program, health spending account, etc.)
  • Develop media (photography, video, written stories) to communicate the demand for the program to existing and potential donors in order to secure financial sustainability

Agua Salud- Peru

Eligibility
  • Excellent oral and written communication
  • Ability to work independently and as part of a team
  • Excellent problem-solving skills
  • Pursuing/completed a degree in international development, political science, economics, Latin American studies, or public health
  • Work/volunteer experience in the public health sector considered an asset
  • Spanish fluency required
Key Responsibilities
  • Organize and deliver workshops on water-borne illness, sanitation, and personal hygiene (similar to UNICEF’s WASH program) to low-income children
  • Establish a partnership with a local university to employ nursing students as volunteer workshop facilitators
  • Organize and oversee training for workshop facilitators
  • Improve existing workshop curriculum and activities and facilitator training program
  • Identify needs and opportunities for infrastructure development within the local schools (i.e. the addition or repair of a water tank
  • Liaise with the local redes de salud (health posts) and other relevant stakeholders to ensure cooperation and mutual interest in sustaining the project
  • Identify additional partnerships for disseminating the workshop model through other NGOs, community groups, and schools
  • Strengthen the existing program evaluation and monitoring system, and conduct an assessment of the project’s sustainability and short- and long-term goals

1Room Project Manager - Peru

Eligibility
  • Excellent leadership skills – this is a start-up project (based on our existing 1Room model in Kenya), so we are looking for interns that can lead with minimal supervision from the coordinator, is a great question-asker, and has great problem-solving skills.
  • Ability to work independently and as part of a team
  • Excellent oral and written communication
  • Creative and critical thinker
  • Experience in IT or library work (digital organization/cataloging) an asset
  • Pursuing/completed a degree in education, political science, international development, or a related field considered an asset
  • Work/volunteer experience in education/alternative education considered an asset
  • Intermediate (conversational) Spanish. Not sure of your level? Try this free online self-quiz.
Key Responsibilities
  • Design a curriculum for a start-up after-school academic program targeting upper secondary students, with a focus on at-risk students working towards their high school diploma and high school students preparing for university entrance exams
  • Produce comprehensive digital courses and activity-based learning for upper secondary level, with a focus on subjects of difficulty (communication, math, and science) and with sensitivity to local learning needs and the cultural context
  • Adapt and develop hands-on, activity-based learning modules from other NGOs to the local context for upper secondary students
  • Identify gaps in existing creative commons teaching materials, such as Khan Academy Lite (Spanish), to prioritize topics for in-house production
  • Develop individualized remedial education activities for at-risk secondary students
  • Scout appropriate pilot regions/locations for program based on both collected and existing data and interviews
  • Develop partnership(s) with local NGOs and/or high school to test materials
  • Develop a detailed, documented, modular teacher training curriculum that helps teachers use our technology platform to create individualized lessons and measure student progress
  • Assist in creating a long-term organization system for digital- and paper-based academic content
  • Conduct quality assurance research (i.e. focus groups, partner high school, etc.) to test material
Working as a Research Associate for SID gave me the opportunity to pursue my interests in global health, while exploring knowledge and attitudes about maternal health in rural Kenya. The program not only helped me to develop research skills, but also gave me an appreciation for applying them in a developing country context 
- Rabia Bana

HOW TO APPLY

Email your resume to applications@sidcanada.org (Subject: Name – Country – Position)
Click HERE to submit a short online application
We will contact you to arrange an interview - Good Luck!​

COST AND LOGISTICS

 SID provides training and field orientation, full-time field support, accommodation (usually shared rooms), team meals at home, and local transport. We cover the cost of living and field support through program fees, which we keep as low as possible. Our goal is for SID to be the most affordable international volunteer program around so that we can attract strong people from diverse backgrounds.
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​Offset your program costs by fundraising
Each year, our project teams raise tens of thousands of dollars by soliciting donations, organizing events, mobilizing schools, and applying for grants. We provide volunteers with a variety of resources to assist in fundraising both for their own program costs (i.e., templates for university travel grants) and for their project. Additionally, for every $100 in donations you raise for PfID's international projects, PfID's founder will personally chip-in $25 towards your program fee, up to a maximum of $1500 CAD per person and a maximum of $15,000 CAD per year (on a first-come, first-serve basis).

Program Costs

  • Program cost for Project Managers for a three-month internship is $2,500 CAD ($1,950 USD).
  • Program cost for Global Health Interns for a six-to-12-week internship is $2,500 CAD ($1,950 USD).
  • Costs may vary slightly by site, project, duration, and with exchange rate fluctuations. The payment schedule will be confirmed in the applicant’s letter of invitation once accepted into the program.

Additional Costs

Additional costs to be covered by members include:
  • International airfares and optional in-country airfare or bus fare
  • Passport and visa costs
  • Vaccinations
  • Travel insurance
  • Medication (e.g., malaria prophylaxis)
  • Tourism and personal items
  • Personal airtime and personal internet use

Frequently Asked Questions

​Does SID take jobs away from local employees?
​No! For every additional international volunteer or employee in our team, we are able to employ between 1 to 5 locals, depending on the nature of the project. Our global team members typically take on managerial and leadership roles that are relatively expensive and difficult to fill in low-income rural areas, allowing PfID and our partner charities to reinvest overhead money into program delivery.
​Is it realistic to expect university students to effect significant change in a foreign country in the span of several months?
You may be skeptical, and rightfully so. The learning curve is steep. We don’t expect our members to move mountains, but we have seen them do pretty awesome things. Here are some of the achievements of some of our youngest alumni:
  • Building a maternity ward, latrine, water capture and storage system, stocking a dispensary with medical equipment, and having the dispensary taken over by the government (one person, age 20, 14 weeks)
  • Building and furnishing a medical lab taken over by the government (one person, age 21, 12 weeks)
  • Building or repairing six water springs (two people, 12 weeks; one person, 12 weeks)
  • Digging a 60ft well (still working 8 years later) serving 500 families and a primary school and authoring a successful government grant to maintain and repair 10 wells (2 people, age 19 and 20, 11 weeks)
  • Designing a 300-hour digital ESL program for 300 rural students (4 people, ages 21-23, 12 weeks)
​How much should I budget to volunteer with SID?
Please see our costs section of the page
​What is the minimum work period overseas?
​It varies by project. Typically 8 weeks. The vast majority of members work overseas for 10-14 weeks.
What is the deadline to apply?
​We fill our project teams using rolling admissions, starting as early as 7 months in advance for more complex projects to give sufficient time for planning, training, and resource development. We recommend applying at least 4 months before your planned arrival date. An early application also helps us work with you to obtain the necessary visas/entry permits on time.
When can I work overseas with SID?
Our main project cycles take place from May – August, but we are interested in having people join our field teams year-round.
How much work is involved prior to departure?
Roughly 35 hours pre-departure, though it depends how far in advance you join our team. Budget at least 20-hours to complete our pre-departure training program. There are plenty of readings, case studies, and even a few written tests you’ll need to pass (for your own health and safety). Budget 10-15 hours for paperwork, travel medicine, visas, packing, and other personal logistics.
What happens after I finish the overseas component?
We need our alumni to stay involved so that our projects can grow. Here are a few avenues:
  • Become a “project champion” (volunteer to lead strategic planning and participate in future team member selection for your project)
  • Become an alumni mentor to a future overseas team member
  • Join our executive committee. You do not need to wait for an opening; if you wish to propose taking on a particular role or internal project, we will welcome your engagement
Can I do a independent study project / practicum for my university on the side?
Yes, as long as you will be able to commit regular full-time hours to your project with SID. If you require someone in SID or a partner charity to fill out paperwork to vouch for your hours or job responsibilities, please give us several weeks advance notice. If the paperwork is onerous, we would kindly ask you to assist your supervisor in completing it.
what support will I receive overseas
In Kenya, you will have logistical and project management support from local full-time staff who work on PfID's projects. Our staff provide comprehensive orientations, training, and organize socials and optional weekend excursions.
​How many people have gone overseas with SID?
250+ as of 2019
What’s the typical age range of team member?
20-25
Is there a minimum age?
The greater of the age of majority in your home country or age 19
Do I need to speak the local language?
​In Latin America, intermediate-advanced Spanish is required (equivalent to third-year college Spanish). We may make exceptions for strong candidates who are enrolled in third-year level Spanish and who are willing to hire a tutor when they are in the field.

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