A Service Group Built on 'Friendship'

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

Amizade means friendship in Portuguese. It is also the name of a service organization in the United States that places volunteers in projects mostly in developing countries. Amizade's executive director, Eric Hartman, thought of the idea in Brazil in nineteen ninety-four, which explains the Portuguese name.

The Amizade Global Service-Learning and Volunteer Programs placed three hundred volunteers in nine countries last year. These American university students and others worked in thirteen communities.

Amizade works with local groups and individuals on service and learning projects. The local groups define and direct the projects. The volunteers learn about local culture and make friends as they work in the community.

Amizade charges college students as much as ten thousand dollars for three months of experience.

Volunteers generally provide labor and do things like teach and assist at health centers. They can also do research. College students can earn work-study credits.

Participants in programs have included a twelve-year-old boy and a man in his eighties.

There are programs in Ghana, Tanzania, Brazil, Bolivia, Mexico and Jamaica. There are also programs in Germany, Poland, Northern Ireland and the United States.

Recently, in Tanzania, thirteen Amizade volunteers worked on systems to harvest rainwater from the roofs of homes. They worked on the project in the Karagwe area, in the northwestern part of the country. Eric Hartman, the director, described the water collection systems in blog postings from Tanzania earlier this month.

Rain falls on the metal roofs and flows into aluminum gutters. These gutters carry the water to a large collection tank on the side of the home.

The rain harvesting systems mean that a family member no longer has to walk long distances to get water. So there is more time for farming or schoolwork. The systems are especially useful for those who are too sick to go a long way for water.

On the Caribbean island nation of Jamaica, Amizade places volunteers with a local partner in the small community of Petersfield. The volunteers live with local families. They help children with schoolwork and computer skills. They also visit the sick and work on building, painting and other restoration projects in the community.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Steve Ember.

Amizade在葡萄牙语中是友谊的意思。同时还是一个服务组织的名字。该组织位于美国，主要向发展中国家的项目派遣志愿者。Eric Hartman是Amizade的常务理事，他在1994年的时候在巴西产生了这个想法，这就一这个葡萄牙名字的来源。

去年，Amizade全球服务学习和志愿者项目向九个国家提供了300名志愿者。这些美国大学生和其他志愿者一起为13个社区工作。

Amizade与当地社团和个人一起在服务和学习项目中合作。由当地组织界定和指挥项目。志愿者在社区工作的同时可以学习当地文化，还可以结交朋友。

在为期三个月的经历中，Amizade向大学生收取高达1万美元的费用。

志愿者一般提供劳动，做教师或者在健康中心做助理。他们还可以做研究工作。大学生可以通过这些获取工作效率研究学分。

该项目的参加者还包括一名12岁的男孩和80多岁的老人。

这些项目主要分布在迦纳，坦桑尼亚，巴西，玻利维亚，墨西哥和牙买加。还有一些在德国，波兰，北爱尔兰和美国的项目。

最近，在坦桑尼亚，13名Amizade志愿者在一个从屋顶上收集雨水的项目工作。他们在坦桑尼亚西北部Karagwe地区的项目工作。该项目主管Eric Hartman本月初在坦桑尼亚发表的博客中描述了雨水收集系统。

雨水降落在金属屋顶上，随后流入铝槽中。这些铝槽将雨水收集到房屋一侧大的收集罐中。

该雨水收集系统意味着家庭成员不再需要走很远的路去取水。这样就有了更多的时间来务农或学习。这些系统对于那些病重不能远行取水的人特别有用。

在加勒比岛国牙买加，Amizade将一些志愿者和当地和作者投放在小型社区Petersfield。这些志愿者与当地家庭居住在一起。他们帮助孩子们学习学校课业和计算机技能。他们还探访病人，以及社区中一些建筑，油画和修复项目中工作。