The Peace Corps is the US government’s international volunteer program. Since 1961, it has sent American volunteers to live and work in communities abroad, in fields such as education, health, agriculture and youth development, with the aim of building friendship and understanding between Americans and the people they work with.
Peace Corps service is a long commitment. If you’re thinking of applying, a shorter placement abroad first is a good way to find out whether that kind of life suits you, and to build relevant experience along the way.
Can you volunteer in India first?
Yes. Volunteering India is a privately owned organization based in New Delhi, with no connection to the Peace Corps or any government. We’ve hosted volunteers from more than 30 countries since 2004, and anyone aged 17 or over can apply, for stays from one week to 18 weeks. Several of our projects work in fields the Peace Corps also covers, such as education, health and youth development.
Here are the programs that line up best.
Education: teaching in Jaipur
On our teaching program, you assist local teachers at government, NGO and community schools in Jaipur, teaching English, math or sports to middle-school classes. You prepare lessons, take small groups for extra practice and find ways to keep learning lively in big classes with few materials. If you hope to teach abroad long term, it’s a realistic first taste of the job. Open from 18.
The slum schools program is another way in: you teach small groups of children with a grassroots project that charges families nothing.
Youth development: street children in Delhi
The shelter homes and non-formal education centers on our street children program offer children from Delhi’s slums and streets regular meals, a safe space and the chance to catch up on schooling. Typical tasks include:
- teaching English, numbers and general knowledge through games rather than textbooks;
- leading art, music and sports sessions;
- encouraging everyday habits such as washing hands and brushing teeth;
- joining the staff when they take the children to a museum or the zoo.
Health: the medical internship
Students of medicine, nursing, dentistry and physiotherapy, and pre-med students, can spend two weeks or more at a private hospital in Delhi on our medical internship. You follow doctors and nurses through three or four departments you pick in advance, mostly watching and asking questions. Anything more hands-on is up to your supervisor and your stage of training, and interns never treat patients alone. Open from 18. Read more about why students choose an internship in Delhi.
Gender equality: women’s empowerment
Gender equality is a goal shared by development organizations worldwide. On our women’s empowerment program, you join community centers run by local NGOs in Delhi’s urban slums, where women and girls come for English conversation, literacy and computer classes, and to learn a trade like tailoring or beauty work. English practice with young women is the main job for most volunteers, but a vocational or computer skill is always welcome. In Jaipur, our women and girls program adds health and hygiene sessions with women and English classes for teenage girls.
Disability and inclusion: special needs care
Our special needs care program in Delhi works with three centers: one for special education, a skill development center for teenagers and young adults, and a school for autistic children. You support trained staff with classroom routines, vocational sessions such as baking, candle making and tailoring, and one-to-one time. Open from 18.
What you need to join
- You must be 17 or older on your start date, and under-18s need a consent form signed by a parent. Some programs start at 18.
- A clean criminal background check, issued within 12 months of your start date, if you will work with children or vulnerable adults.
- For the medical internship: your CV, proof of enrollment and a copy of your passport.
- Travel and medical insurance for your whole stay, which is compulsory.
Most programs need no qualifications or experience, though our Jaipur programs ask for intermediate English.
How it helps your Peace Corps application
A placement with us won’t guarantee you a place in the Peace Corps, which makes its own decisions. But it gives you experience, and stories, you can draw on when you apply:
- Working across cultures. You learn to communicate without much shared language, adjust to a different pace and fit in with how local staff do things. Our Hindi and culture week is a good place to start.
- Making do with little. Large classes, basic rooms and few materials teach you to improvise.
- Experience in your field. Time in a classroom, a shelter, a women’s center or a hospital is hands-on experience in the kind of work you may want to do.
- Knowing yourself. A few weeks or months away tell you a lot about whether long-term service abroad is right for you.
Stay as long as you can, keep notes on what you did and learned, and ask for a certificate of participation before you leave.
Want to talk through which program fits your plans? Email info@volunteeringindia.com and our team will help.