Our Story

Founded as Voluntarios de la Esperanza in 2004, VE Global has grown from a few volunteers living and working in La Florida’s Fundacion Hogar Esperanza to an average on the ground community of 35 volunteers who work in 8 distinct institutions. Since its inception, VE Global has received more than 300 volunteers from 35 countries and five continents.

Volunteers began arriving at Hogar Esperanza in 1999. Seeing a profound mutual impact on his children and volunteers, the orphanage’s director, Jorge Daveggio, continued to accept volunteers from the United States, France, Germany, England, and Canada. Each socially conscious young adult brought his/her experiences, talents, and love to Santiago and thus contributed to the orphanage’s theme of esperanza or hope for its children. These volunteers normally found the orphanage through their own means, so there were gaps of time without a volunteer presence.

In September and October of 2003, however, several volunteers arrived with overlapping stays. With the larger group, the volunteers were able to better organize their work and even combine their efforts to initiate larger projects. As the director lacked time and English language ability, one of the new arrivals took charge of volunteer recruiting in order to maintain a more constant influx of the valuable international help. Utilizing the Internet, Luke Winston discovered a surprisingly large interest from foreign volunteers to live and work in an orphanage, an interest much larger than Hogar Esperanza itself could support.

VE received its first volunteers, Jen Hendlisz and Ilana Osten, in 2004. These dedicated volunteers not only became part of the Hogar Esperanza family, but created a support base for subsequent volunteers. Winston, along with the founding group of Chilean volunteers known as “El Equipo”, guided and supported incoming volunteers and provided a continuous presence in an organization that was constantly changing with new volunteers from around the world.

Through his time as a volunteer, Luke recognized that several other institutions in Santiago had similar goals but much fewer resources. As a result of the disparity between these institutions, the idea of VE was born in the hope of using volunteers as a resource to bring equal opportunities to all children. In the world of social work, a foundation cannot be selfish; an excess resource should be shared whether it is food, money, or volunteer work. Therefore, VE searched for like-minded institutions that worked to form a family environment for the abandoned and abused children for which they cared.

VEGlobal provides a unique insider’s road to a life changing volunteer experience because it was created by and is currently run by volunteers who have lived and worked in the institutions. By working in a South American nation like Chile, the motivated young adults who compose this multi-national group of volunteers not only change the lives of the children they help but are themselves changed by an intense experience and new insights only an international adventure can provide. After their stay, volunteers remain a part of the new families they discover and return to their own countries to apply their new perspectives on life.