Israel and overseas volunteering

JVN is proud to work with several organisations that offer volunteering opportunities abroad, in particular Israel, but also elsewhere: truly Tikun Olam in action.

The UK community has many skills and experience that it can bring to help organisations doing great work with communities in need, and the personal rewards and learning in doing so are priceless. The organisations listed below, all work in Israel and more widely overseas:

ALEH - support Israel's largest network of residential facilities for children with severe physical and cognitive disabilities - and offer a huge variety of group, family and individual volunteering opportunities to support and work alongside children in the their homes. To find out how you could volunteer and help their amazing work: click here.

GoEco - is a new and growing charity based in the United States which organises a huge variety of environmental and humanitarian volunteering projects in Israel and also in China, Zimbabwe and Costa Rica for everyone from individuals to families too. To find out about GoEco's latest volunteer opportunities click here.

Hazon Yeshaya - is Israel's leading humanitarian organisation, dedicated to fighting poverty in Israel and helping to improve the quality of life of Israel’s poorest citizens, 365 days a year. We keep our overheads below 3% with the help of thousands of volunteers – 30,000 people from all over the world visit us each year to help in our kitchens in Jerusalem, Ashkelon and Rishon LeTzion to prepare meals for the poor. 70% of these meals are delivered to poor children in schools who would not otherwise receive nutritious food because their families are destitute. We feed Jews, Christians, Arabs, native Israelis, new immigrants and Holocaust survivors – we only discriminate on the basis of need. All recipients must show that they live in 'Status A' poverty – Israel's poorest citizens. In addition to nutritional support, we offer them free dental treatment, after-school enrichment programs to keep poor kids off the streets, free daycare facilities, Bar & Bar Mitzvah celebrations for disadvantaged teens, and free vocational training for the unemployed including single parents. We invite you to volunteer in our kitchens in Jerusalem, Ashkelon and Rishon LeTzion during your next visit to Israel – this is an enjoyable and rewarding experience for young and old. Click here to find out more.


Magen David Adom (MDA) - Every year Magen David Adom offers hundreds of students aged 18 to 26, from across the world, the chance to participate in their Volunteer Programme - which runs for six weeks at time, throughout the year. The Volunteer Programme has been running in conjunction with the British Aliyah Department for the last two years and over a hundred students have attended so far. Volunteers enter an intensive first aid course, learning physiology and emergency medicine. After completing the course, volunteers work alongside some of the 10,000 medics and paramedics, of which 8,500 are volunteers, going out in ambulances and dealing with real life situations. To learn how to help save lives in Israel and abroad, click here.

Skilled Volunteers for Israel - is US-based charity which aims to make a huge impact of Israel charities by providing them with skilled and experienced professionals, who volunteer in Israel for at least a month at a time, to help them grown, create capacity and provide them with professional support. By doing so, not only do volunteers gain a truly meaningful volunteering experience utilising their professional skills, the Israeli charities end up with the support they really need. So far, Skilled Volunteers for Israel have already served as English tutors, accountants, grant writers and medical triage in a refugee clinic. Also of note is that Skilled Volunteers for Israel placements are - unlike most overseas volunteering opportunities - not just suitable for older age groups, but actively aimed at them. To find out more, visit the website.

Tevel b'Tzedek (The Earth - In Justice) - is an Israel-based charity which aims to create a true community of Israeli and Diaspora Jews volunteering together and promoting social and environmental justice, based on a deep commitment to the Jewish people and its ethical and spiritual traditions. Tevel b'Tzedek offer programmes in Nepal, Israel and Haiti.
Go the Join / Programs section of Tevel's website to find out more or click here.

Tzedek - our friends and neighbours at the JHub, Tzedek do an amazing work in Cameroon, Ghana and India providing direct support to sustainable self-help grassroots development projects for the relief and elimination of poverty. Each year Tzedek sends a group of enthusiastic volunteers to gain first-hand experience of overseas development in some of the world's poorest communities. These volunteers return to the UK and participate in Tzedek's UK work for a further 10 months. To find out more about Tzedek's overseas programmes click here.

We Repair, our North American cousins, is a service and volunteering website that promotes both the concept and practice of service and volunteering in North America, to make service a defining part of American Jewish life. In addition to that they are a great source of overseas volunteering opportunities in Israel and elsewhere. Visit their website for more details.