Service year - Local Service
Service in Utah
Our Service Year teams were small in number but mighty in strength. Although the Service Year was smaller in size than in years past, 129 students and 26 alum leaders contributed 8,670 hours of local service.
We have seen the Margaret Mead quote written on Youthlinc’s door in action over and over again this year: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it’s the only thing that ever has. In a world full of so much uncertainty, serving those around us gives us hope for the future we share.”
Shannon Moss
Service Year Director
service year -International
Service
Service Around the Globe
In 2022, the world was finally open again and travel was made possible through government guidelines and access to vaccines worldwide. After too long being separated and distancing, it was a relief to come back together as international friends. We were grateful and excited to send teams to all of our international partners, including a new partnership in Rwanda. Through collaboration and efforts on all fronts, each of our teams had an incredibly successful Service Year.
- Total Participants: 278
- Humanitarians: 138
- Alum Leaders: 43
- Mentors: 74
- Leadership: 23
- Teams: 10
Jordan Taylor
International Service Director
Cambodia
2022 marked the first year of our Ecological and Elephant Conservation trip to Cambodia. With a focus on ecological and conservation efforts, our team worked along side Elephant Valley Project in Mondulkiri learning about the importance of sustainable conservation and its effects on local communities. Upon completing projects with EVP, the team traveled to Pursat to continue community development projects with our long-time partner Sustainable Cambodia. In Pursat, our Humanitarians focused on education, ecological, and community health needs. They held a community health fair, installed bio-sand water filters, kitchen gardens, hosted an English camp, and provided bikes to children to ease their daily commute to and from school.
FIJI
Youthlinc celebrated the completion of projects in our first Fiji site, Mataso Primary school. This was our final year in our original Fiji site, we owe much of our success to the wonderful partnerships and community leaders we have worked with since 2017. After Cyclone Winston in 2016, this part of Fiji continues to recover and rebuild lost infrastructure. One of the top priorities in Fiji has been developing access to clean water and sanitation stations. Since 2018 we have been able to install 30 wash sanitation facilities. Thanks to our two teams and generous donors, especially those honoring the memory of Jarrod Phillips, we were able to complete the final 15 flush toilets and showers in the neighboring villages Nakoravu and Narikoso. We are excited to continue our work in Fiji and expand throughout the Rakiraki District.
KENYA
2022 marks the second year with our new partners in Nakuru. Our Humanitarians worked at the Muriundu Primary school providing STEM education camps, classroom repairs, and building over 200+ tables and benches for the school. They hosted vocational training and business seminars with the women’s group who have been creating a small business that specialize in sewing uniforms for schools and other company employees. In addition to a community health fair, our team partners with the local Days for Girls enterprise in Nakuru to provide proper access to reproductive health education and reusable menstrual supplies.
NEPAL
We were able to send a team to Godawari to work with our coordinator, Insight Himalaya. They worked with the community to bring awareness to water sanitation and community health. Along with a health seminar, we provided water filtration systems from Waves for Water. These filters now bring clean drinking water to families and the primary school. Our team also worked at the school to refurbish classrooms and beatification projects to make the school a safe positive environment to promote learning. They also taught the women’s group how to knit and crochet cold weather gear for winter.
PERU
This year two teams worked in Peru. We collaborated with the communities in Palmeras and Yanamono II, villages along the Amazon Basin. Our teams worked alongside the communities to install latrines and wash stations at the primary school and in homes. They constructed over 450 meters of cement walkways needed to connect the community to the school. These pathways are particularly helpful for those that have difficulty moving around, especially during the rainy season where areas near the river often flood and erode. They also installed and planted community and family kitchen gardens that will provide for families in both villages.
RWANDA
June 2022 marked the opening of our new site and partnership in Rwanda. Our new partnership with Save Community Initiative was instrumental to our success in Rwanda this year. SCI is a non-profit organization that has a mission to bring education, vocational, and business opportunities to the underdeveloped communities of Rwanda. After the genocide against the Tutsi in 1994, Rwanda was left devastated. Since then, they have worked hard to rebuild and provide justice and seek reconciliation for what was done. They have made a point to focus on reconciliation as families, communities, and as a nation. Our Humanitarians visited memorial sites and the genocide museum. Our teams worked with families of both survivors and perpetrators of genocide. Rwanda teaches us how service and collaborative projects can heal a nation. Together as a community, they replaced homes for victims of the genocide that were deemed no longer safe for their families.
THAILAND
In Thailand we returned to Wiangpa Pattana with the assistance of Travel to Teach and provided an English camp for the primary school, did community outreach, and focused on ecological projects. The team worked on restoring infrastructure at the school and updated the outside play area and sports court giving the students the opportunity for active and cooperative learning. Our humanitarians helped repair the road to the school and installed a drainage canal that will prevent future flooding of classrooms during the rainy season. As part of their ecological and vocational projects, our team worked with the village to plant over 100 coffee and banana plants that can be maintained, harvested, and used to generate income for their families.
VIETNAM
After a nine year break, Youthlinc started with in Vietnam again. We were originally meant to resume this partnership in 2020 and were finally able to send a team to Bouc, Mai Chau, a village in the mountains of northern Vietnam. We could not have asked for a better start to our new site in Vietnam. Our partner, SJ Vietnam, helped us coordinate and understand the needs of the village. Together we installed heated washroom facilities at the community center for those that do not have access to running hot water because during the winter months temperatures can drop to freezing temperatures making sanitation difficult if one does not have access to heated water. Our Humanitarians held an English camp at the community center for any children in the area. During home visits the team planted 3 fruit trees at each household.
Thanks to the commitment and efforts of each of our partners, international communities, our Humanitarians, and donors we were able to reconnect and rebuild local and global communities. We are looking forward to what the coming years have in store as we continue to Create Lifetime Humanitarians.
Thank you
We are grateful to our many donors that make our projects and contributes worldwide possible. No matter the size of the donation, large and small, we utilize every penny around the world.
We would like to say a special thank you to:
Michel Foundation, one of our longtime donors for contributing directly to our construction projects for Fiji, Kenya, Peru, Nepal, and Rwanda
David Kelby Johnson Memorial Foundation for providing funding for ecological and environmental projects at all 10 international sites.
Granduer Peak for providing support for our infrastructure and projects in Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Utah whose partnership allows for us to coordinate clothing drives to provide funding for all additional committee projects internationally.
JOIN US IN SUMMER 2023
Our 2023 Service year is underway and teams have started meeting, If you are interested in reconnecting this year please head over to the register page to see our available options for summer 2023.