Applications invited for travel scholarships

VOLUNTEERING:MORE THAN 30 all-expenses-paid trips to destinations such as Hong Kong, the United States and Mexico are on offer to young people from an Irish non-profit organisation.

EIL Intercultural Living is looking for applications from “curious young people who are passionate about what is happening in the world”.

Travel-scholarship recipients may undertake volunteer work or attend local language classes for part of the two-week or two- month experience.

Organisers warn that these are not five-star holidays but chances to “reach out to other cultures and peoples in different parts of the world”.

Projects in Mexico, South Africa, Argentina and Nigeria aim to support the millennium development goals.

Two months in Mexico will involve volunteering on Viejo Soyaltepec Island, home to 300 indigenous families; the person sent to Argentina will teach English to some of Santa Fe’s poorest children.

Some projects have age restrictions; others are open to adults in their 20s and early 30s.

Five 15- to 18-year-olds will have a chance to explore current issues at the Vermont Governor’s Institute for Young People, in the US. A dozen young minds, aged 17 to 22, will exchange ideas at universities and schools in Hong Kong in August.

One young adventurer, aged 16 to 18, will explore the Amazon jungle during a month in Ecuador.

The scholarships are being funded using profits from some 2,000 paid-for intercultural trips abroad that EIL Intercultural Living organises each year.

The closing date for applications is next Friday. See www. eilireland.org/travel-awards.