Some virtual volunteer opportunities help protect human rights and promote justice. If you’re interested in standing up for the rights of people around the world, look to some of the planet’s biggest advocacy groups and non-government organizations (NGOs) for opportunities. You can truly make a difference at home and around the world.
Amnesty International’s Amnesty Decoders program is looking for digital volunteers to expose human rights violations. Past projects have included exposing oil spills in Nigeria and finding evidence of homes in Darfur being destroyed. United Nations Volunteers also has a number of virtual volunteer opportunities open, including global mapping of COVID-19 interventions to help examine what’s working or helping bring field hockey to children in Sierra Leone. Opportunities include areas ranging from writing and editing to research and more.
People who have come to the U.S. as refugees have often escaped danger, poverty, or other threats to build a better life for their children and families. The Refugee Center needs volunteers to help them rebuild their lives here. The organization offers free online video training to help prepare you for multiple opportunities.
Translators without Borders provides language translation support for humanitarian agencies and nonprofit organizations around the world. If you speak at least one language other than your native language, you can apply to help them with everything from crisis response to translating medical documents.
In the U.S., there are many opportunities to assist the incarcerated in various ways. From ensuring justice is administered according to law to ensuring institutional safety to helping former prisoners and parolees re-enter society, there are many ways to help incarcerated people in the U.S. Groups like Inside Circle help incarcerated men “heal from their trauma and take responsibility for their choices.” The organization holds weekly meeting circles, and volunteers can be trained as facilitators. And if you’re looking to make a difference in as little as an hour, PrisonerVisitation.org can show you how. As a volunteer for Assisting Families of Inmates (AFOI), you can make it possible for families to visit loved ones in remote, rural prisons in addition to working on programs to prevent crime and lower recidivism rates.
In addition to Create the Good, volunteer opportunity databases like Idealist and CatchaFire list opportunities to support and promote human rights. Whether you want to be an organizer in a particular region, share your writing or legal skills, or act as an advocate for poverty relief, you can find a wide range of opportunities to relieve suffering, promote fairness, and help people all over the world find justice and better lives.