SCI's Long Term Volunteering (LTV) programme gives you the opportunity to stay abroad from 3 to 12 months. There are many possibilities, such as working with disabled people, disadvantaged youth or ethnic minorities, support daily activities in an ecological community, a local SCI office, or an orphanage.

Long Term Volunteering is more then work, it is the experience of living abroad and learning from different cultures and people, while getting deeply involved with a concrete project that is for the benefit of the local community.

The term LTV is used in SCI to refer to all the volunteers committed to a project for more than two months. LTV's are provided with food and accommodation and some pocket money and are covered by a basic SCI health insurance. Travel costs to the project are generally covered by the volunteer him/herself. There are no age limits to be an LTV. If you are interested in becoming an LTV please contact your local branch.

The European Union has a special programme for volunteering called European Voluntary Service (EVS). It’s part of the YOUTH IN ACTION programme, which promotes the mobility of young people through international activities with a non-formal education dimension such as youth exchanges, voluntary services, youth initiatives and training of youth workers.

EVS projects are now open to people between 18 (in some cases from 16) and 30 years from EU countries and from the so called Programme countries.

At the moment about half of the LTV positions in SCI are financed by EVS. This means that the travel, insurance, pocket money and a language course are covered by a grant from the European Commission. Further reading: general information on how to apply for a long term volunteer project.