Hands and Feet International is a society registered in the Province of Alberta and a not-for-profit registered charitable organization with the Canadian Revenue Agency.
We are a team of leaders focused on facilitating Canadian business and technical professionals in their pursuit of making a difference in developing nations of the world by putting their skills and experience to work, literally being the hands and feet of Jesus Christ extended to serve people in need globally through volunteer, practical acts of Christian compassion.
We help connect volunteers who are aligned with our vision and Christian values with either existing opportunities to serve in short-to-medium-term postings with one of our strategic delivery partners, or help professionals realize their individual dream of a personalized, overseas volunteer service experience. Our posted volunteers build the capacity and strengthen leadership of global delivery organizations who are endeavoring to build resiliency in and improve the lives of vulnerable children, women and men suffering under poverty, marginalization or otherwise at-risk in their communities of outreach.
What we do, How we help
Match Professionals
with Opportunities to Serve
As a seasoned professional, are you looking to move from success to significance? We can help you follow the passion of your heart to serve an important cause, while you:
- put your hard-won professional skills and seasoned expertise to work in developing nations of the world to make lives better, mentor future leaders, rather than simply grow profits for your organization here.
- be a professional who gives back and leaves a legacy of service, leadership, and lasting impact; making lives better for people living in a developing nation of the world
Inspire through Stories
There’s nothing like hearing from someone who’s gone before you and done exactly what you’d hope to be able to do to inspire you to stop making excuses why you can’t and resolve to say I can too! At HFI we capture the amazing stories of each of our posted professional business and technical volunteers on our Story Wall. We know that their personal journey stories will ignite generosity and passion in you to want to go and serve. And when it comes to projects, we also love to share our success stories of projected implemented and how they’ve helped our partners do more and reach more.
Source Delivery Organizations with Professional Volunteers
As a service delivery organization, have you struggled to find the skilled, affordable resources you need to take your organization to the next level?
Have you consumed significant resources to host large, short-term mission groups and found they really don’t bring the specific professional/ technical skills you are short of?
We can help you become an HFI Delivery Partner so you can begin to access a reliable source of skilled, seasoned, free professional resources who bring strengths tailor-made to your business & technical needs, and a passion aligned with your cause. They will invest in your leadership, build your capacity, and enlarge your effectiveness to serve your target communities and people groups.
Accelerate Growth
through Project Delivery
We want our Delivery Partners to thrive and grow! Sometimes getting access to capital to provide a new piece of equipment or expand their facilities can make a huge difference to their reach and service delivery effectiveness, which translates to helping more people in need and making their lives better! Our existing Partners or posted Volunteers can apply to HFI to not only get help in raising capital funds for a much needed improvement but also access to project management expertise to oversee the implementation to ensure success, accountability and enduring results.
International air travel from North America to developing countries during the extended COVID-19 pandemic continues to come with complexities, restrictions and uncertainties. But delivery organizations in developing nations still need help to source hard-to-find expertise, help with training their professionals who face travel challenges, or access to seasoned advisory and coaching personnel to help their teams grow and move their mission forward as they serve local people in need during these challenging times.
Our HFI Partners are seeking volunteers who are willing to serve on shorter-term postings that are delivered remotely from your home via the web.
Coaching and Mentoring is a new focus area of Stay and Serve – HFI’s answer to the ongoing reality of extended international air travel restrictions and complexities between North America and countries where our delivery partners operate. Connecting regularly with a young adult who’s learning the hard and soft skills necessary to secure a job in the global digital economy can make a huge impact on the success of their learning journey and personal transformation as a leader and digital skills professional.
Our HFI Partner – the Innovation Hub Africa (iHub) is seeking volunteers who are willing to serve as Coaches and Mentors delivered remotely from your home via the web. As an HFI Stay & Serve remote volunteer, you’ll be helping the iHub launch high quality candidates who are ready to successfully land a digital skills job the local and global economy.
Your Personalized Service Opportunity
- Apply – fill in our application for volunteers. Let us know if one of our posted opportunities interests you or tell us about what you are great at as a professional , what you are passionate about to serve and to whom, and where in the world would you prefer to serve. One of our Opportunity Coordinators will follow-up and lead you through the next steps
- Match – One of our Volunteer Coordinators will ensure that your skills and experience and your service passion are a perfect match to a role looking to be filled by one of our partners who is looking for someone with exactly your skills and are passionate about a cause that they are working hard to deliver to.
- Prepare – Once your application receives final approval by our Review Council, one of our Logistics Coordinators will work with you in regards to fund raising, travel arrangements to/from the city where the hosting partner is operating, local living and transport arrangements, medical insurance, etc. so that your posting will be worry-free! They also oversee setting formal agreements in place between the hosting Partner, the Posted Volunteer and HFI so that understanding and expectations are in alignment and all parties are committed to the mutual success of their joint endeavors.
- GO! –Once you arrive in your hosting partner’s operating city, you are met by their local contact who helps you settle in to your accommodations and introduce you to the team you’ll be working as a volunteer with. You serve out the mandate of the posted volunteer role and then wrap up and fly back home. You are fully debriefed by your Logistic Coordinator who helps you wrap up your posting account and helps you create and post your story of posting service on our Story Wall!
If you would like to read more detail about how volunteering works with HFI, please download our Volunteer Posting Guideline
Becoming an HFI Delivery Partner
- Apply – fill in our application to become an HFI Partner. Your application helps us understand your organization’s vision and mandate, the benefactor groups you are serving and the communities you are operating in. Once your application is reviewed by one of our Opportunity Coordinators and approved by our Review Council, you become an official HFI Partner and we start looking for ways to send Christian professional volunteers to serve your vision.
- Ask – you bring forward a specific business or technical role that you cannot seem to fill locally. We post the role on our “Open Opportunities” board and begin to leverage our professional networks to identify candidates to fill the position as a posted volunteer.
- Match – Our Volunteer Coordinators find a professional volunteer who perfectly matches your skills and experience needs and whose passion is aligned to your service delivery causes. We notify you once the candidate is approved by our Review Council and we work collaboratively to finalize arrival dates and firm up their local living arrangements.
- GROW! – Our posted professional volunteer arrives and you welcome them and onboard them as a member of your team. They deliver their professional skills, train your staff so that you can continue to perform this role when they complete their posting and your team benefits from their leadership coaching and mentoring along the way. As you say farewell to them you know that your team’s professional competencies and leadership capability have risen to a new level and your organization’s impact will continue to grow and expand across your benefactors and the communities you serve to make peoples’ lives better!
If you would like to read more detail about how a hosting Partnership works with HFI, please download our Partnership Guideline
