France Volontaires [fr]

France Volontaires is the French platform for international exchange and solidarity volunteering. Operated by the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, it brings together the French government, local authorities and associations in a mission of general interest: the development and promotion of international volunteering for exchange and solidarity.

France Volontaires is currently present in some fifty countries in Africa, Oceania, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America, has 22 Volunteering Centers abroad and has deployed 4270 international exchange and solidarity volunteers throughout the world by 2022.

In the field, France Volontaires is developing a ‘Network of Volunteering Centers’. This network helps to meet the expectations of volunteers, partners and players in international solidarity through information, advice, exchanges of practices and meetings.

You can find all the practical information you need about volunteering on the website of France Volontaires.

The Volunteering Center of the Philippines

France Volontaires Philippines is a key actor in international cooperation. The Philippines is the second most popular destination in Asia for French volunteers. In 2023, 132 volunteers were deployed in various sectors such as education, health, culture and the environment. In addition, 14 Filipino volunteers are currently on missions in France, 9 of whom took part as volunteers in the Paris 2024 Olympic or Paralympic Games. This cooperation strengthens the ties between the two countries, while promoting exchanges and solidarity projects.

In order to support, strengthen and promote French volunteering, France Volontaires set up the Volunteering Center in the Philippines in 2013. Both a physical and virtual space, the Espace Volontariats is a friendly place with a multiple objective: to inform, advise, guide, train and network all those involved in volunteering. Accredited by the Philippine National Volunteer Service and Coordinating Agency (PNVSCA) - the government agency in charge of promoting and coordinating volunteer programmes and services in the Philippines - as an international volunteer organisation since May 2017.

France Volontaires Philippines is an agency attached to the French Embassy in the Philippines and Micronesia.

France Volontaires regularly organizes events to raise awareness and engage the community. For instance, International Women’s Rights Day was celebrated on March 8, 2024, at the Alliance Française de Manille. Every October, we organize French Volunteering Day to highlight our volunteers and their contributions to solidarity. We also celebrate International Volunteer Day in December to emphasize the importance of global solidarity engagement.

The Volunteering Center of the Philippines is there to listen to volunteers, host organisations and sending organisations, or simply anyone who has come to the Philippines to get involved in a development and/or international solidarity project.

The Volunteering Center offers the following services:
 Provide information on the various international volunteer schemes.
 Advise and guide volunteer host and sending organizations on how to put together applications.
 Facilitate the process of obtaining a volunteer visa (47A2).
 Put the various actors in touch with each other according to their needs and areas of intervention.
 Network volunteers and local structures hosting volunteers to offer them formal and informal opportunities to meet and exchange ideas.
 Train and provide training for those involved in volunteering (workshops and thematic presentations).

For more information about VIES (Volontariat Internationaux d’Echange et de Solidarité) in the Philippines, please contact the Espace Volontariats.