United Planet (www.unitedplanet.org ) is an international non-profit public educational charity with 501(c)3 status, open to the citizens of every country on Earth. The mission of United Planet is to foster cross-cultural understanding and friendship, support communities in need, and promote social & economic prosperity among cultures in order to unite the world in a community beyond borders.  As featured on CNN, United Planet undertakes a diverse and creative range of educational, humanitarian, and peace-building initiatives.

In early 2006, Raj Gyawali, Founder Director, became country coordinator for Nepal for the short term Volunteer Quests offered by United Planet. Currently, Raj is the country coordinator for Ghana and co-coordinator with Nima Lama, Manager - Operations & Sales for Nepal.

socialtours.com handles all the logistic support required by these volunteers in Nepal.

Several projects and initiatives are supported through these volunteering Quests. Volunteers come on short to mid term Quests, the most popular being the 2 week Quest.

Projects Supported through the Quest are :-

OCCED (www.occed.org )

OCCED is an orphanage in the center of Kathmandu where we send volunteers to help with the toddlers and the young children. Most of the work revolves around helping the staff manage the toddlers and then later helping the older school going kids with their English, Mathematics and Science.

Antardristi Counseling Center (www.antardristi.com.np )

Antardristi is a counseling center set up by a all women team of counsellors and psychologists to help minor victims of sexual abuse. They work with the Nepal Police where most cases of minor sexual abuse are reported, of course, most go unreported. They are in the process of setting up a care center for these victims now.

Kanti Hospital

Kanti Hospital is a Children's Hospital always in great demand for volunteers from across the world. We have recently started offering Quests here too.

Chautara District Hospital

Recently, a doctor from Canada was placed in the District Hospital in Chautara. This hospital which is the major hospital for the entire district but has only one doctor. This doctor is a surgeon in the Canadian Armed Forces and stationed in Germany, but she was delivering babies in the hospital. Isn't that what doctors are supposed to do?

Samata School

Samata School was started as a humble project to provide education to very marginal children - specially children of factory workers in Nepal. Both parents are usually at work the whole day for a pittance, and the parents hardly have time to look after their kids. Since it started, it has grown to having two branches now. Most Quests here focus on giving the children an exposure to a foreign culture and also helping teach some of the subjects.

Recently started, in Ghana, the Quests support a school in a village called Biakpa, in the Volta Region with teaching quests. In another village in the West of Accra, we are working on developing a very challenging Quest, where we will try and research developmental needs of the village from the prespective of the villagers, and help them use this plan for every developmental activitiy in the village. Teaching quests are also offered in the primary school in the village.