Some time ago, Gloria and Bill Gibbs from Oregon, USA volunteered for approximately year with the Cook Islands Ministry of Health. They were both emergency medical technicians and taught Cook Islands medical staff how to deal with basic trauma. They completed their time in Rarotonga, but wanted to continue volunteering on a short-term basis. The couple introduced Bud Philbrook, Co-Founder of Global Volunteers, to the people at the Ministry of Health in Rarotonga and the rest is history. The Ministry of Health invited Global Volunteers to work in the Cook Islands.

In 1998, Global Volunteers started sending medical teams to work in the hospital and clinics, but after some time realized that it was not going to be sustainable to work solely in the medical field, as the Ministry of Health were asking for fewer and fewer volunteers. We then became involved in the Cook Islands Learning Difficulties (CILD) Reading Program.

The CILD Reading Program was established after a concerned parent sought help for her dyslexic son. The mother approached an American resident, Jane Lamb, who has teaching experience as a biology lecturer and whom also has dyslexia. Jane agreed to help tutor the boy. One student became two, then other concerned parents asked for help for their children and the number of Jane's clients grew, until the program was then incorporated into five public elementary schools on the island.

Global Volunteers now work with more than 20 community partners and the numbers are growing.