Hello! Hola! Aloha! Ciao! Guten Tag! Bonjour! Konnichi wa !Hej! Preevyet! Ni Hao! Selamat Pagi! Hei! Ellohay!..
Welcome to the website of the Southern California Mountains and Deserts Area Team AFS. Our area encompasses a large section of Western LA County, San Bernardino County, and parts of Riverside County in Southern California, USA, and includes valleys, deserts, and mountain communities. AFS Intercultural Programs (formerly the American Field Service) is one of the world’s largest community-based volunteer organizations dedicated to building a more just and peaceful world through international student exchange. In Southern California Mountains and Deserts, as in the rest of the world, local volunteers work with individuals who want to contribute toward that same goal.
The AFS-USA VISION is, ”To build a culture of world peace by bringing international and intercultural education to daily life in the United States.”
“Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can reintroduce the idea that if we try to understand each other, we may even become friends.” –Maya Angelou
To request a study abroad catalogue, for information on hosting or volunteering with AFS, or to learn more about how you can have AFS make an “It’s Your World” intercultural education presentation in your school, email afsinfo@afs.org, call 1-800-AFS-INFO, or visit www.afs.org/usa.