(February 15, 2008) Amigos de las Americas (AMIGOS) is one of a few select international volunteer organizations featured on the website promoting Santiago's Children: What I Learned About Life Working at an Orphanage in Chile by Steve Reifenberg. The book was published by University of Texas Press. It details Reifenberg's volunteer experiences at a small orphanage in Santiago, Chile, about 25 years ago. 

Reifenberg said he wanted the book's website to promote opportunities for young people considering international volunteer programs. He said he choose AMIGOS as one of the organizations to feature because he has long respected the program.

"I especially like the opportunities that AMIGOS provides high school students," he explained.

Reifenberg has worked for nearly two decades on international educational, negotiation and development issues at Harvard University. From 1996 to 2002, he served as the Executive Director of Harvard's David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS). In 2002, the University asked him to establish Harvard's first-ever, university-wide office overseas. In August 2002, he moved with his family to Santiago, Chile and set up the DRCLAS Regional Office which manages Harvard's student programs in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru, as well as coordinates Harvard faculty research projects in areas ranging from architecture and archaeology to biology and public health in these countries. The Regional Office has become the model for Harvard initiatives in other parts of Latin America and in Asia.

Reifenberg is the former Program Director for Latin America of the Conflict Management Group (CMG), an international non-profit organization created from the Harvard Negotiation Project at the Harvard Law School. He served as the Director of the Edward S. Mason Program in Public Policy and Management, jointly administered by the Kennedy School of Government and the Harvard Institute for International Development from 1990 to 1993.

In the early 1980s, he lived and worked for two years at a small orphanage, Domingo Savio, in Santiago, Chile. Reifenberg is a graduate of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government where he earned a Master in Public Policy. He also holds a Master in Print Journalism from Boston University and a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame. He lives with his wife and three children in Santiago, Chile.

Read more about Reifenberg's book or view the listing about AMIGOS.