Although she was about to graduate from college, Rachel Perkins of Orem didn't know what she wanted to do with her life.

All she knew was that she was searching for something meaningful and wanted to "expand my horizons and go beyond myself and world as I had known it."

After a humanitarian experience in El Salvador as a volunteer with Provo-based HELP International in 2005, Perkins knew she'd found the home away from home she'd been seeking.

"It is something that I have never regretted, even for one day," she said in an e-mail interview from El Salvador. "It has been a defining and central experience of my life."

Perkins, 27, who graduated from Brigham Young University with a bachelor's degree in recreation management with an emphasis in youth leadership, has been with HELP (Help Eliminate Poverty) for two years as a recruiting specialist and, most recently, as a country director over HELP's work in El Salvador.

HELP, formed in 1999 by a group of BYU faculty and students, is also serving people in Guatemala and Uganda, said co-founder and executive director Jennifer Boehme Kumar.

Its mission is to create life-changing experiences for volunteers through service to the poor. Boehme Kumar compares the experiences volunteers have to the principle in the film "Pay It Forward."

"Our best impact in poverty intervention is through changing students' lives here," she said.

HELP has been in El Salvador for 7 years and, during that time, has helped improve the lives of more than 40,000 people through micro-finance loans and helped create a better future for 1,400 abused and abandoned children, she said.

Boehme Kumar calls Perkins a long-term success story -- someone who has progressed from a HELP volunteer to a dedicated mentor within the organization.

"She really demonstrates the kind of commitment and service our volunteers normally give," she said.

The three main areas HELP volunteers work in are basic business training, teaching English as a second language and instructing residents how to build gardens, Perkins said.

Other projects include working with children in orphanages, assisting the disabled, aiding health officials and building homes with Habit for Humanity.

In El Salvador, volunteers live in an area called Antiguo Cuscatlan outside of San Salvador on only about $54 a week, she said. They use buses for transportation, always travel in pairs and avoid being out at night due to gangs and crime.

"The buses are fast and loud and colorful and extremely prevalent," Perkins said. "The drivers are either dare-devils or very capable and confident drivers -- I haven't decided which one just yet."

In the local culture, the family is very central to everyday life, she said. Social events revolve around food, family and music. Yet many are impoverished, uneducated and work hard for their family's very survival.

"The vast majority of the people are honest, decent, hard-working, caring, generous," Perkins said.

Because of the poverty, the greatest humanitarian needs in El Salvador are physical -- clothing, food and shelter. Beyond that, Perkins said the greatest need is hope: Hope for a better living situation, hope of a better job, and hope for a better country.

"So often, though, these hopes come associated with resources," she said.

That's where the HELP volunteers come in, helping build new homes, giving abused and abandoned children a sense of self-worth by playing and spending time with them, teaching business and gardening skills, and holding English classes so residents can get better jobs.

At times, the sheer volume of people and their needs can seem overwhelming, and volunteers wonder if they're really making a difference, Perkins said.

"But then you see the small changes in the lives of the people you get to work with directly; everything is suddenly manageable," she said. "You think you can help this person who can, in turn, help their neighbor and then the person they work with and their family ..."

Working with disabled, abandoned and troubled children has been especially rewarding for Perkins.

"Their lives have been touched by the worst situations the world has to offer them," she said. "We get to bring a bit of happiness to their lives that have been so difficult and let them know that they are important and that we love them and care about them."

For those who want to get involved with humanitarian aid, Perkins urges them to jump in and not hesitate. Though HELP accepts in-kind donations such as art supplies and hygiene kits, Boehme Kumar said volunteers are able to stretch aid further through monetary donations.

What: HELP International nonprofit humanitarian organization

Mission: Create life-changing experiences for volunteers through service to the poor in less developed countries

For more information: Go online to www.help-international.org or call 374-0556.

To make a donation: Go online to www.help-international.org/donatenow or come by the office at 363 N. University Ave., Suite #110, Provo.