I would like to Volunteer in Peru teaching English to the poor. I know it is volunteer work so there is no pay but why do volunteer agencies around the world charge the volunteers hundreds or thousands of dollars per month to people that are giving their time and effort for no pay and for the love of helping the poor. I understand that I should pay for my meals and outside expenses while I am there but why do I see such high fees?

I suppose it depends on the agency, but in some cases there are expenses to the agency to run the volunteer programs. Some countries require "workers" (even unpaid ones) to be insured and I suspect that most volunteers expect that they would be evacuated from the country in the event of political unrest, serious illness or accident. Having those sorts of contingency plans available costs money.
Cheers,
Bev

There are websites/links that lists low cost volunteer programs. I agree that it is terribile to charge a person who gives all of his time and effort to work with the poor and have a "company" charge $1000 of dollars.

Without sounding too much like a hippy communist, that's the price of capitalism - even charity is becoming a franchise. I actually intended to do charity work a few years back, but I've become pretty cynical about registered charities after looking into uk and foreign 'volunteering'...

Why don't you look into volunteering with the UN? You don't pay and you will earn the local wage.

Hmm...interesting, I never really thought of EU. Always think of South America, Asia, Africa [the obvious ones...]. It's worth looking into...