Volunteering Abroad

If you want to volunteer abroad, then this site is the ONLY site you'll need:

www.volunteeringoptions.org

It's an Irish website, you can search volunteering opportunities by different criteria such as region, type of work, length of time etc. and all the volunteer organisations are included (including those mentioned above).

There's also loads of resources there to read through to help you make your decision and to learn about other people's experiences.

Enjoy, it'll be the best time of your life!

If you're interested in living for a few months in India or Kenya and helping out at a school next summer, have a look at www.suas.ie

Im a 1st year student and looking to volunteer in peru hopefully during the summer for a month or 2. Would the best way to do it be to go through a charity/organisation? I was thinking of trying to get in direct contact with an organisation over there (an orphanage for instance) which would mean i wouldnt have to pay for those fees required by the charities. Any help ?!

cool, thanks. great info on that thread, never even thought of looking at it.

walshb, yes, there is poverty the world over, including in Dublin. There are hardships, traumas, injustices. No one individual can be expected to attempt to deal with all these injustices. Some choose one over another, e.g. some people became nurses or doctors to help the sick; some people become drugs counsellors to help the addicted; some go to volunteer to build houses for the poor. Some people prefer to do this at home, other people prefer to do this abroad. Some prefer to work in English speaking countries, others prefer to go to extreme depths of cultural difference.

Please don't p*ss on people's dreams to try to do a bit of good in the world, wherever it might be.

If you believe that there are issues in the South African administration (which there undoubtedly are), you can join an advocacy group, you can lobby our minister for foreign affairs, you can suggest other volunteer projects in south africa which might help to improve the socio-economic system for the destitutedly poor (for make no mistake, while SA might be to some extents powerful and resourceful, this does NOT trickle through to all sectors of society, much as the neoliberals might have you believe).

It really annoys me seeing people criticise somebody else's attempt to do a bit of good in the world, without offering any more constructive alternatives.

NOT all NGO work causes problems in beneficiary countries, NOT all fundraising goes to prop up corrupt regimes.

If you, walshb, feel inspired to go volunteer with the poor of Dublin, I take my hat off to you - really, Dublin needs more people thinking your way. But please don't sh*t on others for wanting to do something else.

I was thinking about this myself recently. Try http://www.i-to-i.com/, that's the only site I've found so far.