why can't you volunteer abroad for free?

StormWarrior · 01-01-2008 6:05pm #1

When I finish uni I would love to volunteer in Peru, doing almost anything, but obviously I'm a skint student in debt. All the volunteering abroad sites want you to pay thousands for your "expenses" before they will take you!

Karoma · 01-01-2008 6:17pm

To be sure of you're commitment & so you're not a burden / what money the charity may have can be used for materials and other project expenses rather than paying for some 20-something's holiday...

CamillaRhodes · 02-01-2008 2:27am

Hey Stormwarrior - two answers for you
(1) some 'volunteer abroad' opportunities are, as Karoma says, charities looking to cover their costs - if you only work for them a short time, it may actually cost them money to train you, do the administration etc. Others, however, are profit-making companies, such as i-to-i. Stay well away from these - personnally, I find it morally reprehensible to profit from well-intended people's desire to volunteer.

(2) there ARE volunteer for free opportunities out there! I've volunteered in four different countries around the world (Thailand, Serbia, Australia and... Peru!) and never paid a dime (other than maybe a nominal donation to cover admin costs, e.g. 50 euros). Since you mention Peru, you may be interested in contacting the NGO I worked for, Ayni They're an education / social assistance grassroots NGO.

An Irish NGO who place people on short-term or long-term volunteering projects mostly in Europe but also around the world is Voluntary Service International , I think they charge about 80 euros and then act almost like an intermediary agency, placing you to volunteer with local charities in whatever country you go to.

Another great place to search for volunteering opportunities is IdeaList.org (clever name, eh?) - be aware that some of the volunteering positions posted may be pay-to-volunteer, but this is how I found two of my previous volunteering posts.

Finally, you don't say what your background is or what you'd like specifically to volunteer as. In general, the more specifically trained you are, the more likely you'll find opportunities to volunteer for free. Think about what you can contribute to the organisation. If you were trained as, say, an electrician or an accountant, you'll find it much more likely that an organisation will benefit from your skills. But don't panic if not! Volunteering is a great way to learn new skills.

Last thing, I'm sure you realise this, but if you're not paying the organisation to volunteer with them, it is very unlikely they'll be able to cover your costs for you. The exception is the EVS (European Voluntary Scheme) which Voluntary Service International can tell you about. They'll pay your accommodation, flights, etc, but it's only for volunteering in Europe and you must be under 25. Otherwise, keep in mind you'll have to pay for your own food, rent etc (though in countries like Peru this is very little) - your biggest expense will be your flights.

Good luck, and don't give up! I found it a bit disheartening at first when I thought I would have to pay to volunteer, but it absolutely is not the case if you persevere!

SuperSean11 · 02-01-2008 2:34am

CamillaRhodes wrote: »

Others, however, are profit-making companies, such as i-to-i. Stay well away from these - personnally, I find it morally reprehensible to profit from well-intended people's desire to volunteer.

Could you tell me more about this? I was planning to do volunteer work with i-to-i

Agent Smith · 02-01-2008 2:35am

its to stop poeple using them as an excuse for a Holiday

Armin_Tamzarian · 02-01-2008 2:42am

I'm glad someone else posted about this.
I have a trade and was very interested in doing some work abroad after I heard about the Niall Mellon Township Trust.
I looked into working with that particular charity but found
out that I would have to pay at least €5,000.
I don't have that large a social circle and I'm not a member of any sporting clubs so there's no way that I could raise anything near that amount.

I don't mind using up my holidays and paying for flights out of my own pocket but that's as much as I could afford.
TBH, I would have thought that these charities that are involved in construction projects abroad, would be delighted to have skilled tradesmen willing to work for free.
Apparantly that is not enough though.

If anyone knows of any organisations that would be able to make use of people like me, then please post details.

littlejukka · 02-01-2008 2:52am

Armin_Tamzarian wrote: »

I don't mind using up my holidays and paying for flights out of my own pocket but that's as much as I could afford.
TBH, I would have thought that these charities that are involved in construction projects abroad, would be delighted to have skilled tradesmen willing to work for free.
Apparantly that is not enough though.

the niall mellon township trust could hire a local to do the work that you would provide. it's not the work that's the problem, it's the supply of materials and all the costs involved. you're not going out there to provide a free service, you're pretty much paying to build the houses, which is the whole point of the trust.

a lot of the people i know who go with niall mellon's are sponsored the full cost by their employers.

How Strange · 02-01-2008 12:39pm

There are lots of ways to volunteer your time and services for free and in return you may be given a bed and a roof over your head.

Volunteering has become big business as lots of GAP year students and people looking to get away from the rat race for a while and do something meaningful see volunteering as preferable to a year long holiday. So there are loads of companies set up to cater for the cash rich time poor person who doesn't want the hassle of trying to sort out where to go for themselves. Therefore, these companies (not charities) provide you with a volunteering holiday but at a premium. To me this seems ridiculous as 1) why should you have to pay €k's to volunteer and 2) the majority of the money paid to these companies doesn't go to the charities; it increases their profits. They are in effect agents who have done a deal with charity organisations in each country.

If you are necessarily interested in Peru there are lots of opportunities to volunteer as there are huge humanitarian problems associated with crippling poverty over there - street children being the most obvious. The fairest way to do it would be to have enough money to support yourself over there so you are not a drain on the resources of the charity. You could live quite simply on $20 a day if you were really determined.

Get on the internet, log onto a few forums and ask lots of questions. You can definitely volunteer on a shoe string but you just have to do alot of research to find out how.

CamillaRhodes · 02-01-2008 2:34pm

SuperSean11 wrote: »

Could you tell me more about this? I was planning to do volunteer work with i-to-i

SuperSean, i-to-i are one of these companies which How Strange mentions. They are a business, not a charity, and make a profit out of people's inability or unwillingness to organise their own volunteering opportunities. They will do things for you like pick you up at the airport, arrange accommodation for you, etc., but IMO if you're not self-reliant enough to be able to do these sort of things without having your hand held, you shouldn't really be going volunteering, you wouldn't seem mature enough.

I've also heard stories about i-to-i providing literally the absolute minimum which they describe, e.g. they pick you up at the airport, bring you to your accommodation, and bang they're gone. I've heard of someone who was meant to be teaching - they had one class, of one hour per day, and that was it. That was all the charity they were volunteering with required. The rest of the time they were stuck on their own in a remote village where they didn't speak the language, with nothing to do, no one to talk to, etc. If they were strong enough and proactive enough to be able to make something out of this experience - e.g. to try to teach themselves teh local language, to try to identify needs which they could help with, etc., then they really needn't have bothered shelling out thousands of euros for i-to-i's 'service'.

I don't mean to come down particularly hard on i-to-i, there are other pay-to-volunteer companies out there, but i-to-i have a very aggressive marketing strategy and to some extent swamp out the other, free-to-volunteer charities (who can not afford big advertising budgets).

SuperSean, what sort of volunteering are you hoping to do with i-to-i? Maybe we can find you something similar with a charity rather than you giving your hard-earned cash to these charlatans?

CamillaRhodes · 02-01-2008 2:41pm

agent smith wrote: »

its to stop poeple using them as an excuse for a Holiday

AgentSmith, I agree that there are some people out there who like the idea of 'voluntourism', and there's not a whole bunch you can contribute to a charity in, say, two or three weeks (although it is possible). There are voluntourism agencies who will charge people for precisely this - a holiday with a bit of volunteering thrown in for feelgood value.

A reputable NGO or charity however will want to check your motivation and references etc before taking you on as a volunteer, precisely to filter out the dossers.

These huge charges to volunteer for longer periods are not simply a means to avoid the voluntourists, many are profit-making companies, as I mentioned above. Not all (Habitat for Humanity, for example, charges quite a hefty amount but your money pays for the hard materials to build the houses you will construct - I don't know much about the Niall Mellon thing but could be something similar).

It's important to do a lot of research before handing over your hard-earned cash. I see absolutely no reason for such profit-making companies to exist - in fact, I think they turn people off the idea of volunteering, swamp out smaller charities trying to recruit volunteers, and in general denigrate the field of volunteerism. Bad bad bad.

StormWarrior · 02-01-2008 4:23pm

Camilla, what did you do in Peru?

CamillaRhodes · 02-01-2008 11:49pm

StormWarrior wrote: »

Camilla, what did you do in Peru?

StormWarrior, I was volunteering with the NGO I mentioned above, Ayni. They're a very small grassroots charity working in a town in the north, in the middle of the desert, called Piura. Ayni ostensibly provide free English teaching, to both primary school-age kids and late-teenage former street kids, but the aims go beyond just learning a language. In the shantytown where the primary school is based, being a teacher provides a degree of access to the local community which 'gringos' wouldn't normally get. The local impoverished community - most of whom are significantly darker skinned - are to some extent intimidated by, and to a greater extent discriminated against by the wealthier white Peruvians, who happen to make up most doctors, social services providers, lawyers, etc. Being a teacher of a child in the school, you're afforded access to the community, and work as a sort of ad hoc social worker. We'd identify needs and then provide whatever assistance we could - usually this meant simply accompanying people to the hospital or the legal aid office, or whatever. (It's awful to say but a fact, dark-skinned peruvians would be treated more quickly and more efficiently when accompanied by a white-skinned gringo.) For the former street kids, we also gave training in employment skills, such as helping them put a CV together, and presentation skills and so on, to provide a sense of self-esteem and build their confidence to enter the adult working world.

Other volunteers who brought specific skills to Ayni were able to work in that respect, e.g. a film-maker came and made a documentary about the work we did, to be used for fund-raising, and also taught the 6th grade kids how to make movies. Ayni also run a micro-enterprise loan programme and an environmental sustainability project.

As I mentioned above, knowing what you want to do, or what you're able to do, will help you find a volunteering position. However, I'd never taught before going to Ayni, and was amazed by how much I enjoyed it.

If you'd like to know any more specifics about my experience, Ayni or volunteering in Peru in general, feel free to PM me (or continue here?! some mods seem very militant about not going too far off topic!)

SuperSean11 · 03-01-2008 4:39pm

CamillaRhodes wrote: »

SuperSean, i-to-i are one of these companies which How Strange mentions. They are a business, not a charity, and make a profit out of people's inability or unwillingness to organise their own volunteering opportunities. They will do things for you like pick you up at the airport, arrange accommodation for you, etc., but IMO if you're not self-reliant enough to be able to do these sort of things without having your hand held, you shouldn't really be going volunteering, you wouldn't seem mature enough.

I've also heard stories about i-to-i providing literally the absolute minimum which they describe, e.g. they pick you up at the airport, bring you to your accommodation, and bang they're gone. I've heard of someone who was meant to be teaching - they had one class, of one hour per day, and that was it. That was all the charity they were volunteering with required. The rest of the time they were stuck on their own in a remote village where they didn't speak the language, with nothing to do, no one to talk to, etc. If they were strong enough and proactive enough to be able to make something out of this experience - e.g. to try to teach themselves teh local language, to try to identify needs which they could help with, etc., then they really needn't have bothered shelling out thousands of euros for i-to-i's 'service'.

I don't mean to come down particularly hard on i-to-i, there are other pay-to-volunteer companies out there, but i-to-i have a very aggressive marketing strategy and to some extent swamp out the other, free-to-volunteer charities (who can not afford big advertising budgets).

SuperSean, what sort of volunteering are you hoping to do with i-to-i? Maybe we can find you something similar with a charity rather than you giving your hard-earned cash to these charlatans?

Thanks very much for this information. I was planning to do some volunteer work with some friends in the summer. Ill just look into other volunteer groups.

Andrew Dodson · 03-01-2008 10:53pm

Great advice CamillaRhodes. I just came back from 3 months volunteering in Uganda for www.Edirisa.org . a great little NGO with a very informative website! check them out, cant give them enough praise. Edirisa is non-charge as long as you can commit for 3 months or they charge a minimal daily living cost for shorter periods BUT it took me a month to track down this NGO... frankly I found it very hard to find an org that I didn't have to pay for .. you really have to commit to finding a non paying org... treat it like finding a job. A couple of good questions might be do they have a detailed job description for your volunteer position what is the accommodation and food situation do they have contact details of past volunteers so you can check them out another good site is www.aidworkersforum.org especially about finding work .and ... for those looking for a career in development ... educate yourself about how to effective and get amongst it.

ciano6 · 04-01-2008 12:22am

I have just one question for OP: What area will your qualifications be in?

As others have pointed out, sometimes it costs money to take a volunteer. Sometimes, the best thing you can bring to a project is money. There are millions of spare hands around in developing countries but no money (or skills if you have one) to do work.

Anway, I have travelled through South America and Africa over the last five years and am currently "volunteering" on an Irish Aid funded-project in the West Indies. I use the "" because Irish Aid is actually paying for our food/accomodation/flights. I am a Maths teacher and my girlfriend teaches office skills/customer service. We were lucky that these were specific skills needed by the organisation we travelled with.
If you are a nurse/doctor/engineer/IT person/tradesman/experienced teacher etc then you will be needed to the extent that you will not have to pay.
If however you have a degree in Irish or Celtic Civilisation or Irish Politics or Philosophy, you may find that you will have to pay to be provided with a situation whiich allows you to do something worthwhile.
All organisations are very concious of the fact too that volunteers are not doing it in a totally selfless way either. In fact, us volunteers usually benefit more than the local people in the end.
On a final note, it should be pointed out that if you rock on up to any school (certainly in South America),they will happily take you as a classroom assistant to the English teacher who mightn't speak much English anyway.
Cian

StormWarrior · 06-01-2008 9:13pm

ciano6 wrote: »

I have just one question for OP: What area will your qualifications be in?

If however you have a degree in Irish or Celtic Civilisation or Irish Politics or Philosophy, you may find that you will have to pay to be provided with a situation whiich allows you to do something worthwhile.

My degree will in fact be in philosophy. I am also a qualified fitness instructor. I think my degree shows I'm capable of teaching English though, one must of course have a good grasp of the English language to write philosophical essays. If the volunteer organisations run sports-related activities for the loal kids I think I would be in a good position to help out there as well. I'm willing to do almost anything though, it doesn't have to be academic. If they want skivvies to help build houses or anything like that I'm up for it.

StormWarrior · 06-01-2008 9:16pm

Also, with the NGOs do you have to pay for anything at all, such as your plane ticket?

ciano6 · 07-01-2008 1:15am

Philosophy, theres a coincidence, I was just being random with my list of less vocational subjects.
As you say, shouldn't matter,but the first thing I would do is get a TEFL type qualification (although I may be wrong).
In our case, flights etc were paid, but I must emphasise that we were lucky that our specific qualifications/experience (we're both in our thirties as well) were needed in a particular project.
Do you speak much Spanish? Its an easy enough one to get the basics in. Anyway, if it is Peru you want to go to, you really could just call to a school (especially off the gringo trail - it'll also be cheaper)and they'll take you. You could survive on 10euro a day or less once you're staying put.
I once visited the Fe y Illegria schools in Lima. Those schools exist all over Latin America and you could just google them and maybe call or email in Spanish (I'd say).
Good Luck

CamillaRhodes · 07-01-2008 12:57pm

StormWarrior, given your background, you should definitely be of value to some NGOs, but being honest I think it is unlikely you'll get an organisation to pay your expenses / flights etc. (If you were a qualified teacher with teaching experience, you might be offered such to teach English, but otherwise probably not). Getting a TEFL cert, though not essential, is a good idea (I can recommend Phoenix ABC TEFL http://www.phoenixtefl.com/ who do a weekend-long intensive foundation TEFL cert - this has proved enough for me, to date).

With most NGOs with whom it is free to volunteer, they will charge you nothing but they will also pay you nothing, i.e. you'll have to pay all your associated costs - flights, insurance, vaccinations, accommodation, food, domestic travel, etc - yourself.

As we mentioned though, don't despair about this! If you can afford your flight ticket, this will be the most expensive thing you pay for. In Peru, I lived in a nice 2 bed apartment for which I paid 45 euros per month in rent. Beer is 30c a bottle (or less), a meal in a restaurant 2-3 euros, street food in the market (which is great!) less than a euro. You can survive SERIOUSLY on the cheap!

(Only thing I would advise - DO get travel insurance or health insurance that will cover you in Peru. A lot of people get sick over there - not too seriously, but you may want the option of going to a private hospital).

ciano6 · 07-01-2008 8:41pm

I agree with everything CamillaRhodes has just said.

moriez · 08-01-2008 9:08pm

Just wanted to say thank you all for this information. Especially Camilla. Hopefully I can launch myself into the world of volunteering through this.
Ciao

Fifs · 29-08-2008 10:45am

Just on the topic of knowing your skills, I'd love to volunteer in the next year or so, for three to six months. But I'm a solicitor. Not sure if we're much use to anyone...least of all in developing countries!? I'd be happy to do more or less anything but don't want to feel like i'm just there as a tourist, otherwise i'd just travel. Will a charity take on someone like myself to teach or build or muck in somehow?

dory · 06-09-2008 1:47pm

Just found a good website; http://asia.kidsworldwide.org/index.html
You pay 300 for your first month's rent and 100 for subsequent months. That's very good considering the price of a lot of volunteer organizations.

spinandscribble · 29-09-2008 7:53pm

childsdream.org

contact sallo with regard to volunteering. they expect a donation just to show interest but after spending a year researching volunteering in SEA this organisation seems to be the best run and really vet you before they'll accept you. i visited their main office and found them understanding of both you as a volunteer and where you'd best be suited.

towel401 · 07-10-2008 12:14am

Agent Smith wrote: »

its to stop poeple using them as an excuse for a Holiday

is that really a big problem? of course if you're after paying 5k to volunteer somewhere you will obviously feel like doing nothing.

if you're going to pay 5k you might as well take a nice long holiday to some poor place and support the local economy by paying local urchins to massage your feet and the like. then go volunteer back home where you don't have to pay.

vines · 15-10-2008 3:23pm

Hi,

free volunteering is something that I've just started to look into, and I found a great resource:
http://www.do-it.org.uk/wanttovolunteer/volunteeringoverseas
It provides links to both paying and non-paying volunteer opportunities. I've volunteered twice with paying organisations, and although it was worthwhile, I want to do it myself and pay less, and the above website has given me loads of ideas!

Also, try this link, it's an article on volunteering free!
http://www.overseasjobcentre.co.uk/100_free_volunteer_work_opportunities.shtml

Hope this helps!

Also try this website, it has links to 1600 NGO and voluntary organisations worldwide:
http://www.oneworld.net/

pokeroptimist · 16-10-2008 1:46am

myself and my girlfriend are going volunteering to Tanzania(arusha) for 3 months in Jan. We are not going with any organisation for the same reason as discussed above...why should we pay to volunteer!
We are staying in a hostel that provides volunteering programs in orphanages in liason with other local organisations free of charge.
To me this is a very handy and efficient way to volunteer. We pay for all our cost...travel,food,lodging etc

We are both looking forward to at least trying to make a small difference to some unfortunate children. We are under no illusions as to how tough the 3 months will be. For us its all about making an effort, no matter how small.

LaMer · 04-11-2008 6:19pm

Probably because 3rd world nations have enough unskilled labour as it is.

randombar · 25-11-2008 6:58am

Hi Lads,

I'm travelling around the world at the minute and get home around may, don't have to be back at work until July at some stage so want to spend a few months in Africa maybe doing some charity work.

My background would be:

Labouring - 5+ years
IT - 5+ years
Telecoms - 3+ years
Engineering - 5+ years
Maths grinds etc - 4+ years

and some other bits and pieces.

I would be of the same opinion as people here that I don't want to raise money for charity work I want to do and stuff. I just want to pay for my flights, maybe for accomodation if it's cheap enough and do something good for a change.

I would love to hear from people regarding suggestions of what country to go to with my skillset, the short time I have, and what peoples recommendations would be.

Thanks for your time.
//Gary

vines · 25-11-2008 10:17am

GaryCocs wrote: »

Hi Lads,

I'm travelling around the world at the minute and get home around may, don't have to be back at work until July at some stage so want to spend a few months in Africa maybe doing some charity work.

My background would be:

Labouring - 5+ years
IT - 5+ years
Telecoms - 3+ years
Engineering - 5+ years
Maths grinds etc - 4+ years

and some other bits and pieces.

I would be of the same opinion as people here that I don't want to raise money for charity work I want to do and stuff. I just want to pay for my flights, maybe for accomodation if it's cheap enough and do something good for a change.

I would love to hear from people regarding suggestions of what country to go to with my skillset, the short time I have, and what peoples recommendations would be.

Thanks for your time.
//Gary

Hi Gary,

I can't remember how much it cost in the end, but I volunteered in Amakhala Game Reserve in South Africa, it was a few years ago now, but if you contact them directly they can help you at if you're interested. The work I did was working with orphans, helping the orphanage to get money from the government by writing letters for them and so on.
Obviously cos it's a game reserve there was animal monitoring, and a lot of labouring, fixing fences and so on. If you're into a combination of community and conservation work, it's a great option! I had an absolutely unforgettable time there, and South Africa is very affordable cos they're suffering more than anywhere else during this 'Recession'.
Here's the website, like I said it was a few years ago that I went, and Ettiene was the main coordinator so maybe ask for him, he's a great guy. Good luck, and I'm sure there's plenty other stuff around too!!
http://www.amakhala.co.za/index.php

Also, as a side note, if you get to Cape Town, Durban or Jo'burg, and ask at the backpackers if there's any volunteer work to do, they'll be able to tell you about local volunteering that they participate in. There's one in Hermanus (which is an hour outside of Cape Town) where you volunteer with the local community volunteer group to create a better life for the blacks/coloureds (BTW these are the PC terms as used in South Africa!), and you can stay at the backpackers and they'll give you a discounted rate and transport you there and back everyday, or you can opt to do a home stay which is cheaper again and you get to know the local people much better.

I'll let you know if anything else comes to mind, but South Africa is an absolutely amazing place, and I travelled alone there (I'm a woman) and once you keep your head about you, you'll be perfectly safe!

Also check out this page: http://www.worldwidehelpers.org

Good luck!

randombar · 25-11-2008 9:41pm

Hi,
That first option sounds really up my street, combining a few different roles and what not, did you have to pay for your accomodation and all of that? I'll try and contact that website and see what they tell me anyway.
As for the second option I reckon I'd prefer to have something organized before I headed off would be the only thing.
Thanks for that information.
//Gary

why can't you volunteer abroad for free?

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