Volunteering Abroad

Tusky

Creature wrote: »

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

Coaching football definitely appeals to me. They have placements in Trinidad, Kenya & Argentina. Interesting.

Creature

I was looking at the conservation work with animals in Africa myself, but then teaching in Japan is something I've had my eye on for ages also.

flanum

if ur non too bothered about the charity end of it, i worked/volunteered on a kibbutz in israel for a while, best craic ever. try the kibbutz association. or: http://www.perfect-links.com/sites/asia/guide_to_being_a_kibbutz_volunteer_in_israel.php



bloody hell, just googled and came up with this: http://www.volunteeringireland.com/page.php?id=19

cool!

KBarry

I did the kibbutz thing too. Best 6 months of my life. My liver hurt after mind

star gazer

two threads merged. some of the discussion above should be useful to the recent op.

CamillaRhodes

To Tusky and Creature,
Guys please will you take a look at this thread before deciding to give your money to i-to-i? I have pretty strong feelings about them. If you're just looking for a fun experience and don't mind paying money to a company to give you that fun experience, that's fine, but if you really want to volunteer with a charity, please look into the alternatives I (and other posters) suggest!!!

edanto

Seconded on the i-to-i criticism. The reason you will come across them first when you start looking for volunteer work is because i-to-i is a normal forprofit company and hence has a full marketing budget - press ads, search engine optimisation, adwords, banner ads.

The organisations on volunteeringoptions.org are all bona fide nonprofit, endorsed by Comhlamh (an Irish organisation set up by people returning home after doing development work overseas).

Seven years ago, I spent a summer with Volu - they do mainly building camps all throughout Ghana - three weeks long. Essentially they're ecotourism, as well as the building a school etc that you are doing, you're bringing some money to remote part of the economy. A friend of mine went to Ghana with Volu 3 years ago and they were just as good as when I was there. (Having said that, you won't find Volu on the Comhlamh site, since they only list Irish orgs)

People on the Volu camps are given the warmest Ghanaian welcome you could imagine - and certainly viewed very differently to the people that have come on the spoon fed, expensive, Raleigh International trips.

In a nutshell - be wary of glitzy websites and companies with big marketing budgets and trust the recommendations of people like Comhlamh via volunteeringoptions.org - all the sending organisations on that site are up to scratch in terms of safety.

dory

Yea, I was about to jump all over the i-to-i thing too but I see two people have beaten me to it.
This will be my fourth summer volunteering abroad. 1st two were in India, then Peru, and now I'm heading back to India. I went with an organisation in my college the first year, and worked for contacts I'd made from that year after that.
There are loads of great organisations looking for people so please don't give your money to some company!

spinandscribble

the amount of money it takes to pay a company like i to i is so silly when you could give that money directly to the place you find work. cut out the middle man.
i'm going to thailand this summer and now i have the horrible task of saying no to one charity over another. i applied to both assuming they both wouldnt be as keen but i guess the combo of having the right work experience and that fact i've raised 3k by fundraising is appealing.
how do you choose? and then tell the other no when they're already been very nice to you? i know which one i'd prefer. ones in a isolated village and i'd be the only volunteer most likely at that time. i would only work between 6-9. the other is much more demanding, but to be honest, i'd prefer to be kept on my feet.

Sawa

My experience with Habitat For Humanity: June/July 2005

I was part of a youth group so the leaders organized the trip, there was 16 of us altogether who went. We had to fundraise the money ourselves, however we did it all together doing car washes, bag packing, sponsored mini marathon, asking individual people to sponsor a "brick" or a "door". We also applied for a few grants and got money from the church that the youth group was affiliated with. It was hard to raise the money but definetly worth it. We also had to pay some ourselves, for flights and so forth. Also, take into account the price of vaccinations (depending on where you go) as this cost a fair bit.

We all knew each other so it was easy enough but you can join an open team or create one yourselves, it seems there is a few people here who are looking to do something like this, so why not make a team up yourselves? If you are short people, put up ads or ask friends. Its something everyone should do and honestly was the best trip of my entire life so far, so you shouldn't find it hard to get people. Then you contact Habitat For Humanity (this is the only one I know how it works, so sorry if I'm being exclusive). Their website is very informative, theres the Irish one and the international one:
http://www.habitat.org/eca/
http://www.habitatireland.ie/
Habitat Ireland have building projects in Ireland aswell as across the globe.

It was an amazing experience and I was very lucky as I didn't have to do any of the planning only fundraising (which took up a lot of time). We even got the weekends off building, to go explore the country (I went to Honduras) and saw some unforgetable sights. The building itself was extremely hard work, in really hot sun and we only ate 3 basic meals a day so it was hard but totally worth it. The families help with the building and were so friendly, always giving us drinks of water and at the end we had a party with a pinyata
It sounds so clichéd but it really did help me to appreciate what i have, after seeing kids with no shoes who lived in houses made from corrogated steel and fabric among other materials.

Here is a report I did on the trip for my school newsletter when we had returned
(names etc have been deleted):

"Mi casa su casa

In July, a group of 16 young people travelled to Honduras with the charity Habitat for Humanity. Habitat is a non-profit organisation which works in 85 countries throughout the world including Ireland. We were the first Irish team to work in Honduras and our aim was to build simple, decent housing at no profit for families in need.

Honduras is a poverty stricken country where the average wage is $85 per month. There are problems with gangs in the cities but we were working in the centre of the country in a rural mountain town called Siguatepeque. We worked with a local mason in a very poor neighbourhood on four houses for three weeks, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays. On the worksite we did tasks such as bricklaying, mixing cement, moving blocks and sand, and plumbing and electrical work. It was very difficult as everything was done by hand, there were no power tools!

We had a few minor accidents such as the scaffolding that collapsed while I was on it bricklaying!! There were no proper toilets on the worksite so we had to use fly infested outhouses!! Suffice to say they were left unused by us!!

The Honduran people were extremely friendly and courteous to us, always generous even when they could not always afford to be. It was heartbreaking to see the children with very little. Many did not have shoes so we decided to leave some clothes and shoes for them.

The trip was an amazing experience and made us realise how lucky we are and how it was possible to make a difference to the lives of other people. We would like to thank those who assisted us or donated money to our fundraising attempts."

Power Chords

Have a look at idealist.org
It's a good site, lists of possibilities.
Unfortunately quite a few of those possibilities involve thousands of euros.

cailinoBAC

I came across this site before, it's UK based, but I wouldn't say that would be a problem
http://originalvolunteers.co.uk/?gclid=COXR29nv2Y0CFSUUEAodkmW_YQ

Glacier

Any ideas on where to go if you want to do like emergency relief/build houses but are unskilled? Teaching english wouldn't appeal to me.

edanto

What about something like Sawa's post above?

Glacier

I'd be sort of wanting a career though, not just a short-term thing. I dropped out of UCD & want to be able to say I'm doing something?

Ettie

Glacier,

This is something I did a good old while back! Went for 2 years as a development worker as opposed to volunteer with a French NGO as lived there at the time.

if you are looking for a 'career' (ie Long-term development work) you will need to do some training. I know my brother is doing training with a group called Viator Christi www.viatoreschristi.com and is hoping to go somewhere this year but it is for a min of 1 year I think. He graduated uni and has no idea of what he wants but defo not anything to do with his degree!!!!!!! I think, might be miles off here, but you may also get government grant aid for this type of work.

I would suggest www.comlamh.org (umbrella group for NGOs in Ireland where all members are signatory to a code of conduct and practice)

Also Irish Aid (division of Dept of Foreign Affairs which looks after Overseas Aid Budget) has a drop-in centre on O'Connell Street, Dublin.

star gazer

Has anyone tried this organisation EIL volunteering abroad ? It's the first thing that comes up first in a serach for volunteering abroad.

Escapism...

Hi,

I'm going to do some travelling next year...so will have all this done before the volunteering - ie - i am not doin it for a free holiday!!!

Anyway for a few years now I have been interested in volunteering abroad. Although I have no previous experience of any volunteering work.

Does anyone have any tips on how i would go about researching this ? And any advice would also be appreciated...thanks in advance.

star gazer

A little bit late now but at the bottom is a list of organisations involved and they all probably have websites to go through or you could just contact Irish Aid for more information. Irish Aid’s Overseas Volunteering Fair

JackKelly

any idea of any overseas IT related volunteering organisations? I know (and have been away with) Camara, but they don't have any volunteers on the ground overseas afaik

hacked

Whatever you do....do NOT go with i to i!!!

Worst organisation ever. Seriously. Went to Kenya for the summer to teach, and was miserable. Ended up in a volunteer house with a bunch of pissheads who were kind of touring the poverty or something. Also, i to i is NOT a charity....they will overcharge you, give you the bare minimum and non of your hard earned cash will see the projects or people you are working with.

When I was in mombasa we had a night guard and a day guard outside the house....they were paid 200 shillings a week...practically nothing, while other guards working in houses on the same street were being paid 300 shillings a week by the african families living there. I doubt those african families were a multi billion dollar corporation. It really made me sick.

I could rant on about them forever, needless to say... i to i was a joke.

dory

There are plenty of posts along the same lines as yours hacked, so you're not alone in thinking that. I never went with that group but met people in Ecuador who did and it amazes me that people hand over money to them.

star gazer

Even after the truama of kidnap the aid worker Sharon Cummins recommends people volunteer abroad for a year. She is clearly dedicated to the cause of bringing 'dignity' into the lives of people living with so little opportunity to reach their potential. She is a credit to her country.
Irish Times

THE FREED Goal aid worker Sharon Commins, who was held for three months in Darfur along with a colleague, has “strongly recommended” that people volunteer for aid work for a one-year period.

irish-anabel

Hi I've been going through the site volunteeringoptions.org and can't really understand what 'Leargas' is.
The mission statement is a bit hard to understand.
I'm interested because there's minimal cost, they're involved with countries I'm interested in and they seem to be involved in education and kids.
Anyone any info?

lil_lisa

Hey guys, I'm trying to find an organisation that locates to North America, anyone know of any? I've found several in the states itself but you gotta organise your own visa, that seems slightly impossible, right? Unless you're on a continuous visitor visa but then you cant accept any stipends! Or does anyone know of how to obtain a volunteer visa?

star gazer

With the major devastation caused in Haiti over the last few hours the effort to build houses in Haiti is brought to a new critical level. Haven partnership

luigi8738

mid 50 unemployed, loads of energy would love to travel and do overseas aid, any advice where to start finding out about it

star gazer

<threads merged>

Take a read back through this thread luigi.
If you have some technical skills that could be useful to an organisation in volunteering abroad it may make it easier to find the right fit.
Take a look throughout the following website which has a lot of the aspects around making a decision and finding an organisation:
Volunteering Options

star gazer

Thinking about volunteering overseas?

As part of its Volunteering Options Programme, Comhlámh is holding an information evening for people who are thinking about volunteering overseas in developing countries. This short, informal event offers the opportunity to hear more about the issues you need to consider before making a decision about volunteering. It also provides an opportunity to hear first-hand about the experiences of a person who volunteered abroad and to ask any questions you might have about your options.

Date: Thursday 28th January 2009
Time: 18.00 – 19:30
Venue: Irish Aid Volunteering and Information Centre, O’Connell Street

Volunteering options
You just need to register (without charge) through the details on the link above.

Ro2009

Hi,

I've gone on to all the websites that have been mentioned in the thread but was just wondering if anyone could give me more information about volunteering as a chef abroad, I graduate as a qulaified chef in may and would love to volunteer abroad for awhile as a chef and maybe help educate communities more about food or making the best of what little food they have (if that sounds right) any ideas?