Planning to Volunteer abroad - Advice needed!

old_dan

Hi,

I'm planning to leave my job to do 3-4 months volunteering in a developing country, hopefully starting in March '09.

I'm 26 and have a degree in computers and a post graduate in computing in education. Unfortunately I've never put this teaching post grad to practice, I've been working as a customer service manager for the past few years. So I've no experience working in the computer industry but I'm highly skilled nonetheless.

I really don't mind what kind of volunteering work I do abroad, but as I understand I'll be placed according to my skills, so teaching computers to kids seems like a good place to start.

Problem is, I don't know anyone who has volunteered abroad so any advice would be appreciated. I've been looking at the kidsworldwide.org site, does anyone know of any other sites to check out?

I'd rather work with an NGO that will cover the cost of my board and food, but I'll have money for my own flights.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

dory

Camara sounds like the organisation for you! Dates/length of time won't be perfect but it's very hard to find a volunteer experience that fits anyone's schedule perfectly.
With them you have to apply (really soon - hope you're not already too late), you'll spend the winter/sping fiddling with old computers and bring them to Africa next summer and teach the people how to use them.
Or else, you could sign up to Suas. Same format, except you'd be teaching general stuff mainly.

You could also try VSO, or VSI or is it VSO Ireland? You'll figure it out! The first thing I noticed though about your post is you want a skilled position, for a short amount of time. That's pretty hard to come by. Usually if you're going for a short time it's general stuff a college student could do, but people with experience go for longer and settle into a skilled job over there. I've heard these VSO people do 2 month skilled placements though.

For almost all of these you have to fundraise c.€3000, then everything is included after that. You could also pop into Irish Aid on O Connell st and talk to them too.

Mimi24

Hi,
I have just come back from volunteering in Mexico. I went with an organisation called EIL Intercultural Learning. There website is www.volunteerabroad.ie. They were an excellent organisation to go with and I would really recommend them to you. Have a look on there website anyway. I went for 2 months but you can always go for longer. I know you want to go for 3-4 months and that sound perfect. This organisation are always looking for people with skills like yours. Good luck with it. x

Whitey2279

Mimi im wondering could you give me some insight into what Action Project to do it on??

Mimi24

Whitey2279 wrote: »

Mimi im wondering could you give me some insight into what Action Project to do it on??

Well what are you interested in doing and where do you want to go?