VESA volunteer abroad

SteJB1118

HI everyone, I have signed up for one of the programmes with this organisation but on their website it states that they are a ''non-charitable organisation''. I don't feel right in fundraising for such an organisation if they are making profits from these ''projects'' and taking away money from actual charities. However I am looking to see if anyone here can provide me with an information regarding this situation or if anyone has gone with them before and could let me know what their experience was like etc.
If they do make profits from this then I will look elsewhere to do some volunteer work as their ''adventure week'' although appealing is not really what I want to do if I go volunteering. the link to their website is below if you want to explore through it and if you see something that I may have missed.
I will appreciate any response that I recieve.

j.s. pill II

SteJB1118 wrote: »

HI everyone, I have signed up for one of the programmes with this organisation but on their website it states that they are a ''non-charitable organisation''. I don't feel right in fundraising for such an organisation if they are making profits from these ''projects'' and taking away money from actual charities. However I am looking to see if anyone here can provide me with an information regarding this situation or if anyone has gone with them before and could let me know what their experience was like etc.
If they do make profits from this then I will look elsewhere to do some volunteer work as their ''adventure week'' although appealing is not really what I want to do if I go volunteering. the link to their website is below if you want to explore through it and if you see something that I may have missed.
I will appreciate any response that I recieve.

At a glance, it does look like your classic volunteerism set-up. That's not to say it's necessarily a bad crowd to get involved with or that the work won't be worthwhile - I simply don't know enough about the organisation to comment on it.

Might be better able to point you in the right direction if I knew a bit more about your situation. How long do you want to volunteer for? What age are you? (important to know as a lot of well known programs have age cut off points) Do you have any specific skills/background that could be of use (e.g. medical engineering etc). Are you hoping to incorporate travel around your volunteering?

In the meantime, just do some research about how other people found their experience. Might be a bit more difficult to get solid information about the projects the organisation do beyond their own write-ups though

SteJB1118

thanks for your response. I am 20 and it is only for 2 weeks. the amount alone is a bit much in my opinion despite the fact that this particular programme is to figi. the programme just involves a week of work and an adventure week and seems a bit much to ask somewhere to donate towards the cause. if i was going to do volunteer work possibly maybe 3 weeks or so. I have done some research but there is very little about it, a few negative reviews have made me look more into it but still can't seem to get a hold of the organisation now. not really sure what im going to do now in all honesty but we shall see.

j.s. pill II

SteJB1118 wrote: »

thanks for your response. I am 20 and it is only for 2 weeks. the amount alone is a bit much in my opinion despite the fact that this particular programme is to figi. the programme just involves a week of work and an adventure week and seems a bit much to ask somewhere to donate towards the cause. if i was going to do volunteer work possibly maybe 3 weeks or so. I have done some research but there is very little about it, a few negative reviews have made me look more into it but still can't seem to get a hold of the organisation now. not really sure what im going to do now in all honesty but we shall see.

Yeah that sounds like a glorified holiday to me. Isn't it funny how these places that need our help are located right bang in the middle of popular tourist destinations!? Or maybe this company operates in South Sudan aswell...

Anyway, if you're looking for something short term, I'd suggest first having a look at VSI.ie - have a look at their short term work camps in particular. They're run by the Service Civil International and are very reputable. They're co-funded by Erasmus and the Council of Eurpoe.The EVS database might be worth taking a look at too - though these projects tend to be more medium term and are often based in Europe.

I have some contacts in Nepal who can set you up with some very meaningful work there. Any funds you have raised for the adventure holiday would be put to far greater use through these guys (their overheads are minimal a far greater proportion of their donations actually get to people on the ground than they would from a big NGO). BUT - it's very difficult to predict what their demand for labour will be over the next few months. Not least because the Indian backed blockade that's going on right now is causing a massive scarcity of fuel and supplies.

Also - are you in education right now? A lot of schools and colleges will have links to reputable volunteering organisations.

Finally - make sure to visit comhlamh.org - an excellent resource for all things volunteer related (some parts of the site tend not to work too well in firefox so maybe use a different browser).

Hope that helps - feel free to give me a shout if you're any more questions