About the author
Holger is a management consultant turned volunteer. He loves to take pictures, run around in the sun, dive and he has never met a beer in his life he didn't like.
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So you want to be a volunteer and switch your office job for an exciting time in a developing country or just go traveling with a meaning during a gap year before you hit university.
There are plenty of different kinds of volunteering assignments out there and it pays off to spend some time on finding out what it is you’re looking for.
There’s a basic set of parameters to each volunteering assignment:
Once you know what your looking for in each category, you can go looking for an adequate assignment.
Be aware that for several reasons, not every combination of the parameters is available.
Skilled vs. Unskilled
This is the most basic segmentation of volunteering. If you work in a job that you have worked in before, you’re a qualified, skilled volunteer. We work as project managers and consultants, there’s also lawyers, doctors, engineers and other professionals who provide their skills on a voluntary basis.
The opposite of this is unskilled volunteering where you work in a job you can do without any previous experience. Building schools, teaching, counting turtles. There’s quite a bit of criticism surrounding unskilled volunteering. On the one hand, an unskilled volunteer in a developing country is very likely to take a job from a local (as any local could – by definition – do the job without prior education). On the other hand, a lot of unskilled volunteering comes in the form of what is referred to as voluntourism– unskilled volunteering packaged with a travel and adventure experience. While this may be very valuable, especially for young volunteers right after school, the positive impact of this on anything but the travel agency’s wallet can be disputed.
Organized, Semi-Organized or self-organized
An organizedvolunteering assignment means that you submit yourself into the hands of a volunteering organization. They will find an assignment for you, take care of insurance, transportation and other logistics. The organization should also have someone on the ground who takes care of you. Having an organized assignment may come with as much comfort as being picked up from the airport and receiving accommodation as well as meals from the organization.
In our experience, this comes with a price: Either you have to pay a fair amount of fees for this all-inclusive service or you go with an organization that does not have you let a say in where you go, what you do and how long you have to go. Often times this could be a religious organization that requires you to spread their specific message.
You can go semi-organizedby contracting a project broker that matches volunteers with projects. This is what we did. Challenges Worldwide is a charity that brings volunteers and NGOs together. We paid them a fee for which we received a number of projects to chose from, an orientation workshop, advise on insurance and traveling and a contact in the country where are volunteering – just in case. They provide a measure of quality assurance for the projects in order to make sure their clients (the volunteers) do not waste their time. Besides that, they leave you to your own device.
If you go completely self-organizedthere is no organization involved besides you and the organization you volunteer for. This is the way to go if you’re confident with dealing yourself with insurance, health and travel and if you have enough contacts to score a volunteering assignment on your own. We’ve seen volunteers here in Belize who cold-called an organization, offered their services and then took care of everything themselves. After doing it semi-organized the first time, this is what I would do from now on.
Duration
Volunteering assignments can last anywhere from 2 weeks to several years. Generally speaking, short-term assignments are more likely to be unskilled volunteering and skilled volunteering assignments will require a commitment of 3 months or more. The reasons are that you can start saving turtles on the first day on the beach but you’ll need a few weeks to become valuable as a project manager, consultant or engineer for an NGO.
Deciding on a duration will depend on how much time you have available, how much money you have in the bank and what the organization you go with requires of you. We picked a 3-month assignment, re-defined it to be a 6-month assignment and then extended for another 6 months.
Funded, Semi-Funded or self-funded
When we set out on our volunteering project, we expected people to be so happy to get our skills for free that we were sure we’d get flights, accommodation and food paid, maybe even receive a bit of pocket money. We were wrong. It’s not that easy.
Here are some realizations we made while researching our volunteering placements:
Don’t let the idea of paying for everything yourself intimidate you. You can do fundraising yourself to add to your funds. And most of the times, your buck will last you a lot longer where you go. We will put up an article on budgeting for volunteers shortly.
Read up on volunteering
There’s some literature out there, though I wouldn’t say that it is a lot or that you need to read a lot of books.
Most of them repeat what’s in the others. The biggest value proposition of most books is a more or less up-to-date directory of contacts and organizations.
I recommend getting the Lonely Planet on volunteering (make sure you get the newest edition) for the most comprehensive list of organizations. At least for the US, Great Britain and Australia this should be considered the best guide out there from what I have seen.
It also includes some basic info on how to prepare for a trip, what to bring etc.
Make a choice
Here are some examples for combinations of the above parameters:
Skilled and organized:
Skilled and semi-organized:
Skilled and self-organized:
Unskilled and organized:
Please note: We don’t know how legit these providers are – you can probably find positive and negative testimonials about most of them online. Make your own choice.
Unskilled and semi-organized:
We’re not aware of any organizations in this category
Unskilled and self-organized
An honest word about being a volunteer
Volunteers do not have a spotless reputation everywhere you go. In fact, some people may see volunteers as nothing but imperialist know-it-alls with a savior complex who only work when and what they want and are nothing more than polished backpacker bums with a degree in some useless abstract science annoying hosts with complicated dietary requirements and a clinical skype habit.
Don’t let this discourage you – but be aware that as a volunteer you will have to prove yourself and your value contribution. If you manage to do that, there will be good friends, lots of appreciation for your work and an abundance of additional assignments and opportunities. But don’t take that for granted when you first set your hiking boot or Birkenstock on the soil of this country that you want to impact so badly.
Please let us know if you know any more organizations that we should list!