The Underground Guide to International Volunteering

The Underground Guide to International Volunteering

For experiences that go beyond beaches and the backpacker trail.

By Kirsty Henderson

The Underground Guide to International Volunteering

By Kirsty Henderson

Copyright 2014 Kirsty Henderson

All Rights Reserved

If you'd like to reproduce or use any portions of my book, please ask first. Don’t worry, I’ll probably say yes.

Disclaimer: A lot of this book has been written based on my own experience as a volunteer and traveller. I've attempted to provide up-to-date and accurate information but I accept no responsibility for errors or omissions. Updates and adjustments to the guide can be found on the website: http://www.internationalvolunteeringguide.com

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favourite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Why You Need to Read This Guide

I’ve spent a good portion of my adult life on the road with not much else than my trusty backpack, a sense of adventure, and little to no plans. Starting out, I had a rough idea of the things I wanted to see, but this list was soon replaced with the things I wanted to do. The things I’ve done that have had much more of an impact on my life than the things I’ve seen, and it’s been my time spent volunteering that has led to my best memories.

I’ve been captivated by volunteering since my first experience as a teacher (of sorts) in Madrid, where I helped business people with their conversational English. I loved meeting and mingling with Spaniards whom I would otherwise never have met and talking to them about their lives in Madrid over a glass or three of wine. Since then, I’ve volunteered as an English teacher in China, helped organisations in Uganda, Rwanda, Nicaragua, and New Zealand build websites, worked in exchange for accommodation and food on several small farms worldwide, and done disaster relief work in Bangladesh, Haiti, Indonesia, and the Philippines. During my travels I've spent almost three years of my life as a volunteer and I’ve been blown away by my experiences each and every time.

While I don’t claim to be an expert on everything volunteering and travel-related, I’ve learned a lot from my many experiences, as well as from my large group of travelling friends and acquaintances that I’ve made over the years. I have lots of information, tips, practical advice, and plenty of stories to share, and I’m confident that this guide will equip you with everything you need to know to get you out there in the world working as a volunteer.

The Underground Guide to International Volunteering will:

* Save you loads of time by consolidating online resources, practical advice, personal tips and stories, and anything else you could want to know about volunteering all in one place.

* Help you determine whether volunteering is actually something you really want to do.

* Teach you about the various types of volunteering opportunities available worldwide.

* Give you a complete rundown on paid volunteering and help you to figure out if it’s a good fit for you.

* Explain the costs for paid volunteering and compare them with free and cheap options.

* Give you the tools to find your own free and cheap independent volunteering opportunities, including a list of 12 online databases to start your search, each packed with hundreds of opportunities.

* List over 80 organisations worldwide offering free and cheap volunteering placements that are eager for committed volunteers.

* Explain the practicalities of volunteering overseas to help you prepare yourself for your placement.

* Equip you with the confidence to pack your bag and go!

Get excited, because buying this guide is the first step towards becoming an international volunteer! Volunteering has enriched my life, inspired me, opened my eyes to different ways of life, allowed me to meet fascinating people, challenged me, broken me, lifted me back up, and so much more. While everyone’s experience is unique, I truly believe that your life will be better after having spent some time as a volunteer and this guide will help you take the first steps towards making that goal a reality.

Introduction

I had spent quite a few years as an independent traveller before I discovered my love of volunteering. I'd taken a few backpacking trips to the UK, worked and travelled my way around Australia and New Zealand, and lived in London for five years taking various trips to Europe.

My travel addiction had well and truly taken hold of me at this point but something seemed to be missing. Sure, looking at churches, going to museums, and hitting bars with my fellow travellers was fun, but I longed to do more. I found that I was spending most of my time in the company of other travellers, doing touristy things, and not really connecting too much with locals except for those who manned the front desks at my accommodation. While I was having a great time, I often felt like I was just scratching the surface of each place I visited. I wanted to meet and connect with locals, to learn more about the places I was visiting, and to see things that went beyond the usual tourist sites.

This is where volunteering caught my interest. My experiences in Australia and New Zealand as an employee were wonderful and I wondered if volunteering could offer the same sort of an experience. Suddenly I found myself with several websites open at once, reading everything I could find on volunteering overseas.

Unfortunately, I found this to be a very frustrating experience. If you've spent any amount of time online looking for a volunteering opportunity, you'll be able to relate. It's very easy to find placements that charge thousands of dollars—in fact, it's likely that you might even think that these are the only possible options out there—but finding free of cheap volunteering placements is much more difficult. In fact, when I first started travelling, I thought that international volunteering was only possible for people who either had specific skills that were in demand or for people willing to pay thousands of dollars to a company to find them a placement.

Since hitting the road I've seen how easy it actually is to volunteer and there are plenty of organizations that would love an extra set of hands, you just need to know how to find them.

The Underground Guide to International Volunteering is a book that takes all of this information from various sources and consolidates it into one well-organised, easy to read package. It will save you dozens of hours of research, open your eyes to new possibilities, expose you to other volunteers and their experiences, and hopefully get you very excited to head off into the world as a volunteer!

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - Introduction to International Volunteering

What is International Volunteering?

Why Volunteer?

How Volunteers Contribute

Chapter 2 - Is Volunteering Right for You?

Traits of a Good Volunteer

Examining Your Motivations

Types of People Who Volunteer

Ethical Issues Surrounding International Volunteering

Chapter 3 - Types of Volunteering

Skilled Versus Unskilled Volunteering

Development Volunteering

Conservation and Wildlife Volunteering

Emergency and Disaster Relief Volunteering

Chapter 4 - Choosing a Volunteering Experience

Finding a Volunteering Opportunity That’s Right for You

Finding an Organisation that is Right For You

Arranging a Worthwhile Volunteering Placement

Chapter 5 - Paying to Volunteer

What is Fee-Based Volunteering?

Paying to Cover Food and Accommodation Costs

Where Does Your Fee Go?

Should You Pay to Volunteer?

A Closer Look at Where Your Fee Goes

International Fee-Based Volunteering Companies

Comparison of Programs

Alternatives to Fee-Based Volunteering Programmes

Final Thoughts on Paying to Volunteer

Chapter 6 - Finding Volunteering Opportunities

Finding Fee-Based Volunteer Placements

Finding Free and Cheap Volunteer Placements

Independent Volunteering Websites

Create Your Own Volunteering Opportunity

Chapter 7 - Practical Stuff

Visas and Immigration

Travel Insurance

Preparations

Packing

Health, Safety, and Hygiene

Accommodation

Food

Weather

Transportation

Expectations

Communication

Chapter 8 - Free and Cheap Volunteering Opportunities

About the Author

Chapter 1 - Introduction to International Volunteering

What is International Volunteering?

Volunteering! You know it’s something you’d like to do or at least learn more about, but what is it, exactly?

Getting straight to the point, volunteering is the act of giving your time to help other people, organisations, or causes out of your own personal choice without being asked and usually without pay. It's a movement, it's important, and volunteers are making a difference all around the world. International volunteering, then, is simply volunteering somewhere other than your home country.

This book hasn’t been written with one nationality in mind, so you’ll find information about volunteering in places like the USA or UK alongside more far-flung and seemingly exotic locations. Volunteering in Western countries looks much different than volunteering in the slums of Nairobi, but the gesture of giving your time to support a cause or group you care about is just as valuable no matter where you are.

One thing I’d like to clarify up front is the relationship between volunteering and poverty. It’s true that many organisations that accept volunteers exist specifically to aid the poor in some way, but working with poor and disadvantaged people is only one element of a larger movement. Volunteering doesn’t need to have anything to do with poverty, so be careful about grouping the two together automatically, as often happens. Volunteering is simply the act of giving your time for free. This could be as a counsellor for a suicide hotline in London, a conservation worker in one of Canada’s national parks, or as a volunteer cashier at a bookstore where proceeds go towards people living with HIV in New York—none of which have a particular focus on the poor.

So volunteering is the act of giving your time for free to help in some way and international volunteering is the choice to do this somewhere other than your home country. Easy! Ah, but there’s so much more to learn. Read on…my hope is that, by the time you’ve finished this book, you’ll be equipped with the skills to spot worthwhile volunteering opportunities and the confidence to head out into the world to help.

Volunteer work will be some of the hardest work you ever do.

Why Volunteer?

Volunteer work is meant to benefit