The Spirit Of Volunteerism Abroad

by Jeannie Barry-Sanders

IF DEDICATION TO the spirit of volunteerism is part of your commitment to the world, opportunity might be waiting for you right around the corner. Volunteers travel to different countries,
working for government or non-government agencies. Volunteering can be an expensive way to share your special talents; not only does the volunteer usually receive no pay, but he is also often required to pay his own way while working abroad. However, for someone with the desire and the motivation, the benefits can justify the expense.

How do you start? First, determine your goals. Then decide if you want to participate in a short-term or long-term program. Finding the right volunteer opportunity is the first step. There are literally hundreds of agencies seeking volunteers. You can check them out at local libraries,in travel abroad magazines like Transitions Abroad, http://www.transitionsabroad.com/. Don’t forget to interview volunteers in the program you finally select. Having a
firsthand account from a past participant can help you be better prepared.

Cross-Cultural Solutions, at http://www.crossculturalsolutions.org/ offers opportunities in West Africa. It is a short-term volunteer program that enables volunteers to work with local social service organizations in fields as diverse as health care, education, skills training, and arts/recreation. A most important quality Cross-Cultural Solutions looks for in its volunteers is a sincere desire to help and learn. Volunteer Marge Rubin has traveled to India, Ghana, and Peru
with Cross-Cultural Solutions. She describes her experiences as culturally rewarding and life changing. “I recommend the experience to anyone interested in getting involved in volunteerism,” she says.

Another noteworthy program is Operation Crossroads Africa,
http://www.igc.org/oca. Operation Crossroads Africa offers a seven-week cross-cultural immersion program, with rural projects in ten African countries and Brazil. Volunteers spend six weeks in a village and one week travelling in the host country. Many of the volunteer opportunities involve the construction of community
facilities, but there are also projects involving medical aid, agriculture, and teaching computer skills and ESL. There is a two-day orientation beginning in New York City. Kate Shackford, director of program services, says 40 to 45 percent of the volunteers are people of color, and three quarters of them are women. Some are college graduates, and some are just people with an interest in helping others.

Global Volunteers offers programs worldwide for adventurous volunteers. Volunteers participate in ongoing development projects in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, the South Pacific, and North and South America. Programs are one, two, or three weeks. Over 130 teams of volunteers participate each year. You can view their web site at http://www.globalvolunteers.org/.

Operation Crossroads Africa’s web site advises volunteers that “you will have to cope with some or all of the following conditions: living in close quarters; having no electricity or running water;
cooking outdoors over a wood fire; eating a modest, high-starch, low-protein diet.” Other volunteer organizations, however, specifically combine a more traditional vacation experience with the opportunity to volunteer. At Mar de Jade, an oceanfront vacation-retreat center in a small fishing village north of Puerto Vallarta, volunteers work on community projects, such as the local library, rural community clinic or a model home garden. Volunteers can also enjoy swimming, hiking, horseback
riding, massage, meditation, and Spanish language instruction. E-mail Mar de Jade in Mexico at infor@mardejade.com or visit their web site at http://www.mardejade.com/.

For a good place to start your search for organizations visit
http://www.cie.uci.edu/iop/voluntee.html, the University of California at Irvine’s web site. Most of the information is relevant to non-students as well as to students. The Idealist site,
http://www.idealist.org/IS/vol_search.html, is a another particularly useful one. Potential volunteers type in interests and abilities in order to be matched with a host organization looking
for a specific kind of skill. Bilingual individuals with a background in the health care professions will find a particularly large group of matches, but there’s plenty of interesting work even for
those who type in “no special skills.”

Before you actually leave your home country, examine the pros and cons, consider your personality, your life-style, and your ability to cope outside of your comfort zone. Finally, and this cannot be
stressed enough, investigate all offers and talk to other volunteers. Whether you are going to another country to teach in a paid position or to work as a volunteer, your talent should be appreciated. If you take the time to check out the experiences, you will not come back with a horror story, and you will have paved the way for other volunteers to travel this road in your
footsteps. Happy volunteering, Innocents!