Structured & Self-Funding Volunteer Programmes :Selection & EligibilityHmmm. Going to a Muslim country at the beginning of the Iraq war does not make for
a restful placement. VSO were great at contacting us every day during the most difficult
times to update us on the security situation and to explain their escalation procedure,
ranging from recalling us all back to Dhaka through to full-scale evacuation. I’m happy
to say we never got anywhere near that level, but we did stay indoors on Fridays for a few
months, as that is the main day for prayers and things could get heated as people came out
of the mosques. Apart from those exceptional circumstances, safety and security issues in
Bangladesh were a feature of our in-country training.
Tried and tested procedures are also essential for medical emergencies. Michelle Hawkins,
who volunteered as a staff member for Raleigh International (p108), was a project manager
with the Bri Bri Indian community in a village in the Talamancan Indian Reserve of Costa
Rica. She remembers:
Health and safety were paramount, as the village was only accessible by canoe and had
no roads, electricity or phones. The nearest hospital was five hours away by river. I ran
‘ casualty-evacuation’ drills to ensure we all knew what to do in the event of someone fall-
ing off the suspension bridge or getting bitten by a snake. End result: everyone fine.
Health, safety and in-country support are important elements of keeping safe when you
volunteer. Smaller organisations, though, may have fewer resources: your pre-departure
briefing may come in the form of a handbook and your emergency support may simply be
a telephone number in your home country. Even this is likely to be more than you get if
you arrange a placement yourself with a local charity or NGO, and this is something you
should take into consideration. See p70 for the Top Ten Safety Tips for Female Travellers
and pp64-9 for details on health and hygiene while volunteering.
Who to Go With
You can volunteer on your own, with a friend or family member, or on team-based
projects with people you either do or do not know. Sometimes the choice is down to you
but sometimes it is up to your sending agency. Some organisations prefer to place you
either on your own or in pairs.
Rachel Oxberry volunteered in Ecuador on her own and is a strong advocate of going solo:
I went alone which I feel helped me get the most out of my experience. I had to immerse
myself fully in the culture and language and work out how to deal with very challenging
situations. I was often out of my comfort zone which made me much stronger as a person.
Poonam Sattee, who volunteered in Guatemala, agrees:
I went by myself and that worked out fine. Initially, until I made friends, it was an isolating
experience, but after the first two months I felt very settled. The pros of going by yourself
are that you are much more independent and your Spanish will really take off. It helps
you take more initiative and I think you are more likely to make local friends as opposed
to relying on your group or partner. The cons: the initial stages of settling in can be quite
tough, but apart from this my experience worked out well.
If you choose to volunteer alone, you will usually make friends pretty quickly when you
arrive at your placement. But if your placement is an isolated one then your options may
be limited. This is what Sharon Baxter experienced when she taught in Tibet:
I got a bit depressed and lonely towards the end. I spent the last two months on my own
and by that time the weather was very cold and it got dark early. There didn’t seem to be
as many people around as in the summer. The children studied in the classrooms from
7pm until bedtime, so most nights I didn’t see another human being after 7pm. Sitting on
your own in a freezing flat with no radio or TV does eventually get a bit wearing. Very few
people spoke any English and even though I made a few friends who could speak some
English, it is difficult to get really close when there are language difficulties. By the end I
was desperate to have an easy conversation with someone, without having to talk in pidgin
English and wave my arms around.
The thought of volunteering with a friend can give you more confidence, particularly
before you leave home and just after you arrive. But in some cases, it can mean that mak-
ing other friends is not as easy as it would be if you were on your own. In Linda Walsh’s
experience it didn’t make much difference to her stay in Brazil:
I went with a friend but we did different work. There were obvious advantages in this –
we supported each other, especially when we were living out at the farm with no-one else
around. When we were back in Rio with lots of other volunteers it didn’t really make any
difference as we worked different hours and had different friends. Overall, it was good to
have a friend along, but not necessary.
Volunteering with a partner is a popular option for long-term volunteers and has it own
set of advantages and disadvantages (see the boxed text opposite written by Deborah Jor-
dan and David Spinney on volunteering with your partner). Sometimes you can volunteer
with children, too. It’s uncommon at this stage but is a growing trend. Jo Morgan volun-
teered with MondoChallenge and taught in the Indian Himalayas with her seven-year-old
son, Liam. She admits:
On the first day he was embarrassed about the colour of his white skin and I began to wonder
why I’d put him through this. But by the second day he’d made friends with his classmates,
was ‘one of the gang’ and started to realise that children all over the world are basically the
same and have similar needs and desires. He learned that some children have only one set of
clothes, eat only rice and can’t afford to be fussy. One of his friends had a birthday yet it was
unmarked – no presents, cards or a party. Liam was initially incredulous but is now begin-
ning to understand that these things are not to be taken for granted.We volunteered with VSO for two years in Ethiopia. We worked for the Ministry of Education, set-
ting up a postgraduate qualification for teacher educators. We researched and wrote the Higher
Diploma Programme with support and advice from colleagues in colleges and universities.
Because we had spent a year travelling through India prior to doing VSO, I think we had
already recognised and adjusted to some of the challenges of living and travelling together in
sometimes difficult circumstances.
For us, there were far more advantages than disadvantages to being a couple. It was
reassuring to have one aspect of our lives familiar as we set off into the unknown and we
were able to be mutually supportive. There were difficult and distressing times but we found
that when one of us was ‘down’ the other was able to be ‘up’ and so we got through these
periods. Sharing our problems helped us find solutions to them and we were able to be
supportive of others, too. It added a new dimension to our relationship as we had different
experiences to share.
The only disadvantage related to the fact that we were doing the same job. This meant that
we were together almost ALL the time! We did have some professional disagreements, which
inevitably spilled over into our personal lives. However, most of the time we worked together
creatively and by the second year we had identified distinct roles for ourselves within the
project. In our opinion, the ideal form of volunteering with a partner would be to have different
jobs in the same place.
As an aside, we knew some couples where only one member had a placement while the
other was an ‘accompanying partner’. It was often difficult for the partner to find a role for
themselves in a context where there were limited social opportunities.
Deborah Jordan & David SpinneyLong-term Volunteering with Your Partner
02: Choosing Your Volunteer Experience:Arranging a Worthwhile Placement