lonely planet -volunteer abroad guide

1: International Volunteering: an Overview:

Heading 2

Volunteer

sKIlled unsKIlled

Conservation & wildlife
(Including archaeology) development

emergency &

relief

working with

Children

education &

training

business admin

& office work

building &

Construction

health &

nutrition

Community

development

staff

Volunteering

agriculture

& farming

Kinds of Volunteer Work her own placements (for informa-

tion on how to do this, see Chapter

8) in two orphanages in Ecuador and

remembers:

I worked in a home looking after 20

children who were either abandoned

or orphaned. I thought I was going

there to help out generally and teach

English but I actually took on the role

of ‘mother’ too, trying to teach routine

and discipline as well as doing the

cleaning and laundry. I also coached

sports, taught drawing and played

games with the kids. I volunteered in

an orphanage for children with special

needs as well. I looked after babies

under the age of one, preparing their

food, feeding them, changing nappies

and doing baby massage.

~ Education and training Most

volunteer placements in this cat-

egory are teaching English (with or

without qualifications) in preschools

and primary or secondary schools,

although teaching adults is also com-

mon. Depending on your talents or

qualifications, however, you could end

up teaching almost anything. Sarah

Turton volunteered with the Junior

Art Club (p183) in Ghana and taught

English along with art and photog-

raphy. This is how she describes her

time there:

Sometimes I had over 40 students

crammed into a classroom designed

for much less. Some of them would

stroll in half an hour before the end

of class or not turn up for weeks at a

time and then expect to pick up where

they left off. This was the way it had

to be for students where farming and

helping sell came first, and I had to

develop a flexible teaching style. It was

very tough at first and exhausted me

but I loved every single second of my

time there.

~ Business administration and office

work Depending on your experience,

you might work for a local Non-

Governmental Organisation (NGO)

writing fundraising proposals, manag-

ing a project or volunteering in their

marketing, PR or finance departments. The aim of these placements is usually to train

local people in the skills you possess so that they can become self-sufficient (such work

is referred to as capacity-building).

~ Building and construction Good old-fashioned manual labour often plays a big part

in volunteering overseas. You are usually sent as part of a team to help build schools,

community centres, houses, bridges, dams or latrines. There is also a need for skilled

volunteers in this area to work as civil or structural engineers and construction or site

supervisors. Emma Campbell went with VentureCo Worldwide (p115) to Ecuador and

quite literally volunteered with her bare hands:

We built a house on the coast of Ecuador, near a national park, so that future volunteers

could base themselves there. We had no power tools so everything was done by hand!

We were supported by a very friendly and hard-working bunch of locals that VentureCo

were paying.

~ Health and nutrition Health professionals are required in this area, but you don’t have

to be a fully trained nurse, doctor, speech therapist, nutritionist or physiotherapist to

contribute. Non-medical volunteers can often help in other areas, like the promotion

of health and hygiene issues in a local community. Kate Sturgeon volunteered with

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, Doctors Without Borders, p145) in Zimbabwe and

explains:

I was the project nurse for an HIV/anti-retroviral programme working alongside the

Ministry of Health to provide free anti-retroviral drugs in one of the first HIV/oppor-

tunistic infections clinics in the country. I ran ‘follow-up’ clinics, seeing all patients who

had started on these drugs either weekly, monthly or quarterly to monitor their progress

and any side effects.

~ Community development This covers a wide variety of community and social

programmes. You might help women’s groups set up income-generating schemes (eg

selling handicrafts), work with a local village on empowerment issues or help establish a

system for disposing of rubbish in a village or region.

~ Staff volunteering Some volunteer organisations, particularly those aimed at the

youth market, need in-country volunteer staff to help manage and run their overseas

programmes (see p126). You might be a medic on an expedition, an interpreter at a

field base or a project manager working with a group of 17- to 24-year-olds. Michelle

Hawkins volunteered with Raleigh International (p108) in Ghana, Costa Rica and Nica-

ragua and describes the roles she filled:

On the first expedition I was a public relations officer in Ghana. On the second I was

project manager on a construction site in an Indian village in the rainforest. My role was

to ensure that everything happened on time and under budget. I was also responsible

for motivating the Venturers, briefing each one to be a ‘Day Leader’ and then assessing

and reviewing what they had done well and what could be improved.

~ Agriculture and farming This one is almost exclusively for skilled volunteers. Com-

munities often need horticulturalists, foresters, agronomists and agriculturists.

One further option, if you have extensive travel plans and only want to spend a day or two

doing something for others, is to get in touch with the organisation in your country that

arranges prison visits abroad. In the UK, contact the UK charity Prisoners Abroad (%+

(0)20-7561 6820; fax +44 (0)20-7561 6821; [email protected]; http://www.prisonersabroad.org.uk; 89-93 Fontill

Rd, Finsbury Park, London N4 3JH, UK). Their CEO, Pauline Crowe, reminds us:

Visiting a British prisoner detained overseas can be a really positive experience if you

approach it with the right motivation and sensitivity. It’s important for people detained

in faraway places to know they are not forgotten. In some places it’s reasonably easy to

01: International Volunteering: an Overview:

Kinds of International Volunteering