International Volunteer

Do you what to do anything different on your holidays this year? Why don’t summer volunteer work?
There are many NGOs that need people for international volunteer work and you don’t need a long time holidays to collaborate with them, Programs are set from 8 days to several months and the projects are developed in many places all over the world.
In India, the congregation founded by Mother Theresa of Calcuta needs people to work with them. The foundation “ Missionaries of Charity” helps the poorest people in Calcuta and will be delighted to have you.
Guatemala is where NGO Casa Guatemala has its orphan house. The children are porvided with food, education, medical cares and a place to live. Volunteers needed will work as primary teachers or volunteer coordination.
In Cusco Area, Peru you can find Hatun Sonqo. They work for kids as well and held health and educational projects.
Ir you were thinking about volunteer work in Africa, in the Kilimanjaro area located in Tanzania. Teenagers can join to 14 days long programs in which they will help local village school and orphanages. In addition to community service, volunteers will learn about Tanzania’s rich culture , living in an African lodge and enjoy excursions.
In short, make your summer vacation this year a productive time and assistance to the poorest while traveling and meeting other cultures is at your fingertips.

You cannot walk passed it, everywhere you go people are talking about the biggest football event that happens every four years. This year the World Cup is organised in South Africa and there are a lot of opportunities to do volunteer work in South Africa.

First of all you have the opportunity to experience the excitement of FIFA 2010 South Africa by volunteering for the FIFA itself. There are many volunteer opportunities available in major World Cup cities as Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town,…But there are some rules to take into account. First of all you have to be over 18 years old to participate, furthermore volunteers must reside in the host city where they will be working and you have to agree of course to the stipulated code of conduct before volunteering.

But there are also other opportunities given. Thanks to projects abroad for instance, you can work as a sports coach in South Africa. You will be giving children the opportunity to participate in sports, allows them to learn important lessons in working as a team, anger management and prioritizing a healthy lifestyle. The only thing you need to have is a real passion for sports and the drive to lead a group of children while executing a sports session.

Of course you can also volunteer for other projects like animals volunteer work. With Projects Abroad, you can choose your date of departure and the duration. This way you can make sure that you are volunteering in South Africa during the World Cup.

You are a dynamic person that is eager to give something back. But you are still not convinced that volunteer work abroad is the right thing to do for you and you are searching for that last ‘push’ that tells you why you should volunteer abroad. Well, the following text is a guide through the positive aspects of working voluntarily. Maybe this is just what you need to make up your mind.

First of all there is the fact that during the financial crisis, there is a hard competition on the job market. Adding on your CV that you worked as a volunteer, can just be the tipping point in your advantage. It shows that you are dynamic, adventurous, generous and that you have a good morality. It can be a way of standing out from your competitors.

Another advantage is that during the volunteer program, you meet new people from all around the world with different points of view and different qualities. You will be able to learn a lot from them and you expand your international professional network which is very important in the modern world we live in considering the expanding globalisation.

Furthermore, it gives you a feeling of self-satisfaction, you are helping a local community in need and become a part of their culture and daily life, you see things that no one else will ever see, you learn new skills, do things that you never thought you were capable of doing and you will learn much about yourself.

In conclusion, working as a volunteer enriches both your personal and professional life in a way you could never imagine.

‘Voluntour’ trips give the opportunity to people in feeling satisfied by offering them volunteer vacations all over the world. There are hundreds of trips where people can go to be part of a community and experience a different culture but still having the feeling of a vacation.

These trips are usually traditional travel trips combined with volunteer working. You can participate for 3 weeks or longer and choose activities like teaching English, help the healthcare services, work in a wildlife conservation,…The trips are really getting to win popularity and more people take their children with them.

Currently 10% of gap adventures are voluntour trips. travelers are getting more and more interested in the matter and there is a big rise of new possibilities for these trips in 2010. We all want to give something back, and the voluntour trips are just a great opportunity in doing so.
If you are interested in going on a voluntour trip, maybe you can contact Globalvolunteers.org, Amizade.org, Volunteersforpeace.org or Projectsabroad.org. And feel good about your vacation.

And then he said : « i´m going to pack my things, leave all behind and try to
understand the world » in fact he was talking about the Dominican Republic, and he actually did it.  Bombita, is the name of a tiny little town in a remote region of the Dominican Republic where he had decided to go and work as a volunteer. An engineer specialized instructures who was living in London, he
had always dreamed about traveling, but with a different purpose : help people in need.

He couldn´t have ever imagined what he was going to find; needs for education,
electricity, water or perhaps a place for the locals to go and do research or read.
Finally, he took the plane to build a library for the villagers. Somehow he realized, with the experience in Bombita, that the people who lived there without what he would take for the basic things, were completely happy. At the beginning he thought that they just got used to live like that and carry on, but for them Bombita had a hidden wealth.

He went over with his life, back en forward, over and over again, and he realized that the only thing that mattered for the people from Bombita was their eight kids, wife, having food that day and a bit of time also
to pray and be gratefull.

« How can they be gratefull if they do not have the basic things to live ? »

« How can they manage to dance and be so happy and optimistic in the same time ? »

«There is no government at all » « This people are abandoned »

He asked himself…and they would pray.

What do you think?

We give you some tips about how you can help Haiti’s Earthquake Victims:

•    Submit donations to international organizations:

International Red Cross http://www.ifrc.org/
Unicef http://www.unicef.org/
World Relief http://worldrelief.org/
Yéle Haiti http://www.yele.org/
International Rescue Committee http://www.theirc.org/

•    If you can’t give money, you can donate supplies. Find collection centers on your city, to provide food, water, medicine and clothes.

•    Check with local churches and many organizations that will be (or already are) doing humanitarian missions in Haiti, see how you can help.

Start it now!

Everyday is a new day there will be an expected updates about news to hear in TVs, internet and radio.  Yet, it seems that the continuous news about the recession worldwide had never been renewed.  Various horrible news are emerging, adding great problems worldwide. And it seems that everyday there are millions of employees who were now unemployed.  Despite of it, there are great ways how to avoid boredom after being discarded from your previous work, and that is through volunteering.

There are different kinds of volunteering.  You can volunteer as a traffic enforcer, lean a hand to those people who were less fortunate or taking the international volunteer programs abroad to help those people in need.  Talking about volunteering, it is you who will decide about it and you were not force to get involved with the program.  But the advantages of getting involve in the volunteer program if you presently don’t have a job since it will ease the boredom that you feel.  If you volunteer you will not only helping others to move on but you were also helping yourself of becoming more confident, determine and most importantly it would help develop well your personality.

Volunteering do not only focusing on one particular country alone, if you think there were other countries which needs more your help compare to your own country you can volunteer work abroad.  There are various countries nowadays which need volunteers.  You can volunteer as an English teacher in the rural area of the certain countries, or you can volunteer in the orphanages it depends what you think suits your skills and abilities. If you volunteer, at the end you will realize how self fulfilling it is despite the hardship and circumstances you had been during those memorable times.  And you will realize how fortunate you are because you were one of those volunteers helping others rather than one of those people who need a volunteer.

Even the weakening of the world economy can not dampen the spirit of volunteerism. In the year of the oxen, the fire for international volunteer will be shining bright and dazzling.

With the advent of new technology and social networks, volunteers do not need to go out of their country to help other people. There are groups that you can search on the internet that can look for people you can help. There are even people who will love to learn from you in this group. An application in facebook called yoville, can make you interact with other people. It is comparable to a ‘real’ community in which you got to work and earn your keep for the things that you need. And you can converse with these people if you want. There are Spanish students who would like to be taught the English language in yoville community. Volunteerism can be in different modes. It is up to you how you do it and how you share.

Some of you deemed it necessary to be physically in the location when you help; so there are international volunteer programs that would cater to your needs. The dynamic characteristic of these programs is necessary to fit in with the changing world.

If Europe was flocked with hundreds of volunteers for the last few years; International volunteer programs for this year will be made towards the countries that have been close to tourist scrutiny for years.

Korea though controlling the tourist that enters the country, has been one of the interesting places that travelers would hope to visit for this year. China is another wonderful place to saunter to for wonderful finds. Some educators see Chinese language as the language for the millennium. There are so many high hopes for the Chinese tourism and economy for the oncoming years.

There are modifications for some for the international programs; however, Spain would still top the most visited place for sea combers and sea lovers.