Thoughts on Volunteering

I have just spent three months volunteering at a school in Cambodia, working on administrative matters. It occurred to me that people, especially those who have worked for awhile, may not think about the business and training skills they could provide if they want to volunteer. I was concerned that there would only be opportunities for teachers and trade skills but if you have a professional or administrative or financial or care background it would be well received. There seems to be a real need for all sorts of skills now in the small local NGOs, schools and businesses set up to make and sell goods. You could give assistance in setting up processes, systems, record keeping and library work. There is a need for training in sport/exercise, therapies (physio etc) and special needs teaching. If you have worked with the aged or disabled, teaching the basics in simple treatments and handling techniques would be helpful. Skills in marketing, design work for newsletters, brochures etc, web design could be useful to all these organizations trying to sell in a competitive market.

Volunteering is enormously satisfying and as labour is usually easy to come by, it's best if you can provide something the organisation can't obtain, usually because of the high cost of those resources. Demonstrating, teaching and using your skills are much more useful and you will be leaving something relevant behind. Find an organization you like and see if there is a project that can be completed in half the time you have (it will take much longer than you think because of language, cultural differences etc). Some examples are - setting up medical records for a school or orphanage, preparing a mailing list for fund raising, doing an audit on their accounts, preparing material for funders - there are hundreds of opportunities if you look beyond the services these organisations provide and consider how you can help them provide the services better, cheaper, more effectively.

One last point - many people donate English books to orphanages and schools but really books in their own language would be much more useful. A second language is learned much more readily by someone who can read and write well in their first language. In Cambodia, I saw libraries with many lovely, pristine English books and just a few well read, tattered Khmer books.

Can you explain what it cost you OP in terms of fee's to the NGO etc or was it a true volunteer service where you pay for accommodation meals etc and nothing else?

Thanks Mick

We arranged our own accommodation etc and just went to the school when when we needed to. No money changed hands (except that we made a donation at the end but that was because we wanted to get them some Khmer books). Because of the type of work we did, we did some of it from our room that had wifi access (we had a laptop). Volunteers can be quite a burden on organisations from a time perspective (and potentially financial as well), and we didn't realise that until we were there so it was good to do something very tangible to help. Because of the arrangement we had, we were able to combine a good break with a terrific and very satisfying experience.

I have heard of people paying a lot of money to volunteer and I understand that often expectations are not met. People should realise that the conditions are not what we are used to - there is no air-conditioning and there may not be electricity (no fans). The food is delicious but you can't be fussy about preparation. Beds often just have a mat, not a mattress and toilets and showers may not be what you expect.

I think making all the arrangements including the long term accommodation can be quite difficult until you get there, so it makes sense for people with a short time frame to use an intermediary and I think that there will need to be a cost to having those arrangements already set up.

There a number of places that let you visit for a day, but it would be usual to take say some bags of rice (20kgs) with you. The rice is probably going to be more useful than toys or clothes.

So did you just wander in and make contact or did you have prior knowledge?

I'm 4+ months into a "Gap Decade" in India where my time is split 80/20 working with an NGO and doing a little traveling.

You're absolutely correct, OP, though I refuse to believe that I'm an "older traveler", I do know that my prior skills are of great benefit in the projects that I (mostly) create for myself.

Next project up is to engineer a waste water reclamation system to irrigate a 75x120 metre plot that will grow bananas, etc. By this time next year there should also be a rain water collection system to augment both the irrigation water and drinking water. This is all at a school for the blind that my org helps to support.

I happen to have found one of the great NGOs that costs less than nothing (free dorm and free lunch each day if you need) to work with.

all at a school for the blind that my org helps to support.

Any particular good NGO's that you would endorse Pirate?

Sent in a PM...

roger that