10 Steps to volunteering overseas
It could be the biggest adventure of your life, so it’s vital to be well prepared before you go, writes Joanne Hunt, writes Joanne Hunt
Providing advice and support to people interested in overseas volunteering for 35 years, development body Comhlámh offers a good first step. The agency’s Volunteering Options programme supported by Irish Aid helps would-be volunteers to make the right choice.
“We want people to be informed so that they can pick opportunities that are positive for themselves and for the communities they are going to,” says Comhlámh training and information officer Kate Byron.
Check out our volunteering top 10 to find the best overseas volunteering experience for you.
1 GET MOTIVATED The first thing intending volunteers should do is ask themselves why they want to volunteer. “People volunteer overseas to get a break from everyday life, to see the world, to improve their CV, share their skills or to give something back,” says Byron.
“Understanding your motivations helps you to understand what your expectations are and what you imagine it’s going to be like,” she says. “This can help you match your needs to an organisation.”
For Deirdre Finlay, public engagement manager with not-for-profit agency VSO, a volunteer’s motivations play a big role in deciding whether they are the right fit for VSO.
“For us, the volunteer’s motivations should be around being willing to work, being open to learning and being motivated by the reduction in poverty in other communities.”
2 KNOW YOUR SKILLS Knowing the skills you have to offer is a great compass to finding the environment where you can contribute most. “Think about your educational qualifications, paid and voluntary work experience, knowledge of languages and any other interests you think would be of use,” says Comhlámh’s Kate Byron.
“This will assist you when you approach volunteer organisations, and give you a better idea of where you might be able to make the biggest contribution.”
While VSO is currently recruiting experienced midwives, nurses and health managers, the Hope Foundation, which works with street children in Calcutta, is more flexible. “We have women coming to us who have brought up their children. They don’t have a qualification per se, but if someone has brought up a child, they can certainly be a support to our projects in Calcutta.”
3 KNOW YOURSELF Whether working alone or as part of a team is more your style, it’s best to know before you go. If teamwork is your thing, you may prefer to work on a project with other expatriate volunteers, who could provide emotional support.
“If you are a lone ranger-type and you’re going by yourself, you need to think about how to support yourself, especially if you’re not going to be together with other expatriates,” says Kate Byron.
4WORKING CONDITIONS If you hate the sun, can’t stand crowds or the thought of no internet access makes you panic, these are factors to consider when deciding your destination. “You’ve got to know what’s too far outside your comfort zone,” says Byron. “In a rural area, it might be a two-hour walk and then a six-hour bus journey to get to a shop – you’ve got to think about what home comforts you can do without.”
While registered charity Voluntary Service International (VSI) does placements to far-flung countries, it also offers placements closer to home. If being in a developed country is more your scene, check out its options for volunteering at a film festival in Italy or clearing mountain trails in Austria.
5 GOT THE TIME? One rule of thumb for intending volunteers is that organisations offering shorter-term placements of two weeks to three months tend to seek those with more general skills, while those of a year or more will often require a specific qualification.
“Our volunteers normally go overseas for two years,” says Deirdre Finlay of VSO. “We see volunteering as a long-term commitment and a real contribution to a country’s poverty-reduction strategy.”
VSI, on the other hand, offers 900 short-term international volunteering projects in 50 countries of between two and six weeks in duration.
6 DO YOUR HOMEWORK Wherever you want to go, it’s important to do your homework on the organisation you are looking to volunteering with.
“It’s about asking questions,” says Byron. “Find out the organisation’s aims and goals and how closely it’s connected to the community it serves.”
Comhlámh warns that, occasionally, expatriate volunteers can be “free labour”, with volunteers displacing local labour.
“It’s about the organisation being honest about why they are bringing the volunteer out and not letting that volunteer think they are the saviour of that community.”
JP O’Sullivan from the Hope Foundation says matching a volunteer to a specific need is crucial. “When someone approaches us to volunteer, we link in with the field in Calcutta to see what the needs of the programme are – we try our best to match the skills needed with the skills presented to us.”
7 TRAINING DAY Reputable volunteer organisations will want to know as much about you as you should want to know about them. VSO volunteers undergo a lengthy assessment process including a written application, an assessment day comprising an interview and group activities, and all volunteers are also Garda-vetted.
“From the day of application, it will be six months before you go overseas,” says Deirdre Finlay.
Those wanting to volunteer with the Hope Foundation must also undergo a Garda check. “We spend a minimum of three months on this side with the volunteer doing induction,” says O’Sullivan. “We also link candidates with return volunteers so that they can ask questions one to one.”
8 COST When looking at volunteering overseas, it’s important know what the costs are. While VSO volunteers get paid a local salary and their flights and accommodation are covered, other placements may require the volunteer to contribute.
The Hope Foundation, for example, requires those on three-month volunteer placements to raise €3,000, while VSI requires volunteers to pay their own travel costs and charges a placement fee for Europe-based projects of €90.
Comhlámh advises volunteers to ask the organisation how much of any placement fee will be spent on overheads and administration costs and how much goes directly to the host project or community.
The agency warns that just because an organisation is non-profit doesn’t mean they are working in line with good practice.
9 STAY SAFE No matter where you volunteer, safety must be a priority. “Make sure the organisation has a decent health and safety policy,” says Kate Byron. “You’ve got to understand what responsibility lies with the sending organisation and what lies with the volunteer. Ask yourself, ‘can I rely on them 100 per cent to get me out of here if there is any trouble?’ Know at what point it becomes your responsibility to make sure you are safe.”
While VSO does not work in emergency or humanitarian scenarios, Deirdre Finlay says the agency did have to evacuate volunteers from Kenya during unrest some years ago.
“You need to know the agency you volunteer with is set up to meet those kind of challenges,” she says.
10 BEGIN THE JOURNEY Comhlámh’s Volunteering Options website, funded by Irish Aid, provides a database of Irish and international agencies offering thousands of overseas volunteer placements.
With advice for would-be volunteers and a database of opportunities where you can search by location, job type and duration, it’s a great first step to ensuring your overseas volunteering experience is a positive one.
‘It helps to be open to other cultures, flexible and not too highly strung’
Íde Ní Almhain at the Mokolodi Nature Reserve in Botswana
ÍDE NÍ Almhain (29), is a volunteer with Voluntary Service International (VSI), a charity with a focus on social justice and sustainable development.
The teacher from Terenure in Dublin did her first volunteer posting with VSI over a month in Mexico, when she was 21.
“I spent two weeks in a national park, mainly working on reforestation. There had been a forest fire a couple of weeks before so our work was around regeneration – collecting orchids, planting trees and seedlings and things like that.”
Ní Almhain spent the following two weeks in a village where residents had trouble getting deeds for their houses because there were no street names or house numbers. “We painted signs and house numbers for them and we painted their town square as well,” she says.
For her, the experience of volunteering beats a backpacking holiday any day.
“With volunteering, you get a more in-depth experience. We went to places off the tourist trail and you get to meet the locals and interact with them more.
Ní Almhain also did a few projects with VSI in Africa last summer. “I spent last June at the Mokolodi Nature Reserve in Botswana in Africa on an environmental project where we were mainly refurbishing paths and animal enclosures.”
In 2008, Ní Almhain took a four-month trip, punctuated with volunteering stints in Croatia and Poland. “I spent time on a small island off Croatia. The bigger resorts were taking all the tourism, so we helped the community by cleaning up the beaches, painting park benches and weeding.
“When we were finished, we made an art exhibition with all the rubbish we collected.”
Ní Almhain says there are usually about 20 volunteers from all over the world on VSI projects, generally aged between 18 and 30.
“It’s great craic. When you have that many people together, there’s a lot going on. If you’re in a village or a town together, you can go out together or just have fun around the camp fire,” she says.
Accommodation in Croatia was sleeping on a floor of a primary school but she says, “When you sign up for the project, they tell you what it’s going to be like, so you know all that before you go.”
When in Poland, Ní Almhain volunteered at a museum, reclaiming Jewish gravestones used by the Nazis as building materials.
“People refurbishing their gardens and houses kept finding pieces of gravestones, so they brought them all to the museum and we tried to piece things together, cleaning stones and repairing them. The work was rewarding because we could make a difference. It was just nice to make up for what had happened in some way.”
What type of person would this type of volunteering suit? “It helps to be open to other cultures, flexible and not too highly strung,” she says. “You are living so close together and spending so much time with the same people . . . I think you just need to be flexible and go with it.”
Paying for her own flights, an administration fee to VSI and a contribution towards the project, would she recommend the experience to others?
“Definitely. You get to see things that you’d never otherwise see. You get to meet people properly – and not in a tourist context – and see what their lives are really like.”
“I’m planning to volunteer again this summer.”
Safeguard ensuring the safety of the young and the most vulnerable
ENSURING THE protection of children or vulnerable adults with whom volunteers may interact is critical.
The Safeguard Programme, established by Volunteering Ireland with the support of An Garda Síochána and Irish Aid, supports volunteer-sending organisations in vetting applicants so that the communities receiving volunteers are not put at risk.
“While nationally, there are strong procedures for volunteers working with vulnerable adults and children, the same structure wasn’t in place for overseas-sending organisations,” says Marzia Baldassari of the Safeguard Programme advisory group. “This opened up a number of concerns,” she says.
Based on national and international best practice, the programme supports volunteer organisations to ensure applicants are thoroughly checked.
“It standardises how to screen volunteers,” says Baldassari. “It shows agencies what questions to ask, how to put in place child protection and adult protection policies and how to build whistleblower procedures,” she says.
Baldassari says while garda vetting will indicate any criminal record, thorough interviews and reference checks are also used to indicate if a person is suitable for the role.
“If something comes up on the garda vetting, or if the references don’t come back as they should, or if they are unsure about a volunteer, agencies can contact us and ask us for advice on best practice,” she says.
The service is being developed in partnership with agencies such as VSO, Trócaire, Unicef and Comhlámh. For more,
