Summer or Year-Long Volunteer Work? International?

NightDragon

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Dondums

You may want to check and see what opportunities your local hospital/health care outlets has for volunteers. I, personally, volunteer at my hospital's Emergency Department. Since patients come and go through the department so quickly, it may not be as fulfilling as you're looking for. On the bright side, I have absolutely no certifications or qualifications, and mainly learn anything I need to learn on-the-'job'.

I have two friends who volunteer in hospice - that is, hanging out with people who are going to die, bringing comfort to them and whatnot. I also have some friends who volunteer in the pediatric (children) wing of the same hospital, they read to kids sometimes and stuff. These options are a bit more personal than my own work.

Beyond those "suggestions," try seeing what some churches are up to. I don't dabble in religious affairs but I know the groups are always on trips to places to help people in some form or another. By the way, you're a great person for wanting to do this to begin with. :^:

Draco_Auric

Assuming that you're an American citizen, you might want to look into the Peace Corps. It's a longer term(2 years) but you get paid a little bit, and you may be able to defer student loans.

MagicToaster

I'm doing the same thing to China (hopefully, next year!), I can't say I know of any organization that works specifically with Africa, so I can't help you there. I just wanted to come and say that when you research, look for the organization that offer the most assistance to you on your trip.

I know you're signing up to help ppl, not yourself, but if you're going to a foreign country it's best to cover all your bases for the sake of the ppl back home. See what they offer in terms of emergency family situations, medical assistance, economic problems on your stay but most importantly a good support team.

Any organization that is willing to meet with you before you start is good. Also, any organization that gives you trainings before you go is good.

EDIT:

I'm sure you can make kids very happy by drawing them pictures at the hospital!

LewieP

I spent 6 months before Uni on VSO's Global Xchange program, and it was fucking ace.

I got to work in Elders homes, as a classroom assistant in a Special School, and got to teach English to Sri Lankan kids who wanted it.

The idea behind this particular program is that you spend 3 months in your home country (so the UK for me) and 3 months in another country (Sri Lanka for me) as a team 18 people, half from one country and half from another. All working in random volunter projects and programs in the area, partnered up with someone from the other country.

I don't know if there is an equivalent organisation for VSO in the USA, but if you are interested I can look into it further.

It really was 6 of the best months of my life, I would recomend doing something similar to anyone who had the opertunity to do so. Whatever you do, I strongly advise you do not go through a private company who want you to pay your costs. VSO ask you to fundraise 10% of the individual cost of the program, which is £600, but they help you with fundraising, and you can wait til after you get back to do it if you want, I found it pretty easy and ended up raising over £1,000 for them.

descolada

I have family that did Peace Corps for about six years. The saying was, "It's either the best years of your life, or you catch some horrible sickness and go home."

In all seriousness, it's a good program with a lot of benefits, especially if you are considering going into any sort of government job. Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCV) receive additional consideration when applying for civil service positions, much like military veterans. And yes, you should be able to defer loans while serving as a volunteer.

Be aware, though, that it is a hefty commitment. Domestic training is several months long I believe, and your term is at least two years. You will be expected to learn some of the local language, which may or may not be used outside of that particular region.

That said, it's called "the toughest job you'll ever love" for a reason. You'll be telling your friends crazy African snake stories for the rest of your life.

Scrublet

I know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about this, but I believe the Timmy Foundation offers summer programs to do things like medical assistance in Africa. They're based out of Indianapolis; go take a look and see if they have anything that interests you.

NightDragon

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corcorigan

$2k for a week in India? Haha. What are they doing? Putting you up in a lovely hotel, 24-hour assistants, everything paid for?

(Maybe not so horrific if they do pay for everything, including flights.)

NightDragon

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DodgeBlan

I did a 3 month program after high school, working as an aide in a disabled kids orphanage in Vietnam. It was absolutely amazing and like LewieP it was probably the greatest time of my life.

I however used one of those private companies that charge you for your desire to volunteer. $2000Aus, to be precise. However they did place us in a vietnamese house which is a pretty unique experience for such a controlled nation. I used Antipodeans, but thats an Australian company.

Basically the pay companies aren't neccesarily all bad, but if you take the time to look you can probably find something that will be cheaper/free-er. Also take courses in the language of the country of your choice. Unless its China, then just don´t fucking bother.

EDIT
you might try contacting specific charities and see if they take on naive western volunteers. Alot do, and then you cut out the middleman making money off you.

Fizban140

A church near where I use to live had programs like that, where they would fly to some country and help build stuff...probably churches though. It was over the summer and it didn't laster longer than three months.

corcorigan

NightDragon wrote: »

corcorigan wrote: »

$2k for a week in India? Haha. What are they doing? Putting you up in a lovely hotel, 24-hour assistants, everything paid for?

(Maybe not so horrific if they do pay for everything, including flights.)

....yeah it's $2k for three weeks in Africa. Did you read what I wrote?

I'm pretty sure flights are not covered, and yeah, that's going to be expensive.

I know more about India.

Anyway, sounds like a bit of a rip-off to me. You could probably spend months living comfortably there for $2k.

(I paid £1.4k for 3 months in India (=$3k ish), not including flights, and that was obviously very expensive once I discovered quite how cheap life out there is.)

The_Yeorinator

Well, if you want something action-oriented and close to home, you could try joining a volunteer fire department. I can almost guarantee there's one near where you live; rural areas rely on them for 90% of emergency response, and metro areas usually have them as backup and augmentative personnel.

Plus, it can lead to a career if you stick with it long enough But if you're going into illustration I doubt you're interested in a fire service career. But at such a young age, assuming you're in ok shape (IE climbing the stairs doesn't exhaust you), you're the ideal candidate we look for to join a volunteer department.

And god it's fun. You do some wild and awesome things, and meet a lot of great people who are fun to be around.

NightDragon

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