Choosing a Volunteer-Abroad Program

[Zablon Mukuba]

“It’s easy to make a buck; it’s a lot tougher to make a difference.” – Tom Brokaw. There are many volunteer opportunities out there for anyone interested in doing volunteer work, more so abroad. Where as some people go into the volunteer world for just the simple experience, some go towards it as a vocational calling, or as a stepping stone for their future careers. It is best to choose a volunteering program that will be most beneficial to you and to those that you intend to help. Here is a look into some programs you can look into while trying to make your decision.

 

We will kick off by looking at volunteering as a teacher. This is one of the most fulfilling paths one can take as a volunteer. Volunteering as a teacher has a long term outcome in the community you are volunteering in. if you can help educate just a few people from a community that has suffered less fortune than yourself then this few individuals will in turn uplift the whole community with time. If you have qualifications as a teacher the better but you do not have to teach strictly in the class room, teaching can be in many forms including just showing a community how they build a latrine to ensure that their water is not contaminated. In the end it is all worthwhile.

 

Let’s look at those who may be interested in volunteering in healthcare. You can therefore help in this regard all over the world. Those interested in healthcare can have a choice in working in places where disaster has struck or picking one specific location along the globe where you would like to help out. How you help does not have to be strictly in a medical sense, you can do your part by simply distributing mosquito nets to area where malaria is highly occurring, or start a campaign to make sure every household in an area where there have been cholera outbreaks has a means to boil or purify their water. The end result of all these efforts is that you have helped keep a community healthier.

 

The saying goes that children are our future, so let’s look at those of us who would like to volunteer in children homes or with orphans. In this field you get to mold a person who will go off into the world someday, and make something of themselves because you had the courtesy to be involved in their lives. In an orphanage you can provide healthcare, teach, work in the kitchen as a cook, build a dormitory, clean up the compound or even do some missionary work while there. And the beauty of all this is you can commit yourself to one or more of the causes above all at the same time; you therefore get to touch a life on several fronts.

 

If you like animals and the environment around you, the one program you can look into is volunteering in wildlife conservation. Here you get to work with all sorts of wildlife from those that live in the savannah to marine animals, in the process you also get to interact with the environment as you spend a lot of time in the field, sometimes even spending nights outdoors camping, depending on how adventurous you are. Here is a clear instance where you can have some fun while doing your volunteer work.

 

There are many other potential programs for volunteers out there, including community development, construction work or even missionary work. Once you have made a clear choice on what you want to work in then the next step is to get your hands dirty and join in the volunteer community around the world.

 

 

For more free information and low cost volunteer abroad programs in South America visit http://www.volunteercapitalcentre.org/ecuador.aspx