STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

kate · BCBG

international volunteering

e_doli · Dooney & Bourke

www.idealist.org is a really good site where you can research volunteer stuff by region, type, etc. you can also sign up and they will email you new opportunities in the places you are interested in.

rosey · Dooney & Bourke

I've done US-based volunteer trips with global volunteers and they totally rock. They have a fantastic volunteer philosophy and work hard to partner with local communities and build up relationships. They have volunteer programs in countries all over the world, with all different types of focus. If you're interested in putting a particular skill of your's to use in a program, I would advise contacting them- while they may not have a particular health care program, they would almost certainly be willing to work with you to find a way to put your skills to work (when I volunteered, they used us in a number of different capacities dependent upon our backgrounds)! If you want more info on my experience, just let me know. Here's their web site:
www.globalvolunteers.org

chloe · BCBG

I volunteered for Volunteers for Peace (www.vfp.org) last summer. My friend and I went to Agira which is a small town in Enna, Italy which lies in Sicily and worked for an organization called Legambiente. We were part of a group of about 10 people. There were people from France, Czech Republic, Spain and Italy. We basically did enviormental work. We built a road through a natural reserve. It was alot of physical labor but it was a good workout :). It was great meeting new people too. The workcamp was only 2 weeks though.

I intially paid a $250 fee to VFP. I like VFP because it enables you to choose the time period you wish to work and provides so many volunteer workcamps. Ive searched for other volunteer programs but alot of the ones ive seen were quite expensive. Accomodation and food was all includd. But i had to pay for the airfare.

My friend did global volunteers a couple of years ago. She enjoyed her experience. She taught english in CHina for 3-4 months.

Im def. doing something this summer. Im just not sure what to do or where to go. But Im excited! please keep us posted on what you decide to do! HTH!

-- Edited by chloe at 03:55, 2006-03-07

kate · BCBG

thank you guys so much for that advice!!! it definitely helps to hear about certain organizations (there are just so many, it's hard to know where to start looking).

i don't have any particular skills, so i think i'd just like to be as flexible as possible. the other thing is that i'd like to take spanish at some point, so i'm wondering if this would be a good trip to take after i've taken a spanish class--could go to a spanish-speaking country and try to put some of the language into practice. i'm still trying to figure out my work/class schedule for this summer, so after i do that i'm going to think seriously about where i can go.

thanks so much! chloe, let me know where you end up going!