eze skatty

i’ve done bits of volunteering abroad.. in bolivia, palestine and india

the vast majority of companies out there are making huge profits which they justify by charging you for ‘orientation’ (even if you are all ready in the country in question, speak the language and aren’t ‘disorientated’ at all) :yakk:

that’s most, but not all… there are some organisations whose projects have real impact, have your safety in mind and won’t rip you off

that aside.. a few questions, if i may 😉

what age are you?

what qualifications / work / life experience do you have?

have you spent any time abroad before? where and for how long?

have you ever been in a developing country? which ones?

can you speak any another language/s? which ones?

what is your motivation for doing this (ie. what do you want to get out of it)?

what sort of activity do you see yourself doing?

have you ever volunteered in this country?

if you don’t want to put all this on the main board, PM me. my job is all about finding people volunteering opportunities… usually in this country, but i have tons of information about international volunteering at work and i’d be happy to help. i may also be able to put you in touch with an organisation local to you that can help you find something suitable, depending on where you live

a couple of bits to chew on…

http://www.raleighinternational.org/overseas/index.html are relaible and not a rip off for shorter-term trips (10 weeks at a time) for the uninitiated

http://www.vso.org.uk/volunteering/ prodominantly for people with established skills (from building to teaching to medical)

but i can also put you in touch with a few small (read lovely), effective charities that take volunteers in a couple of countries… such as http://www.childrensaid.org.uk/index.html … this site is a little out of date… take that as a sign the the small number of people running this organisation have more important things to do than take your money…

get in touch!

This is some more info about original volunteers. The link below contains a post from a girl who says they are OK, bear in mind she could be a company employee though….

http://www.gap-year.com/browse.asp?catID=1174&sNode=1174&Exp=Y&forumid=2&topicid=3168&nodes=3168,3172,3175,3176,3177,3178,3187,3203,3204,3208

OTOH It may simply be the case they are a new company, and a combination of poor site design and lack of sufficient admin capacity to answer queries makes them look worse than they actually are..

Their business address is either a residential house or a small business unit in the North Norfolk coastal area.

My mum used to run a small business taking in foreign students from her home at one point so the company could well be legit, but I think maybe they shouldn’t have advertised on line so quickly until they could establish themselves and afford admin staff to handle the greater queries that web exposure causes.

I’ve known really well run companies to suffer serious problems just because they get a good review on their website and their customer service staff are overloaded…

As for suggested websites, the places globalloon suggested are the only ones I could think of (or get in touch with him as he has access to a lot of info)

mombasa is a lush place, my fav place in the world,
i lived in kenya for 5 years, used to holiday there frequently, fuck that place is jus a haven of good memories…make sure to check out diani beach! dont know of any parties though, i was there 6 years ago!!

op, i wish i clicked this thread 2 years earlier i coulda help you, te reason my dad moved me n my family out there was to start a charity project, now has several different ones going.

*envious*
wish I could go do taht sort of thing