3 Comments for How to Live Your Dream of Volunteering Overseas

• 1. Osma  |  December 31st, 2009 at 8:49 pm

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  If you have a good heart, are curious about other cultures, and are new to volunteering, the opening section of this book may come as a bit of a shock.

  First, volunteering isn’t free. Most volunteer placement organizations require substantial fees (usually $1,000 plus) to arrange for your food, accommodation, and provide basic training.

  Second, altruism, when applied to international development, isn’t always helpful. There’s a beautiful example of this in Chapter 3. You imagine that three volunteer groups from around the world come to Washington DC to help the city develop and get past its problems of violence and poverty. The first group is from Zambia- they identify the problem as a shortage of churches, and lack of respect for elders. The second group is from the Amazon- they propose knocking down skyscrapers to add more green space. The third group is a Rastafarian youth organization- they criticize the focus on power and money, and help DC by training politicians to grow ganja.

  Similarly, the best intentions of American volunteers aren’t always welcomed or even potentially helpful abroad unless they are developed in the context of the host culture.

  From this point, the book describes the practical logistics of volunteering abroad- from fundraising to support your trip, learning about your host country, preparing for your travel, and ultimately being an effective volunteer.

  The bulk of the book focuses on organizational profiles of volunteer organizations. These are extraordinarily helpful as critical analyses of many such organizations, and should help you navigate through the bewildering maze of opportunities. Unfortunately, the “over 100″ organizations that they profile are just a fraction of what’s out there, and there’s really no easy way to navigate through these. There are a few indexes in the back (organizations offering short term programs, organizations placing volunteers in Latin America, etc), but there’s no easy way to look for volunteer opportunities in a specific country, for example. If this organizational profile guide was online or on a CD, it would be infinitely more useful (and cheaper to publish…)

• 2. Cyan  |  December 31st, 2009 at 11:05 pm

  I did extensive research before going overseas to volunteer, and this book was my bible, beacon, guiding light, whatever you want to call it. It answered questions I didn’t even know I had, and opened my eyes to the various ways I could accomplish a goal that, at the beginning, I thought had very few options for accomplishment. The appendix is incredibly thorough, and that alone could be a great resource. This book changed my ideas about how I wanted to volunteer, and in the end I completely restructured my plan and had a wonderful experience abroad. I would have felt very lost without this resource..

• 3. Xantara  |  January 1st, 2010 at 12:04 am

  This book is a treasure. It is a good book for anyone in the age group of about 18-75 of any ethnicity, religion and socio-economic background. It addresses safety, among other issues, for women travelers. This book includes more than information one could find on the Internet about particular opportunities and organizations in any region of the world. It includes in depth studies as well as information for the person considering volunteering overseas to examine his/her motivations and come up with criteria to apply to choosing an organization as well as a location. In addition, this book discusses issues surrounding language barriers and how to overcome the obstacles as well as use the volunteer opportunity to become fluent in another language. This book makes a wonderful gift.

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