Volunteering Abroad

anksta

anksta

anksta

Soldato
Joined
19 Jan 2005
Posts
2,722
I'm sick of this place, I want to go away and travel, I've planned a big trip and things but I need the capital to go. Given the fact I've just graduated and the state of the graduate market, now would be a good time to go. I always planned to do some volunteer work on my travels (I looked at rainforest conservation in Ecuador) but at the minute it doesn't seem like I can find a job doin much other than telesales and I already feel like I've lost enough of my soul to go without.

Anyway, I know there are some places out there that pay for you to do the volunteering, VSO is one and I signed up with them but now I cant find any record of me signing up on their site and I didn't get a confirmation email. I was wondering if anyone else had used this or any other volunteering abroad scheme, I know I could do Age Concern over here and all that but really, its not the same is it. I want to make a difference somewhere where it really does count, something contributing towards the environment if possible.

Has anyone done any volunteering like this? I've looked at schools in Africa, Sea Turtles in the Galapagos and whole load of other ones, if anyone knows anything worth knowing when it comes to this or similar I'd be grateful to hear it.
 
What is your degree in? I know there are certain organisations that like to send engineer students/graduates to developing countries.
 
yeah its Mechanical Engineering. I never really wanted to do anything with it but I definitely would if it meant I could go somewhere and help. I know its stingy and I should pay for myself but I really am rock bottom skint at the minute, would any of the places your thinkin of pay for me to go? I dont care about making any money while I'm there as long as I can eat and sleep etc.

Cheers mate, bet you didnt think I was gonna say engineering did you? If it was drama would you still love me?
 
anksta said:
Cheers mate, bet you didnt think I was gonna say engineering did you? If it was drama would you still love me?
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Hey, us engineers have to stay together :p

That website looks good. Were you aware of any society's at your university for stuff like this? Like engineers without borders for example?

Also there are 2 projects in my department which send students out to africa for railways and water systems, maybe some of your lecturers will know of such projects?
 
Paul11 said:
here http://www.raleighinternational.org/
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hi yeah thats pretty bang on what I wanna do but you have to pay for it, I'd be more inclined to fold that into my massive trip when I (finally) get round to that.

I was hoping slambo69 was gonna post a company that needed graduate engineers to do stuff they paid for.

It may sound like I'm doing this for the wrong reasons but I'm not, I'm savin spare change to pay to do things like further down the line, its just right now I feel like I might kill myself if I stay here any longer and I want to get out of here, if I can do some good whilst I'm doin it then great, if I can get the expenses paid for by doing something I'm qualified to do then even better.
 
slambo69 said:
Hey, us engineers have to stay together :p

That website looks good. Were you aware of any society's at your university for stuff like this? Like engineers without borders for example?

Also there are 2 projects in my department which send students out to africa for railways and water systems, maybe some of your lecturers will know of such projects?
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not aware of anything like that, I didnt have the most productive 4 years at uni, I spent most of my time battling inner demons and the rest preparing for them. I only just passed my degree and nobody thought I'd return to finish it.

Which uni are you at? Do you know what the name of the projects are? And what do you think the chances are of them allowing a graduate from another uni to participate?
 
Volunteering Abroad really gets my goat, why the heck should you pay thousands to volunteer to work for free? I'd be really interested in being sent to the same place and not being paid but paying to go over there to not be paid is stupid beyond belief.

Anyway, so as the OP asked, I'd also be interested in doing some volunteering abroad, as long as they pay for you to go over there, don't care about being paid for it, just not having to pay myself! :p

(Geology grad BTW)
 
Amp34 said:
Volunteering Abroad really gets my goat, why the heck should you pay thousands to volunteer to work for free? I'd be really interested in being sent to the same place and not being paid but paying to go over there to not be paid is stupid beyond belief.

Anyway, so as the OP asked, I'd also be interested in doing some volunteering abroad, as long as they pay for you to go over there, don't care about being paid for it, just not having to pay myself! :p

(Geology grad BTW)
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well yeah you're bang on, it does seem weird that you have to pay, I can understand why you have to, paying for your own training and whatnot, but the price is massive on a lot of them, like thousands of pounds before you've even got your flights, insurance, jabs, equipment etc. it seems a lot.

Also, it must discourage so many people from doing something good.
 
Are you still around Leeds?

I don't know about Leeds but I went to Sheffield Uni and in the Union we had a volunteering office and various other facilities so there were loads of ways to get advice on this kind of thing.. do you know if you have a similar facility at Leeds? A quick look on your website, there is a student advice centre, maybe they can help out.
 
no moved back to Manchester now unfortunately, Bury to be specific. Nobody in Bury expects anybody in Bury to actually leave so I doubt that theres anywhere like that here. I could try and find something in manchester though.

I'm still hopin Slambo69 is gonna come through for the engineers.
 
Totally agree with the above comments about having to pay to volunteer...

If you google WOOOF / WOOF you should get some sites where you can go and work / live on a farm for free in exchange for work, though you'll still have to pay to get there, though that's still probably the cheapest way of doing something like this.

Obviously you've stated you don't have any cash, but for reference, www.gapyear.com has a lot more volunteering / expeditions than on the sites listed here and encompasses stuff all over the world.
 
Some awesome links there, might want to check out this one, it links to Japan sort of links, but you can browse around, and some of the links from there, are international as well. This actually seems like a really cool idea if you want to go traveling somewhere.
 
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