Why Volunteering Abroad?
Many people have been asking me this question since I decided to volunteer in Peru (went last July 2014 for 4 weeks).
So I thought I'll reply using my blog, specially for those who have not asked me yet this question and for those who are thinking about volunteering abroad in the near future, so hopefully I'll motivate them to do it too. Apologies if I wrote too much, but I wanted to be as much informative as I could.
I'll start explaining my personal motivation for volunteering, then explain how I organised it and then what happened once I got there.
1. My Motivations:
Everyone who knows me well are already aware that I am a person always willing to help others and always get involved with local volunteering and charities. However, every time I see a TV commercial or someone stop me in the streets asking to donate to a charity with a project abroad I always wonder how much of my money goes to the project after all those marketing and administration expenses, also, do they really fund real projects? how do I know it for certain? the only way to find out is by going there!
I am also trying to make a difference in every penny I spend, so volunteering abroad it is a very ethical way of travelling, you are not just a simple tourist, you are a traveler that also help people who really need it abroad. You will have the chance to see everything a tourist can see when traveling plus the chance to mix with locals, live like them, eat like them and learn much more of their culture than if you are just a tourist. A great learning experience and you will meet really nice people!
Not every country is as rich or have such a supportive government as the UK, you know, here many charities receive funding from the government, lottery fund, etc... there are many ways charities can get funds, also I always say this, British people are so generous! they always donate to so many good causes!... however in other countries they are not that lucky, many needed projects are always needed of more funds and governments don't provide a single penny even their cause is actually really good and needed.
Of course, other people will have different motivations, like improving their CV, learning new languages, getting new skills, cultural connections, get to know new people, personal development, etc. Feel free to post yours in the comments section.
2. Getting there:
Once I decided that I wanted to volunteer abroad, it came the hard bit, find a worthy cause, in a country I was willing to travel to and making sure it was a real project, and not just a fake that is just looking for volunteers money. I've heard so many stories of fake projects, not sure if they are real stories, like schools being built by volunteers and after they are finished being demolished to start another one, etc... So I decided to use a non-for profit company that look after this type of volunteering projects.
Google gave me a lot of them, looks like many people are very interested in helping around, it's great! but after doing some research, comparing prices and projects I decided to go with POD (www.podvolunteer.org). This type of organisations intermediate between volunteers and projects abroad. Making sure volunteers are a good fit for the project (recruiting process with phone calls and face to face interviews in some cases, CRB checks, etc) and also making sure the projects are worthy and real, as they do random visits to the projects to make sure everything is going according to plan, offering on the top of that a support from abroad in case things don't go well for the volunteers. So it's safe for both parts, volunteers and projects.
Most of this organisations will have people prepared to give you as much information as you need it and also provide you with documentation and guidance. I decided to go with POD as their admin fees were not too high, the project they have was very appealing to me and also it was located in Peru, a country I always wanted to visit and, as I am Spanish, I thought I would be very helpful over there, as they get so many international volunteers helping there.
3. Volunteering Time:
In this part of the post I'll try to be as much specific as possible, but obviously this information will only apply to this specific project in the children's shelter in Arequipa.
As my project was located in Peru, I didn't need a visa to get there, so I just had to book the flights and POD organised everything else for me. A driver picked me up from the airport in Arequipa and gave me a lift to the flat I was going to live while volunteering.
This flat is within a Spanish school (http://www.ceica-peru.com/) where volunteers can also take some Spanish lessons, I really liked the fact that most of the lessons take part in the garden outdoors! it's always sunny in Arequipa! I can't really provide any feedback about the lessons, as I didn't take any (Spanish is my native language) but the other volunteers seemed to be very happy with them.
So all the volunteers were sharing this 3 bedroom apartment (2 bedrooms with bunk beds and another one with a double bed, I was very lucky and got the double bed one!, probably because I was the only guy in the flat) We would share the bathroom, kitchen and living room.
The Casa Hogar "Luz Alba" is located within 30/40 mins by bus from the apartment. A real adventure those trips by bus, but after the second trip you get use to them, although I always have problems with my height! lol.. too tall for these mini buses. Traffic is a bit manic in Peru, but at the end you get also used to it and public transport is very cheap (80 cents of a Sol).
This children shelter had 17 children, aged between 2 and 11 years old, they are looked after the "Tias" (full time national volunteers, who live in the same shelter with the children all day, every day), so we (International Volunteers) are basically a support for the Tias, we would help them looking after the children, playing with them, helping them with their homework (just for the older ones), helping them at lunch time, helping in the kitchen (mainly washing up), with the laundry (washing clothes in the machines, or hanging them up, or even folding clothes too), mopping, brushing, etc. They'd normally let you know what is needed to do.
Shifts are normally of 6 hours each and with 2 international volunteers at the same time (although it really depends of how many volunteers are there at the moment of your placement and their travel plans), with 2 days off during the week. If you want to volunteer in this Casa Hogar, please contact Traveller Not Tourist, they can organise everything for you for this particular project.
The experience overall was fantastic! Met so many nice people, I've learn so much about looking after children, about the Peruvian culture, their people, their food, their old ancestors, their own language (Quechua), even their Spanish! (they use different words that we use in Spain, even the children were making fun of my accent and words! it was fun!), even some days you'd finish very tired, you go home with a great feeling knowing you have helped these little cute children and every time you go back to the shelter they'll receive you with a big smile and many times a big hug!
I can only say positive things about volunteering abroad! maybe one little piece of advise, don't forget you are in a country where you will be out of the ordinary, meaning, look after your belongings, and don't really mind if people turn around looking at you, hehehe, they are just curious as you look different, and they like it! Just open your mind and enjoy but being careful as you should do when you travel anywhere like Barcelona ;-)
I hope this post has resolved many of your queries, if you still have more queries, please feel free to ask posting them as comments and I'll try to help you as much as I can. Please give me as much feedback as you can so I can improve this post and help everyone.
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