Voluntary Work Abroad

[MassiveAttack87]

Enya - Caribbean Blue (yea the song from The Beach)

Well after hearing this song a few years ago i was amazed by it and i wanted to travel as soon as i heard it, after watching the film The Beach even though it was utterly rubbish apart from the one scene at the island of phi phi. I recenetly hard that song again, and seriously i dont wanna be stuck in the wet and windy Newcastle all my life so have thought about it for the (last 2 days lol) and i wanna do some Voluntary work, im reading up about it and im thinking of going alone but im skint at the moment but im going to start a job at a restaurant soon and maybe save for a few months - 12 months to pay for this trip because im not sure it can be done at little or no cost, meals, a place to sleep, flights etc.


Im looking to do some voluntary work aboard maybe leading to something else, although i am only 17, 18 soon im posting here because i wanna get feedback from people who have done voluntary work abroad at 17/18/19....
I know its very rewarding helping people, but i wanna know in what way did people find it rewarding? I also wanna get to understand different cultures as this would be more of a eye-opener/ or mind opener and make me think of things from a different point of view.


So just a few questions really;
Where can i find out more about free voluntary work? / Voluntary work that you need to pay for flights,acc,prices,meals? etc
Voluntary Work alone yes/no?

Just any additional information would be greatfully accepted.

Thanks Alot,

James

[xapis]

It sounds as if you want to go further afield than Europe, but European Voluntary Service (EVS) is a great way to do voluntary work in Europe. It's funded by the government so you don't have to pay for travel or accommodation and you get a small living expense too.

I don't know much about other volunteering futher afield but I'm fairly sure you have to fundraise for most of the others. I know friends who did stuff with BUNAC, think you have to be over 18 for that though, and VSO do youth volunteering programmes too. I just did a general search for volunteering abroad and it came up with so many different links.

Anyway yeah, volunteering is a great thing to do and would be a mind opener, as you say.
I was meant to be doing EVS in Italy next year but decided to go back to uni instead. I really want to do it after I graduate though.