Can I Just Turn Up And Volunteer?

No Comments | April 2nd, 2007 | Trackback

Many people are either hesitant to make a commitment to an organization or cause remotely – without actually being there – and others are just not certain enough of their travel plans to know where they will be at a particular point in the future. This raises the question – is it possible to just turn up and volunteer somewhere - and similarly, what are the pros and cons of longer term volunteering?

In my experience, it may work, though the experience as a whole will probably differ in many ways from pre-arranging a volunteer stint. First and foremost, there’s a chance you won’t find what you’re looking for, and in this case may be disappointed to find yourself not volunteering at all. To me this is still preferable to making a commitment you don’t keep, or getting yourself into the wrong volunteer situation.

The other difference, if you’re comparing to placement organizations which charge a fee and offer ongoing support, is that you will be need to be much more independent if you volunteer on the spot – likely you’ll have to find and pay for convenient accommodation yourself, and you may well have to be quite proactive in determining what you do on a day to day basis and how that translates into a contribution to the organization or cause.

There may also be differences in the nature of the work – some types of volunteer work, say, starting an English class or initiating a recycling project – simply take more arranging and organization than is possible if you arrive on the spot. The work I’ve done without arranging in advance consisted of assisting vets in India sterilizing stray dogs and giving one-to-one English conversation sessions.

How to do this? Researching in advance is a good idea, and perhaps contacting some organizations, even if you can’t make any time commitment at that point. Again, this takes more initiative on your part than it does to sign up and pay for a placement. It was because I’d done research that I knew that various volunteer possibilities existed in a location.

Next, and in connection with research, choose a location that has “potential” – different organizations doing work that incorporates volunteers. I think a place that has a fair amount of tourism (budget tourism? Backpacking tourism?) may be a good bet as well, as organizations may have become more used to utilizing the labor of volunteer travelers. I think conversely, in an area that sees few travellers, while you may well have something unique to offer, it may prove more of a challenge to figure out how to unite that something with an already-operating local organization.

My impression is that Dharamsala and Calcutta are two cities in India that fit this. From looking online for the Volunteer Logue, Thailand and Nepal stick out as having a number of non-profit organizations in areas which see regular tourism as well.

In Latin America, Guatemala and Costa Rica jump out to me. Two excellent resources for finding organizations in these regions are, for Asia (as well as other countries) Independent Volunteer and for South America, Volunteer South America.