If you want to volunteer with a development organization without leaving home, check out UN Volunteers Online Volunteering Service to see if any organization has put in a request for a skill you have. The overall goal of the site is to support the Millennium Development Goals – which seek to make significant progress on a number of world issues such as extreme poverty and HIV/AIDS by 2015; volunteers can scan through ads, select one to apply for, and, if the organization thinks it is a good match, start their work from home. I’ve done a bit of proofreading of reports and research of aid-type organizations (on my own, not through UN Online Volunteering), and I have to say even this task that really provides only basic exposure to the field can be eye-opening.

A few examples:

• The Pan African Hazards and Mine Action is looking for help writing an online English language training program for learners in south Sudan. As an ESL teacher I cringe a little at the thought that they would like it to be “on grammar”, but ideally the requirement of five years experience teaching will mean the teacher selected will be able to convey the importance of including other skills as well (speaking, listening and so on).
• There are several requests for translation, including that of an Olympic volunteer journal written by Chinese professors to English.
• Or you can research information on cottage industry and microfinance – to help an evening school for students who can’t afford public school in India.
• Finally, there is the Zambian Human Rights Commission, which would like help redesigning its website, which in its own words is “by all standards very shallow”.

The basic requirements regular internet access can apply; you register and then apply for a particular project, many of which require specific skills.

I can envision situations where it might require a good deal of commitment and initiative to keep going, when you will never even meet the people you are working with and there are gaps in communication. There are a number of volunteer success stories though, including some pretty interesting examples of what can be done online. One is a volunteer from DR Congo, who, despite frequent lack of electricity and poor infrastructure, maintained regular email contact with other volunteers from Internet cafes, in order to realize a pen pal project between local children who were refugees and pen pals in Europe and the US. If you’ve got the energy and know-how, though, this could be quite an opportunity to participate in a project developed by a local organization.