Volunteering abroad

What is volunteering abroad?

Volunteering abroad - this means supporting a charitable project in another country with your own labor. Your volunteer work serves a good cause. Usually for the benefit of people, animals or the environment. While working with people abroad, you immerse yourself in a different culture and gain an authentic insight into the reality of life in your host country.

At its best, volunteering abroad is therefore a win-win situation: you support a meaningful project locally and return home with a wealth of unique experiences in return.

What can I achieve by volunteering abroad?

First things first: you won't change the world by volunteering. However, that would also be an unrealistic expectation. Nevertheless, you can make a difference with your manpower, your commitment and a good dose of motivation if you use it in the right place.

Ideally, you will have certain prior knowledge that is required at your volunteer placement. Volunteers with experience in medicine, teaching, engineering or skilled trades, for example, are desperately sought after in many places. But you can also make yourself useful abroad without any previous knowledge. After all, as a volunteer you are free labor and this is a huge relief, especially for smaller, financially weaker projects. There is often simply not enough money to hire more paid employees.

Speaking of money - as a rule, you don't just support your placement abroad with your manpower. It is not uncommon for you to have to pay something for your volunteer work. However, this is not without reason, as many of the projects are not funded by the state. Your project costs are therefore essential for survival at some of your places of assignment.

What are the personal benefits of volunteering abroad?

Volunteering or an FSJ abroad requires courage and commitment. After all, you are traveling alone to a foreign country to work there. A real challenge, but one that can also give you a lot. For example:

• You return home more open-minded, independent and self-confident
• Working and living together with people from different places gives you unique insights into the realities of life in other countries
• Prejudices are broken down (on both sides)
• Soft skills, language skills and practical work experience are not only good for your personality, but also look good on your CV
• You gain experience for life
• You meet interesting new people and make new friends

What are the criticisms of “voluntourism”?

Voluntourism, the combination of volunteering and tourism, has become increasingly popular in recent years. However, behind the well-meaning intentions and the opportunity to help, there are also a number of criticisms. The focus is often on the volunteers' experiences and self-expression rather than the needs of the local community.

When choosing your volunteer project, you should therefore check whether the tasks are meaningful and ethically justifiable, for example in terms of animal and child protection. A project that involves petting wild animals, for example, is less focused on the welfare of the animals - they should have little contact with humans so that they can be released back into the wild.

You should also pay attention to the minimum duration of the projects: Assignments that are too short usually have less of an effect than longer stays. On the one hand, you will need a certain amount of time to acclimatize on site, and on the other hand, it is often difficult for children in particular to build up trust with constantly changing caregivers.

You should also make sure that the participation costs benefit the project. Find out what the organization is using the money for. Does it communicate this transparently? Does it explain where the money goes? After all, supporting the projects should also be economically sustainable.

Quality checklist for providers and projects

It is not always easy to determine whether the provider organization or project is sensible and reputable. Nevertheless, there are a few questions that you can use to check the quality of the offers in advance:

• Does the provider organization seem credible and reputable? What does your gut feel?
• Is there a clear job profile for your desired project?
• Are the tasks I have in mind meaningful activities that will create added value on site? Does the project have a recognizable benefit for the local people/animals/environment or is the focus on “entertaining” the volunteers?
• Is prior knowledge required for sensitive areas of responsibility? (e.g. in medicine, nursing, psychology, etc.)
• Are volunteers and their qualifications checked in advance? Do CVs, letters of motivation, proof of qualifications and language skills or, if applicable, a certificate of good conduct have to be submitted?
• Is there a minimum duration for the volunteer work? Especially when working with children or other particularly vulnerable groups.
• Are the projects coordinated on site by local teams and/or teams with local knowledge?
• Is the focus of wildlife projects on the reintroduction of animals into the wild?

Take advantage of the offer of a personal consultation to clarify all your open questions and concerns directly with the organization.

Where can I find suitable projects

We recommend the following sites to prepare for a volunteer stay.

Rainbowgardenvillage

Freiwilligenarbeit.de

give&grow

Conclusion: How useful is volunteering?

Volunteering abroad can be a unique opportunity for personal and professional development. Such an experience enables volunteers to acquire intercultural skills, learn new languages, see the world from a different perspective and gain a deeper understanding of global contexts.

Equally important is the positive impact that volunteering has on local communities. By contributing their time, energy and skills, volunteers can help to improve living conditions in these communities - whether in animal welfare, environmental protection, health or education projects.

In any case, it is important to find out about the opportunities in advance and choose a suitable organization that meets your interests as well as ethical standards. You should also be aware of your responsibility as a volunteer, break down prejudices instead of reinforcing them and approach other cultures with an open mind.