Recently, I was talking with a friend who would very much like to move abroad to either work or volunteer her time. Of course, my immediate response was “Do it!” but the conversation quickly turned from where to start looking for opportunities into a list of reasons why she couldn&#[...]
Archive for the ‘Looking’ Category
Making It Happen For Yourself
When it comes to establishing oneself in a new foreign place, learning the difference between “trolling for opportunities” vs. “putting the word out” is important. When I first set out with the idea of finding somewhere to volunteer at, I spent a lot of time trolling for id[...]
February 4th, 2010 - 12:05 pm § in Doing, Looking, Nicaragua, Nonprofit Spotlight, Tips & Resources, Volunteer
The Experience: Enjoying Your Time as a Volunteer
When I made the decision to leave everything that was familiar at home and work abroad, I knew that having a strong, supportive and exciting group of volunteers to work with would help ease the unfamiliar surroundings. Some people look to be alone, others want a base and the rest want something in b[...]
How I Came to Be a Volunteer
I’d like to be straightforward with you from the very beginning and tell you that I’m no volunteering expert. In fact, I’m quite the novice. I’ve only volunteered once before and that was for one week during my freshman year of college. I had an incredible experience and left intending to do[...]
Helping Haiti: Things to Consider
Originally published on the Idealist.org homepage, this post has three sections: Donations; Volunteering Locally to Support Efforts in Haiti; and Volunteering in Haiti. Idealist staff Jeremy MacKechnie, Amy Potthast, Erin Barnhart, Eric Fichtl, Scott Stadum, and Julia Smith contributed. The outpouri[...]
Here’s to Courage
This week we had a lesson in bravery. A while back we wrote about our new friend, Cat, who was turning to us for some inspiration. More specifically, she was looking for some advice on turning her seemingly perfect world upside down in order to pursue a volunteer opportunity in South America. At[...]
International Volunteer Day
Calling all volunteers… As you may have read here, International Volunteer Day is coming up on December 5. For the last several years, the United Nations has partnered with a number of other organizations to focus on providing potential volunteers with a place for inspiration and information[...]
33 Tips from Kiva Fellows in Latin America
All bound by a shared love of Kiva.org and its “Loans that Change Lives,” Kiva Fellows – many of whom have never met each other in person unless part of the same training group in San Francisco – keep in touch via mass emails for a multitude of reasons ranging from simple camaraderie[...]
From South America to Samoa
We’re trying to be more mindful of giving back as a way of life, rather than something that is done situationally. Idealist makes that pretty easy. The work of other organizations, such as Mercy Corps, also helps to keep us mindful of ongoing altruism. Recently we had the opportunity to practi[...]
