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I'm wondering if anyone here has done Internation Volunteering before. I am really interested in doing it in May during my school break. What I am interested in knowing is where to go to get information. I went to the volunteer.ca to look and found some great organizations, but I'm not sure if they are legit.

Does anyone have any organizations that they know or any other input? Thanks a bunch!

My mom does research on this almost daily, but she's not home right now, so I can't give you any links.

Also, details would be good. What kind of volunteering, where in the world?

Also, the one or two weeks at spring break would not be nearly enough time to get involved with any large project. Generally, the kind of projects that only involve a couple weeks are either mostly educational (for you), with a little bit of general volunteering (a day or two in an orphanage for example), or are one of those church trips to mexico where they get a bunch of kids together and build a school in a week.

Also, wrong forum.

D'oh, the second time I start a topic... the second time it's in the wrong forum. Sorry, but it's 2 am and a full day of studying and report writing. Back to the topic though...

I would like to do highschool teaching, preferably. Thailand and Vietnam caught my interest too because well... it's is lower priced than the others countries (as much as I want to help... some places are too expensive for me). Time frame would be atlease 3 month... maybe 4. Thanks sooo much if you have any input.

I'm not sure that's enough time to do something like that.

I know the Peace Corps keep people for years, and that's the type of thing they do.

If you're wanting to travel you can always teach English somehere in Asia. I don't think you really need anything to do it. I know at least 5 people that have done it and loved it.

OHHHHH. you mean for the summer! Well, if you want to teach english, you pretty much have to take the tesl course and then find a job somewhere.

Generally, high school teaching is not something people do to do 'volunteer' work, because you have to be qualified, so schools then hire you.

I have a few friends in Thailand that did the course and are now living there for the year teaching. Really not a couple months thing.

thirdhour wrote:OHHHHH. you mean for the summer! Well, if you want to teach english, you pretty much have to take the tesl course and then find a job somewhere.

Generally, high school teaching is not something people do to do 'volunteer' work, because you have to be qualified, so schools then hire you.

I have a few friends in Thailand that did the course and are now living there for the year teaching. Really not a couple months thing.

Yup, I had considered that. There are some other programs I wouldn't mind doing, like the orphan care or the street children assistance... I wouldn't even mind building houses in Africa or that sort of thing.

It's just really hard to organziations. I talked to my friend too, apparently I may not be accepted for the Church related programs either because I am atheist... So, yea just an organziation name would be tons of help.

I tried getting into something like that too without any luck.

The few places I looked into required a University degree plus you had to be able to speak at least french and english and preferably spanish..

I don't know... when I was looking into it the requirements and steps for it were awfully strict and I didn't stand a chance.

It's too bad the Peace Corps is an American thing... I don't think it's too hard to get into that.

Well, we have Canada World Youth, same dealio. I think they only take a certain number every year though.

Honestly, because you have no qualifications and are only availible for a limited time, you're going to have to do something where YOU pay to volunteer.

My brother went to Jamaica last summer for several weeks for a volunteer/education type program, but he had to pay. My other brother spent a couple months in Sri Lanka last spring, but he personally had to organize the entire trip, because he was going in support of a local NGO, but a small one with no budget for students. He spent his time doing research on post-tsunami programs and their effectivness and corruption. Plus his program at school is Globalization and International Development, so that might have helped. He's thinking of hopefully getting more students involved next year.

I just looked in my mom's favorites folder under "volunteer", and there are 22 links.

The Canada World Youth website is awesome. Thanks! I'll probably be able to pay to go as long as it is reasonable... though. Any good programs that you'd recommend?

goleafsgo wrote:D'oh, the second time I start a topic... the second time it's in the wrong forum. Sorry, but it's 2 am and a full day of studying and report writing. Back to the topic though...

I would like to do highschool teaching, preferably. Thailand and Vietnam caught my interest too because well... it's is lower priced than the others countries (as much as I want to help... some places are too expensive for me). Time frame would be atlease 3 month... maybe 4. Thanks sooo much if you have any input.

You'd probably need a TESOL certificate to do highschool teaching in a country like Thailand and Vietnam.

I personally can't recommend any programs, I haven't been on any!

Some people I used to work with a travelling around the world and used to teach English in Japan and are now doing so in Mexico. They have no teaching experience and no qualifications, but I think they went to the countries first and then found the jobs.

yeah the people i knew did that too. They got out of highschool and went straight to Japan, China, and South Korea

My cousin Carly was teaching English in South Korea, she had some sort of certificate to teach it, but she only lasted five months because she got sick(with cancer) and had to come home .

She loved it though, she wants to go back too. I think it only took her like 5 months to get the certificate.

Any luck with this yet? It crossed my mind yesterday when a friend told me her sister is away doing a "volunteering vacation" with an organization called i-to-i. I can't say I know much about it but here's the website http://www.i-to-i.com

If you decide you don't wanna do it anymore, you can leave anytime, too. My cousin did.