Blog

This is a guest post from educator, volunteer coordinator and volunteer Jane Carpenter, on how she found the Learning Service book useful when reflecting on her own experience.   Learning Service is a brilliant, thought-provoking and practical book which gently guides...

This is a guest post written by Sarah Dyer of Voice4Lions.   So you love lions? Me too! Learning about how desperate a situation our lions are in nowadays, who would not want to try and do something they felt would improve their situation? People have many reasons for...

This is a guest post from Shawn Humphrey which was first published on his own website.   “Here’s your check and there’s the parking lot.”  That’s how one civically-engaged college campus responded to my talk on global poverty. Ouch. It stung.  And, on my lonely walk...

This is a guest post by recent graduate and volunteer Natalie. From quite a young age I knew that I wanted to travel, see the world and meet new people, and I also knew that I wanted to “make a change” and help people that needed it. Being young, we often had quite a...

This is a guest post by Learning Service follower Elizabeth Bezark.   Part I Thank You for Staring: A Day in the Life of an Unengaged Volunteer During my first international community engagement experience, my group and I took a daylong break from learning how to...

This is a guest post by consultant and campaigner Martin Punaks.   Rising awareness of orphanage voluntourism A decade ago very few people had heard of the term ‘orphanage voluntourism’, but now barely a week goes past without the media covering it.  For anyone who is...

This is a guest post from Jenny Adhikari, a tourism professional based in Nepal.   As someone who works in the tourism industry, and who tries hard to ensure that the company I help to run is responsible and sustainable, I am often dismayed when I see travellers...

This is a guest post written by Canadian student Meredith Brown.   I’ve been an explorer since the day I was born. Ever since a young age, my curiosity has always kept me on my toes. I questioned everything I got my hands on. Even the short weekend trips to national...

This is a guest post from Jonathan Brown, a high school teacher in the UK. I was a teenager in England in the early 2000s. At that time I saw opportunities to volunteer abroad being advertised in schools, but I had little desire to do it myself. Most of my friends...