Blog

This is a guest post by experienced nurse and serial volunteer Emily Scott, with some important advice about volunteering overseas in the medical field. When I started volunteering abroad as a nurse, I used to tell every medical professional I met that they should...

This is a guest post from Sally Hetherington, about the journey her organisation took with international volunteering and how she made herself redundant.   I was 23. It was my first time in Cambodia. I thought, “why not visit an orphanage?” I was disappointed. The...

This guest post is written by Amanda Wind, who is currently in Thailand as a volunteer English teacher. I’m 19 years old and embarking on my first international trip to Peru. Offered as an annual study abroad with the Honors Program at my university, I jumped at the...

This is a guest post written by Dur Montoya and Luis Barreto (pictured here in Morocco) about encountering corruption while attempting to arrange a volunteer placement. We were in Morocco as part of a trip around the world, and we thought it would be cool to do some...

This is a guest post written by Ruth Taylor. The image shows Ruth at a recent gap year conference (left). I’ve been working to transform the international volunteering industry for close to ten years now. In that time, there has been a steady rise in public criticism...

Gearing up for the festive season? This is a guest post from Christy Sommers, with an important message about effective charitable giving. With winter holidays around the corner, many folks feel compelled to reach a bit deeper into their pockets for those who struggle...

More than any other time in history, the current generation lives in a world that is globally interconnected. TV and the internet broadcast news instantly from around the world. Famines, disasters and conflict are televised. The media’s focus on celebrity involvement...

The issue of orphanage volunteering has attracted huge amounts of media attention in the Netherlands recently, due to the new campaign by Better Care Network Netherlands called ‘Stopweeshuisstages’. The campaign aims to stop higher education institutions offering...

I truly wish I had read this book when I was 18 years old. Although my intentions were good, I would have benefited greatly from its lessons and gained a relevant skill first before trying to help.