Anyone ever volunteered abroad? Refugee camp and orphanage.

[Mavan1984]

Hi everyone,

Me and DH have got an opportunity to go abroad to do some volunteering in August. It will be a 1 week self funded trip with a UK charity and we don't need to fundraise for it.

The trip will involve helping in a refugee camp and orphanage.

I have always wanted to do something like this but I am feeling very nervous because I've never done anything like this before. I've done volunteering at a local level in the UK but nothing abroad.

Has anyone ever been on such a trip and what were your experiences?

Hmm I'm not sure you'll be any help in a week, it'll take that long to learn the ropes unless you're a doctor or nurse and can get straight on with the urgent care.
probably better use of the money if you stay at home here and volunteer somewhere on a weekly basis and donate the money you would have spent to Lumos which is a charity set up to keep children from needing orphanages
https://www.wearelumos.org/what-we-do/

Unless you have a very specific skill that is not available in the location you would be of more use donating the money that you would have spent to be used to employ a local person (it is likely to cover much much more than a week of their salary and create employment)

I'm from a developing country and have done a lot of work around aid with both local and international organisations.

I'll be honest with you, this kind of endeavour is pretty useless for the recipients unless you are providing a specialist skill which is not available in that location eg. if you are very skilled medics

in almost all cases, the locals would benefit more if you sent the funds you would use for your airfare/accommodation etc. to a local community led enterprise. a lot of international aid organisations spend more on paying expats/renting luxury offices/buying range rovers than on the actual aid. in many cases they are led by people with very little understanding of the actual issues.

I wanted to add, it does depend on the charity and what exactly you will be doing
I just gave general points

You're going on activity holiday. You're volunteering money to your tour operator (sorry, charity) for organising your holiday.
You'll spend more money in a week to feel good about yourself than the locals earn for 6 months of hard labour.

Nothing is inherently wrong with your trip as long as you check in with your ethics and don't over-estimate the charity of this type of tourism.

negative-impacts-volunteer-tourism

It's nice that you want to help, but please consider donating to local initiatives instead. Maybe Kiva?

Why not go and spend your money in some of these places, support the small businesses? You'll have a direct impact on the people and their families that way.