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Volunteering Abroad

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RedLion:
Recently--as in, the last 6 months--I've developed a deep desire to do something more constructive that I've been doing with my life hitherto. I've been volunteering at local places like the animal shelter and the homeless shelter, and I've donated a fair amount of my income to charities, but I feel driven to do more. Couple this with my insatiable desire to travel the world (As I've said enough times now, I recently got back from about 3 weeks in Europe, my first time outside of the North American continent, and found it to be everything I had thought it could be, and more), and the idea of volunteering abroad has really struck a chord with me. I've been doing some research the last month or so, and found some good <a href="http://www.geovisions.org/pages/119_lion_conservation_project.cfm>ones[/url], or at least ones that interest me and would make me feel like I was doing something concrete. (I love animals, and lions inparticuar, so that's why the lion conservation project is something I'm looking at strongly.)

I probably  sound like a pretentious college age student talking about finding themselves through volunteer work in a poor country or something, but that's not really what I feel this is about. I'm not really looking to get anything specific out of this on my end, other than just knowing that I've actually done something, not just sat on my ass, comfortable and complacent, reading newspapers and magazines, saying "wow, that's horrible, somebody really should do something," and then going back to eating Cheez-its.

I'm well aware that there's poverty and suffering here at home, and like I said, I currently take time to help out in my local community. But the point is I'd like to have the experience of being in a different place, doing this work.

Of course, the problem is I'm due to start college in less than a month. Obviously, I can't just drop college for this. However, I may see if I can work something out with my college regarding this--they're extremely liberal when it comes to student freedoms and crafting a unique and individual college career. They have school-sponsored study abroad programs, but they specifically say that they encourage private volunteerism, whether at home or abroad, so perhaps I can work this into my school-schedule somehow, if not this year then next--or perhaps just the summer between this year and next. Or hell, even Christmas Break, if I choose to do a program that lasts only two weeks or so.

I'm writing all this to ask if anyone on these forums has ever volunteered for an organization, whether in their country or abroad, or done something similar. If so, how was the experience? Where did you go, what did you do, etc?

Do you know any more good organizations that facilitate things like this? I know there's always the peace corps, and that's on my list, but I'm looking at alternatives right now.

Further, does anyone have any suggestions or advice on how to make this mesh with being a freshman college student? I'm aware this whole thing probably sounds overly high-minded, naive or pretentious in some way, but it's something that, in an inexorable way, I kind of feel like I need to do. Thanks in advance for any responses.

ruyi:
Something I'm looking at right now:

http://www.volunteer.org/nz

My friend went to Ghana through this organization and has said good things about it.

Another useful database:

http://idealist.org

Also I think that WWOOF thing onewheelwizard mentioned a while back sounded pretty interesting.

öde:
I hope to have about £1500 saved up in a few years so I can volunteer in the Himalayas. I do lots of local volunteering stuff, I just want to go to the Himalayas.

Thlayli:
I haven't volunteered overseas myself, but I just wanted to offer encouragement. Tommy was dead on about how much it costs, and these types of programs tend to be highly selective. If you actually make this work, it will also cause your resume to look that much better when you finish with college; international work experience is never a bad thing.

Social Bacon:
A friend of mine goes off for two weeks every summer to build a house in an impoverished nation. Last year he was in Romania and this year he's in Bolivia. I have no idea what program he does it through but he loves it and keeps doing it every year. For the sake of your student schedule taking two weeks off in the summer would be very feasible.

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