Volunteer Work Abroad?

Question by Even God Hates Me.: Volunteer Work Abroad?
Hello all!

Has anybody had any experience with volunteer work away from their resident countries? Im a UK citizen and i would love help those in need. Im not one of those pretentious people who think it’ll be a holiday and only do these things to impress people back home, i want to do this whole-heartedly. That, and im on a downwards spiral academically due to attendance and my general disdain and skepticism for the higher education, and socially due to anxiety, family issues, pressures etc.

I’ve been seeing a “therapist” recently for panic attacks, and she suggested that this sort of thing would probably be good for me too. My family genuinely think im a waste, layabout and my sisters think im a “stoner” and all my friends are heavy drug users and i just want to get away from all that shit. I turn 18 at the end of this year so i can legally do what i want after that. However im still under the vice of my parents.

Im Pakistani by descent, and can speak fluent Urdu and i would love to help in my native country. I have visited 7 or 8 times (and once more in two weeks) in my life for generally two months at a time so i know it well and have come to terms with the problems. How could i go about volunteering here? Thanks.

And if you have any experience with this sort of thing, let me know. Also, it wont exclusively be a bunch of overly emotional self righteous rich kids that ill have to work with, right?

Best answer:

Answer by Jayne says READ MORE BOOKS
Working abroad is highly-stressful — it requires patience, deliberation, ability to deal with very low infrastructure, ability to deal with multicultural communities very different from yourself, etc. Plus, it takes expertise — an attitude, however sincere, of wanting to help is nice, but it’s just not enough.

The URLs below talk about the realities of volunteering abroad. It sounds like you need to concentrate on volunteering locally first, and getting a lot more experience and stability in your life, before you would be a viable candidate to work abroad.

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