Volunteering Overseas

So what is VSO? Or Voluntary Services Overseas? Well, it’s exactly what it says on the tin; serving as a volunteer in another overseas from your home country. This kind of volunteering is usually associated with third world countries, but in fact, it can happen anywhere in the world, and I did mine in Japan. And you don’t necessarily need experience or special skills. You can literally volunteer to do anything, work-wise.

So let’s first talk about approaching the idea of volunteering overseas. Firstly, if you’re thinking traveling as the main objective, I would advise not doing VSO. There are countries where you can work and travel like Australia if you are between 18-30. There is a special 12 month visa available to do this and is something I did do, but I will talk about it in a separate Vocal Post. But what I did that ultimately led to me completing VSO and traveling Australia four years later was to attend the Adventure Travel show, which is now held at Olympia, London. I knew I wanted to go abroad and travel, but wasn’t sure for how long or where or what exactly I wanted to do.

But the first thing you need is to decide what it is you want to get out of the experience. Is it independence? A chance to use some sort of skill you have learnt? By this I mean, for example, carpentry or life skills such as people interaction, or maybe you want to gain some experience of the topic you will be studying at college or university, like animal welfare. By having an idea of what you want to get out of it, as this will help you to find the right program, you also need to decide how long you want to volunteer for. Most programmes range between three to 12 months, but there are some that are longer.

There are so many programmes, and I explored so many different avenues before I actually decided what I was going to do, and for someone who avoids making decisions, this was, of course, a challenge.

The kind of things I looked at were trekking across Asia that had building projects along the way, and ocean projects that monitor sea life. I also looked at the possibility of joining Camp America, though this is actually paid work.

In the end, I came across the Experience Exchange Programme—EEP—that was run in partnership with the Anglican and Methodist Church—USPG.

Most projects will have some form of information-sharing day or selection day. I actually went to a selection day for the ocean project. Unfortunately I can’t remember what it was called and I have looked to the information, but as this was over 17 years ago and I didn’t actually attend the project, I probably didn’t keep the literature.

But I remember being in a large room full of people as the organisation shared a presentation on the project. We then had individual interviews where they could find out more about us and we could ask any other questions we might have thought of. I ended up not doing this program simply because of my hearing issue, as we weren’t sure how I would deal with the pressure underwater.

So we found USPG and the Experience Exchange Programme through a friend. I applied and they had a weekend away in Birmingham, where we were able to find out more. This was followed by a selection day in London. At this point, they had already found suggested placements for each person. I was the longest server in the group by being on placement for 12 months.

After you have been selected, the organisation should offer some form of training and preparation before you travel to your destination. For me, this was in the form of a week spent up in Birmingham with the same group on the selection day. Bearing in mind that most of the people at the week training were all going to different places and going to different kinds of work, so most of the training was based around our faith, but it did teach up the importance of respect and understanding of going into a new culture and what it’s going to be like living where people may do things that you may well not be used to or find weird or strange, and then finding the tools to be able to fit in with these ways. As most of the basic training is generic for anywhere you go in the world.

The final factor is money. Most organisations that offer VSO will expect you to pay for a certain amount of your journey. I had to pay for flights and insurance. I lived on a farm so I had full boarding while on site and in fact, everyone going on this programme had some form of host where they were working. But some organisations may expect you to pay for accommodation, but the list of what you pay for should be listed clearly before you start. Some organisations, but not many, make you pay for things like flights and insurance as a way to ensure your to commitment to the program, then later when you have finished, they may reimburse you those costs, but it is not something you should expect, as most VSO organisation are charities.

You should be prepared to raise money to fund your VSO, and if you get to know your sending body and what you will be doing while volunteering really, well there is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to get sponsors. If you are lucky to get sponsors, then be sure you can update them on your project while you are out there so they can see how their money is being spent.

I volunteered in a training centre in Japan where people from Africa and Asia came to learn to be rural leaders. My job there was help keep the farm ticking over while the participant concentrated on their learning. I was part of an international volunteer team who worked all aspects of the site from admin to milking cows. The tools and methods are basic, as that is what the participants would be using when they returned to their own countries. I will do a whole Vocal Post on the organisation, experience, and site another time. This post is just to try and give you an idea of how to go about organising VSO.