Good places to volunteer internationally?

Question

I want to volunteer somewhere internationally this summer to get some experience, and also, to travel. Any suggestions on where I should go? I want this to be as interesting as possible, and need to have things to do while not working.

Answer 1

Be prepared to pay a fee for such volunteering -- unless you can work in a language other than English (speaking, reading and writing) and have skills and experience that can lead to local people generating income, better feeding their families, improving children's health, etc., or that can lead to the transformation of key institutions, such as government, universities/schools or NGOs. Organizations that don't charge for volunteering are looking for highly skilled, very experienced people who can commit to a two-year assignment, who have experience working with under-served communities, or who have a lot of experience in very diverse or religiously-conservative communities. The goal is to give local people jobs, not to give Westerners a feel-good vacation -- hence why short-term placement agencies charge volunteers, or require these volunteers to pay their own way (transportation, housing, accommodation, security, translators, etc.).

There is a listing of the more-than-30 member organizations of the International Volunteers Program Association (IVPA) that is a good place to find reputable volunteer-for-a-fee programs.
http://www.volunteerinternational.org/

The cheapest overseas volunteer-sending organization in the USA that will send unskilled volunteers for short-term assignments (six months or less) that I've found is SCI - Service Civil International (http://www.sci-ivs.org/). I know *nothing* about them other than what's on their web site, so please don't consider the listing of this organization in my answer as an endorsement.

Here is a web site that can help you learn more about the skills and experience desired by long-term placement organizations, and how you can gain that experience locally. It also lists the various organizations that don't charge for volunteer placement (but require a great deal of experience -- the average age of a UN Volunteer is 38).
http://www.coyotecommunications.com/volunteer/international.html

Answer 2

www.volunteervisions.org