Volunteering or working while on the road
 

Does anyone have any good resources, tips, websites, etc for volunteering or working while on the road?

I know of one website/organization–*the Muskoka Foundation (The Muskoka Foundation | The Muskoka Foundation). The organization also goes under the name of Do Good As You Go. It's a great resource. I'd like to find more.

I did a search for 'volunteer' and 'volunteering' on this forum and there were no results. I find it hard to believe no one is volunteering or working while on the road. I'd like to help people as I go as I'm sure many of us would.

Of course visas would prohibit work in other countries often but I'm sure there must be opportunities in our own countries.

Thoughts?

HelpX (https://www.helpx.net/index.asp)
Have not tried it yet, but possibly will check it in Australia.

Most people on the HUBB are understandable sceptical about volunteering for 1, 2, 3 weeks, as it only makes the volunteer feel a bit better but does nothing for the people.

Which jobs allow you to contribute within one week after joining? Unskilled jobs! And in developing countries they have enough unskilled labour. Help them by not taking their jobs.

Another thing is, that almost all volunteering organisations are moneymaking schemes.

I agree to poul, about the volunteering schemes, unfortunately...

I did "workaway" which is pretty much the same then helpx, but it comes down to the point that you will not earn any money, which you need on the road. They offer food and accomodation, for a reasonable amount of working hours each day.

I did it in GR, but didn't feel good about it. So I won't try this again!

I guess this topic was started more about asking in a way to get money for travelling further!??
Unfortunately I don't have a lot of experinece working on the road and making a reasonable amount of money. I worked in Italy for a few weeks this summer, what was rather easy to deal because I'm citizen of the European Union. In Turkey I didn't find anything reasonable. Just very low paid jobs and "black work"...:( Nothing to focus on to get money for future travelling. So I decide to move back to my home country for several months and then continue travelling again.

If anybody has any good advices, I'm sure many guys will appreciate it...!!!!!!!!:mchappy:

All the best

Alex

Thanks everyone. Thanks Hemuli... HelpX seems interesting, I will look through the site more thoroughly. It's a start certainly. It would help all travelers who want to extend their travels by saving money. I would like to 'do good as you go' with people that need help, not work for businesses particularly. It depends what their work is I suppose.

pbekkerh brings up a good point that I hadn't thought of before... would have to be careful that whatever whoever volunteers is not taking away jobs from the communities we're trying to help. It is also good to be advised that most volunteering organizations are money-making schemes. Good for us all to know.

dakaralex... that's a whole bunch of organizations listed on the Volunteer South America board. Thanks!

I'll do some more research. If I find something good I will let you all know.

What a load of rubbish. I can't disagree more with the view that volunteering is a waste of time or just a money making venture. I'm sure it can be but that doesn't mean it has to be.

I volunteered on my trip a couple of years ago, enjoyed every second of, was happy that my money was going to a good cause and hope I did more good than harm.

Volunteering can use your skills, I'm a teacher, so I taught in south Africa. Not taking jobs from anyone. And I helped on conservation projects in Central America, again, not taking anyone's work.

I wonder sometimes if comments like the ones I read above are made by people who want to discredit voluteering to make themselves feel better?

I'm not saying volunteering solves the worlds problems but with a little research a biker can enhance their journey, make a positive difference and learn something. That's got to be better than just being negative...

Or could it be that volunteers do it to make themselves feel better whether they really help or not? :oops2:

Volunteer
 

I did volunteer many times and in many countries but I have to agree that it is sometime difficult to find real Charity to help out. The important part is that no matter what you think ,the people you helped ( even for a day ) need you and appreciate your effort , that all you should remember. I cannot beleive travellers will expect to make money working abroad for some charity doing labor work , come on guys this supposed to be help you are giving not a job to help you travel more , board and food are already a great thing. I went away for few month sometime and I will do it again in my next RTW but I do it because I like to help that all .( I still do volunteer work here at home ).I sometime contact those organisation in advance but it also happen that when on the road I meet some of these guy I just ask if they need help. REMEMBER that what ever you give (time or money ) it should be from your heart and that should be enough for you , if not its only business and you should have other way to make some hopefully.

Load of rubbish.

If you go to ANY animal/wildlife organization in ANY country, you will find yourself welcomed with open arms. And that includes the United States. These places are begging for help. Fix something, walk the animals, clean cages, website work, etc etc etc. The list goes on.

Click here for a world wide directory at worldanimalnet.com Search

If there isn't an animal org in the area you want to travel, just get there, and ask the locals for where the animal lovers hang. You will not be turned away.

Lorraine

I think you really need to be a bit more specific about the type of volunteering.
Several of the posts here are correct depending on what you want to do.

There is doing a bit of research yourself and then rolling up and volunteering on the spot or with maybe a little advanced notice or even by chance meeting with some locals.

But there is also the "gap year style" which some people are talking about where companies take an amount of the cost for them self and donate a portion to the charity or group as well as providing support or advice about getting there ect. More often than not certainly in some of the animal refuges I looked at you could also roll up or give a few weeks notice and do exactly the same type of volunteering giving more to the organisation in financial terms and not paying a middle man.

There is also charities set up for the simple idea of making money from volunteers although these do appear to be few and far between.

If you are going to work with animals make sure you get all relevant shots for that country before doing so. And remember its not all cute monkeys and fluffy kitties or puppies. You may also come across damaged feral beasts which may have lice fleas and ringworm as well as a tendency for random fecal matter spraying and projectile vomiting and on top of these gap year students you have the animals to deal with as well.

Volunteer
 

I never volunteer with animal but visited plenty of animal shelter in SA and USA the thoughest things to deal with was for me the sadness of the animal anything else we can deal with . When I volunteered abroad or locally the hard things is to keep a balance with personal life , the more I help the more I know and feel like what I do make a difference so its sometime difficult to do not do more and more.

As far as helping people is concerned, if riders really wanted to help they would do it in their own country. The poverty in the US and Uk is terrible.But you dont have travel fun on your bike helping out there. And it's not glamorous.

Unless you're a specialist with something to offer, you could always not travel and donate the money saved - if your motive is to help of course. If you choose not to do this then you know that you are a traveller, nothing more.

If a traveller floats into town or village, dispenses wisdom and warmth and then rides away, he is shown to be what he is.

I just found this website that I thought was very interesting:

Volunteer abroad and see the world, South America, Africa, Asia - Motorcycle Memoir

Interesting views here.....!! To stumble across this thread I must be sitting on the fence wondering which side to hop down onto....
Bikers have always been linked to 'helping out' and I've been down that road before with 'Enduro Africa' and soon realised that it was a complete money making affair for many involved and a 'thrill seek' for me.....
When me and my partner actually set off on our travels we genuinely want to be involved with helping out as we travel. She is a big wig in child safe guarding and therefor would focus on that aspect. If anyone has any links to genuine organisations like the drain kids of Reo or Ulanbatar then post up.
Once again some good points on this thread, be nice to get it activated again..!!!
Cheers Mez & Sue

I don't know a great deal about this and I'm posting more in the hope of getting information in rather than dispensing wisdom but I have wondered many times in the past whether I could offer my services, help or whatever to a charity or any other organisation as I've travelled. Almost universally any approaches I've made have been, well, not dismissed or ignored, more a case of not fitting into any of their categories so they don't know how to deal with you. Most of the charities or gap year companies have well trodden paths for using volunteers but a lone biker turning up on their doorstep isn't one of them (or doesn't seem to be anyway) - unless you're in the E&C league when (presumably) they'll be happy for any publicity it gets them.

My daughter is volunteering in Canada at the moment (through a gap year company). It took almost six months to arrange her time there and she's found a degree of resentment with some of the local people she's been working with (it's a social project rather than a fluffy animal one). I've no idea what you have in mind to try and do but I wouldn't have though a kind of loose "we'll do some volunteering as we go" would be in much demand. Like I said, I don't know much about this and maybe the charities are missing a trick through not having a volunteers wanted section here but I suspect you may need to have had a substantial connection with an organisation before you head off for them to be interested.

Needs of locals vs. desires of volunteers
 

Could you say more about what you did, and how you arranged this volunteering? And are you still in contact with the NGO you assisted? And if anyone else reading has done this kind of short-term volunteering during a trip, would love to hear your answers to these questions as well.

I come to this from two perspectives: on the one hand, I'm a development worker, primarily with the UN, and someone coming in for just a few days or weeks, no matter what their skills, rarely made an impact in any of the developing countries where I worked, and I got tired of people constantly asking me for opportunities that, really, were more focused on their desire to help and have fuzzy warm photos than on the people that would be served. On the other hand, I'm also a volunteer management consultant, and know that volunteer engagement is about more than getting work done, and sometimes, volunteering can create understandings and collaborations that wouldn't happen otherwise. So I straddle a gap between both sides of this issue.

To me, what's most important if you want to volunteer abroad during an extended motorcycle trip is to focus on things that will actually make a difference and are *wanted* by the local communities you want to help. Local people can build their own wells, build their own schools, etc. - what they want are people that have and can apply skills they don't have, and can build their capacities so that, when you leave, they can continue on. Helping with computers, for instance: could you help a rural computer lab update its virus software, and help the lab managers to do it themselves? Could you install LibreOffice or OpenOffice on the computers, and show the lab managers how to do so and explain why these are better to use than pirated copies of Microsoft?

To help in this way, you need to do your homework before you arrive in an area: you need to introduce yourself to local NGOs *before* you arrive, be clear about who you are and what you want to do, that you would do this as a *volunteer* - entirely unpaid, and so forth. You need to ask questions about the appropriateness of picture taking, especially of women and children.

The link in my signature file links to a lot more suggestions and resources - I share it all, for free. This is an issue near and dear to me.

Volunteering is about doing something good for someone else. Even if you buy a bag of rice and drive that to an orphanage, talk to the people there and show them some appreciation on what they are doing and play with the kids. What more does it need to be?
About working in third world countries to make money... You got to be a fool to do that. It will cost you more time then give you money. Maybe the experience will be nice but in the end... dunno.
Why not picking a charity you are sure about and letting you sponsor from your home country, for example every km will earn you a dime or so, thats the way I want to do it but just dont know yet how.
I hope my opinion on this was helpfull.
Kenny

Workaway.info and helpx.net are the big websites for volunteering.

In the first world, people have computers and labor is expensive, so volunteering is apparently quite easy. I've met many people who worked their way around Europe hardly spending a euro. You normally have to be able to commit for a month at least to be taken seriously, though.

In the third world this is not the case. Westerners are viewed as having insanely high living standards and local labor is cheap. It would be cheaper to hire somebody in the village to build your school than it would be to coddle some inexperienced college kids to do the same work (at least this is the belief). So yes, most "volunteer" opportunities end up being more like fundraising ploys, asking for huge fees to cover "room and board".

However, despite this difficulty there is a huge demand for help in all sectors, so it is still possible. I volunteered for three weeks in Ghana, teaching at a poor village school. In the same village I met a midwife who was volunteering in the same way, not through a program, just through some connections she had come across. In Senegal, I met a man and he invited me to volunteer teaching an English class, which I do once a month.

Personally, I do not feel in the least bit altruistic in my volunteer work. Of course once I get to know the kids I come to care about them, but my trip is inherently selfish. When I choose to do volunteer, it's because I want to know the people, know the place, know myself in difficult situations. I do good work and help as much as I can during my time, but it is selfish.

Whether I made a difference, or actually helped? Well, if nothing else those kids now know how tiny Ghana is.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5612/...74a576fa_s.jpgPA180349 by jordan325ic
It took God 6 days to create the world, and me 6 days to paint it. On the 7th day, I rested and drank "Chickbuku Shake Shake International Beer" out of a carton.

As far as actually working for pay, that is more difficult. I do private English tutoring here in Dakar, but it's just enough to cover rent. If you have some sort of desirable speciality AND you speak the local buisiness language fluently AND you can commit to a long stretch of time (1+ year) then you may find something to fund your trip. Otherwise, you're out of luck in the 3rd world. There is no way you can compete with a locals for "unskilled" labor.

I think they would already have the knowledge to that.
You did call it a 'computer lab'.

Those people n that type of work are not stupid, or they would not be called a 'computer lab'.

I see more of a problem of getting the software, than the installation.

Update: I lucked into a job teaching full-time at a bilingual high school in Dakar, making "real" money. I can now save money (albeit not much) for my continuing trip to South Africa. My path to employment was windy but from what I understand linkedin and expat circles is a common way for foreigners to break into the job scene.

At least in Dakar, the work-visa situation looks nearly impossible on paper but once you're on the ground with a contract you find that there are easy work-arounds. Nobody worries about visas here.

Once again, better to have selfish reasons that are not financial. I love Dakar and want to know it better, that little bit of money is not the reason I am staying 8 months.

There's plenty of worthwhile volunteer opportunities out there, as lorraine pointed out. It's just a matter of finding the right fit and putting in the work to find them. It is true that there are a lot of scams out there taking advantage of people's charity though.

helping with community tech centers
 

You might think that but, in fact, no, many local people at these computer labs, or community technology centers, or whatever they might be called, are often unfamiliar with free and open source software, or have heard about it, read about it, but have lots of questions about it. Having seen such computer centers firsthand myself in Kabul and Luxor, among other places, I have seen a real need for in-person guidance about FOSS, security software and, in particular, child safety, and what little guidance I've been able to provide has been welcomed.

Often, these centers are using pirated operating systems and software. When they see that Open Office, LibreOffice, Ubuntu, and various other software are free, powerful, stable and frequently updated, and that it really isn't an offer that's "too good to be true", they often make the switch.

But don't just show up at a computer tech center and announce you're there to help. Talking online before you arrive, sharing your LinkedIn profile, being absolutely clear about how you would like to help, etc. - all that is essential.

It's readily available for download, for free.