Why Do I Have To Pay To Volunteer-Part 2

In early January, 2009, I wrote a Blog Post providing some reasons people have to pay to volunteer.  Since that post well over 300 people have read it.  Comments have popped up in the last year and even the great people over at Brilliant Trips recently placed it on their own BrilliantTrips Blog site.

On the GeoVisions Website, we have an entire page dedicated to why people have to pay to volunteer.  We were surprised that it is the 8th most requested page on our site.  Since January 1, 2010 that page has been viewed over 4000 times.

That page has been updated with figures from GeoVisions' official 2009 audit.  We have added a couple of pie charts and have tried to make the page more transparent and explaining how we spend your money.  We hope you will become one of the many thousands of viewers to look over the updated Why Do I Have To Pay To Volunteer page on our site.

Can you volunteer abroad and not pay?  Sure you can.  If you go on your own without paying, you will want to:

• Research the project in full
• where are they, exactly
• how long have the been around
• what is sustainable about their project
• how many global volunteers are there at any one time
• how many injuries in the last 2 years
• where do they get their funding
• how are the funds spent
• will they provide references of other global volunteers on site now and who have been there in the last 12 months
• do they have a community impact statement or brief
• how many paid staff are at the project
• do they have a mission statement and goals
• You need health insurance
• NO! The health insurance you have now will not cover you adequately. You need specialized insurance.
• Do not buy only accident insurance...you need health insurance in case of strep throat, food poisoning and other ailments you can encounter on volunteer projects
• Make sure you have repatriation and return insurance. If you become so injured or ill you must return home for treatment, be sure that return trip is covered. And if you die, don't be a further burden on your family. Make sure there are funds to return your remains.
• Are you covered in case YOU injure someone or break an expensive tool or machine?
• You need to be covered for liability. If you damage someone's property, if you cause an accident, if you break a tool or machine and you are not covered you can lose everything you own. Protect yourself and your family.
• You need a backup plan in case your laptop, camera, back pack, passport, money is lost or stolen.
• Check with the airline to make sure of your rights in case you miss your flight or it is canceled or delayed. You might create an issue at the volunteer project and want to be sure of the backup plan.
• Is your accommodation nearby? On site? Safe? Clean? Is the food healthy? Safely stored? Ask for photos and talk to former volunteers about safety and food.
• How close is a doctor or clinic or hospital? Are there emergency phone numbers you can use and your family at home can use?
  
• Make sure you understand the number of hours expected of you to volunteer and make certain you have in writing the type of work you will be doing in advance. It is common to be told you will work with patients at a clinic and wind up stacking heavy boxes most of the time.
• If there is a problem (communication, expectations) who do you go to for resolution?
• If you want to leave early, how do you do that safely?
• Do you receive an orientation? How long does that last? Are you qualified to do the task you are volunteering to do?
• Do they have a website?

GeoVisions has an 8-page document we fill out and use when evaluating any project.  And we use it for ongoing as well as new projects. We suggest you do the same if you're going to do this by yourself and not pay.  Come up with questions you need answered before you commit to volunteer your time. Make sure this is the project for you.  One reason you pay GeoVisions is that we have visited the site already, and we have worked on eight pages of risk management issues to make certain you are safe and the project is everything it is supposed to be.

But flipping the coin to the other side, these would be some real reasons to pay a sending organization, like GeoVisions.  I'm kind of excited now to write Part III!

How about you?  Can you think of items I have left out for your research?  Have you done this before?  If so, can you share your experiences?  Because people are asking everyday, "Why do I have to pay to volunteer?