Giving Services going on mission trips?

Question

I was just wondering if anyone knew of any organizations or had a website I could go to that gave details about giving my services or going on mission trips. I really just want to be able to go and travel and help people.

I would prefer something in Latin America, so I could try to learn to speak spanish more fluent, but anywhere would work. It doesn't necessarily have to be with a religious affiliation. I have no trade skills that I know of, but I would like to give my time and service.

thanks :)

Answer 1

We're going to South Africa in July 2008, you can join our group for a trip of a life time.  We will be working with the people living squatter camps in Soweto, just outside Johannesburg.  You can check out the website www.buildthefutureusa.com for more information.

I'm also organizing a group to go to Southern Mexico in January 2009, if you would like to go to a Spanish speaking country.

You have plenty of skills and abilities that can be used to serve others, just having the willingness to want to give your time is an awesome start.

Answer 2

Since you have no work experience and don't speak Spanish, you need to be ready to pay for your experience entirely -- flights, in-country transportation, health insurance, accommodation, food, security, translators, training, staff to create the service opportunities and then to supervise and support you in your service, liaisons with the police and local officials, etc. That will be at least a few thousand dollars.

Organizations that don't charge fees for placing volunteers in the developing world, such as VSO Canada, UN Volunteers and the PeaceCorps, are looking for people who can work (read, write and speak) in a language other than English, who 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. They are looking for 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.

Here is a web site that can help you learn more about the skills and experience desired by long-term placement organizations, or organizations that don't charge volunteers but require volunteers to be highly-skilled, and how you can start to gain such experience locally, wherever you are now. You are never too young nor too old to start engaging in activities and training that will make you a viable candidate for long-term volunteer placement agencies:

http://www.coyotecommunications.com/volu...

The goal of organizations working in poor countries is to give the local people jobs and to keep money local, not to give Westerners a feel-good vacation/experience -- hence why short-term placement agencies (in contrast to the aforementioned) charge unskilled volunteers a fee, or require these volunteers to pay their own way.

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 -- programs where you don't need to have much experience in order to participate, and the placements are just for a few weeks or months:

http://www.volunteerinternational.org/