What are the best volunteer overseas organisations?

Question

I'm planning on taking a year off between degrees next year and am looking into doing some volunteer work overseas. I was wondering what people's experiences were with various organisations, who you'd recommend etc. (I live in Australia by the way so I'm particularly interested in organisations that are based here or have a branch here.)

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

If you have a great deal of expertise that can be applied in developing countries, and particularly if you can work in a language other than English, you can look into Australian Volunteers International

http://www.australianvolunteers.com/

It is Australia's version of the PeaceCorps or England's VSO.

England's VSO allows applicants from other countries to apply to become VSO's

http://www.vso.org.uk/

There's also UN Volunteers, but this is even more competitive than the aforementioned, and the average age of a UNV is 38 (they are looking for very highly experienced people)

http://www.unvolunteers.org

If you don't have the professional experience and training necessary to make the cut for either of these organizations, then you can look into paying for a short-term assignment.

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/