Volunteering

The most effective volunteers work with and learn from the community, showing them respect, helping them carry out their own objectives, offering advice and encouragement, and increasing their capacity to develop their own futures. Volunteers should be a positive presence, a source of inspiration and empowerment. Outsiders who impose their own cultural norms or their own agenda, and fail to include local people in decisions, can leave behind disruption and even destruction, and more problems than they solve, making life even tougher for economically poor people.

The following are a few of our favourite resources for planning and preparing to be a responsible volunteer…and planning and preparing a responsible volunteer programme

Questions to ask of any volunteer organisation before you travel with them 

 Volunteering in orphanages and childcare centres, you need to know about child protection 

 Learn more about the ethics of volunteering as a teacher  

 An excellent guide book for responsible volunteering 

 Better volunteering Facebook 

Best practice guidelines for organisations looking to recruit international volunteers