FAQs and Help

Voluntary work is not necessarily unpaid work. Some organisations do give stipends, salaries, room & board etc. However, to receive a salary, you must have a specific qualification, such as being a doctor, nurse, engineer etc, with at least two years relevant work experience in that field. Salaries are only allowances which are based on the local cost of living, and therefore, which cover your living expenses. With these organisations, volunteers are expected to give a minimum commitment of at least two years. Along with a monthly allowance, travel expenses and insurance costs are also paid for. Please note though, the competition is very high for places and applications are very lengthy. However, for the majority of other organisations which are usually non-profit organisations, NGOs, charities or foundations, they are not in the position to pay for volunteers, and therefore request volunteers to be self-funded.

Most organisations provide you with room & board in exchange for work, however, this can be costly for them, and, depending on their policies, volunteers usually have to contribute towards these costs. Obviously, this varies from country to country. In India, for example, this contribution can be £100-200 per month. In Costa Rica, for example, volunteers may be asked to pay £200-400 for the whole month. Taking into consideration your length of stay, short term volunteers are expected to contribute more, and less if you are staying for a long term period. All in all, volunteering does require an investment and a sacrifice of time and money on behalf of the volunteer. However, in return, you will receive a practical experience in the field and an education, which is invaluable for career and personal development. In addition, do not forget that some local organisations are not funded, therefore, they do not have the means to pay for your accommodation and food.  So, don't be surprised if you have to make a contribution.

 

Yes, volunteers pay for their own transportation such as airline tickets. Most organisations provide you with ground transportation to and from the work stations and/or airport pickup and drop off.

 

Many organisations require special qualifications; this is a must for paid work. However, if you are motivated and willing to work as a self-funded volunteer, you can also find many other interesting projects that will enable you to acquire a practical experience, without specific skills.

 

WorkingAbroad researches, compiles and sends the documentation to you by post or e-mail within 15 days.

 

There are no age limits, however, the minimum recommended age is 18 for working and travelling in the third world countries. Some organisations do, however, require volunteers to be over 20 years old.

 

Yes, with many organisations, there are possibilities for couples to apply for the same projects.  With longer term commitments, application procedures for couples can take longer and if you wish to work together, then your qualifications should be somewhat related. These questions should be verified with each individual organisation.

 

In general, adults with children are not ideal for volunteer organisations, due to the fact that the children are usually under 18, and need to be taken care of, and cannot carry out work and bear project responsibilities, hence the parents cannot fully commit to the work either.  However, if you are really keen to bring your children with you, you would need to contact each organisation individually to see if it would be possible - unfortunately we cannot help you with this.

 

The organisations and projects that we provide information on in our WorkingAbroad Personalised Reports are looking for volunteers, therefore, we do not place you (except on our own projects). Volunteers are therefore, responsible for contacting and applying to organisations themselves.

 

WorkingAbroad is principally, a service which researches and compiles documentation for volunteers on possibilities all throughout the world. This can mean, volunteering with local grassroots organisations and also the well established NGOs. In other words, WorkingAbroad works full time researching and contacting new organisations, in order to provide a comprehensive information service on a wide variety of possibilities for each volunteer. In addition, WorkingAbroad is an independent body, and can only keep this service running through volunteer support.

 

This is a general list that you can use as a reference only.

 

Upon receipt of your application for one of our Projects, we will need to assess your application, contact your references and liaise with our Project Managers.  This procedure can take anything from a few days up to a maximum of two weeks, providing we have been furnished with correct contact details for references and so on.

 

Your deposit is paid as a commitment on your behalf that you want to secure your place on your project of choice.  However, we do not debit your card or cash your cheque of your deposit payment until we can confirm that you have been accepted on the programme - so at that point, then your deposit is retained.  If after this point, you decide to cancel your participation on the project for whatever reasons, then your deposit is lost.  However, if we are unable to offer you a position on the project, your deposit is returned in full (cheque is not cashed, card is not debited).  For other questions on deposits and payments, please refer to the Terms and Conditions sections under each Project application.

 

In most cases, we accept couples for all of our projects.  Of course, this must be decided on a case by case basis, but as a general rule, we are open to joint applications.  Please bear in mind that if you are applying as a couple to join the same project, that you would need to submit 2 separate applications and pay 2 separate deposits.

 

Again as discussed above, families are not in general accepted if you wish to bring children under the age of 18 yrs.  However, for the Kan Tan Project in Costa Rica, we would be willing to accept families with young children if suitable - please email Victoria.McNeil@workingabroad.com directly about this, as we are able to house families with other families with small children in the community, and as this project is very flexible with dates, families can come for short periods of time.