• Why do I need to pay to volunteer?
• I want to do something like the Peace Corps, but not the Peace Corps. I don’t have two years to dedicate to volunteering, but I still would like to travel and do service work. Is there anything available?
• I am disabled, but I still would love to do service work. Can I?
• I am in high school/junior high school and I would like to volunteer abroad, but my parents won’t let me. What can I do?
• I am in high school and I would like to look at colleges that offer programs in service work. How do I do that?
• Is there really any way I can make a living off of working for human rights or the environment?
• What kinds of employment opportunities are available for service work?
• What kinds of internship opportunities are available for service work?
• Can I receive college credit from volunteer work?
• Is it safe to volunteer in, say, Kenya or South Africa?
• How can I tell which organizations are scams?
• What are volunteer vacations?
• How can I find a graduate school program that will prepare me for service work?
• I heard that people who volunteer find it difficult to get a job later on because they don’t have “real world experience.” What’s up?
• When I am abroad, how will I get my birth control and other medications?
• What parts of the world should I not try to travel to right now?
• I want to study abroad – is there some way I can combine my studies with service work?
• I want to go on a service trip, but I don’t have enough money for it. What can I do?
• How do I get a passport or a visa?
• For which countries do I need a visa?

Why do I need to pay to volunteer?
Many organizations that take volunteers ask them to pay to work. Usually, this is because donations are some of the only means of funding for the organization. For example, a program that takes volunteers to work in Costa Rica tagging and monitoring sea turtles may ask the volunteers to pay around $1,000 per month for their service trip. These expenses can cover the cost of the housing, meals, supplies needed while monitoring the turtles at night, and building maintenance and upkeep.
Sometimes, however, there are organizations that charge an application fee. Not all volunteer organizations are what they seem: some act as middlemen, where they place a volunteer with another program, and ask for a $300 up-front application fee for their own income (and no one knows exactly where the money ends up). The best thing to do when applying to volunteer somewhere is to go directly through the organization that one will be working with. Rather than paying upwards of tens of thousands of dollars to be placed for a month or two in Africa through a flashy website, one should instead look at the organizations with which the placement program is affiliated, and apply through them directly.

I want to do something like the Peace Corps, but not the Peace Corps. I don’t have two years to dedicate to volunteering, but I still would like to travel and do service work. Is there anything available?
If you check out our opportunity listing pages at home and abroad, you will be able to find tons of different programs that recruit volunteers, paid employees, and interns. There are many different programs that let you work within your community, as well as volunteer vacations, where you travel to another country or another place within your own country and do service work for a week or more at a time.

I am disabled, but I still would love to do service work. Can I?
Yes, definitely! Many volunteer, employment, internship, and study abroad programs offer opportunities for disabled individuals to perform service work. One can teach, help with scientific research, and many other activities, depending on the area and ones interests. Most of the organizations’ websites tell whether disabled people can be fit to do the work needed, so you will have to double check before signing up for a program. Sometimes the work needed for a specific program may not be conducive to those with disabilities, like working long hours each day outside, which needs persons with excellent physical condition.

I am in high school/junior high school and I would like to volunteer abroad, but my parents won’t let me. What can I do?
Soon, we will have a section on this website that deals with how to talk to parents about volunteering abroad. There are many opportunities available to junior high and high school students who want to do service work, and you can check them out here and here. Most notably are study abroad programs (where you take classes in another school in another country), alternative breaks (where you spend spring, fall, or winter break in a volunteer program), and family volunteer vacations (where the whole family spends a vacations doing service work).
Also, you can focus on your own community, which may have excellent volunteer programs that are open to young people. If you want to get involved in an international program, you can start a club at your school or in your community, where you focus on global issues and what you can do from home to help.

I am in high school and I would like to look at colleges that offer programs in service work. How do I do that?
We have a list of college search sites available here. Most sites allow you to search for colleges by major as well as what extracurricular activities they offer.
Keep in mind that you do not have to be an international affairs major to work in international affairs. Many volunteers have gone on to be very successful after their service trips, and many of them have had such degrees as diverse as English, economics, horticulture, and journalism.

Is there really any way I can make a living off of working for human rights or the environment?
Definitely! There are many different programs that one can work with, because global issues are just that: global issues. Things like human rights, the environment, and education are of extreme importance, and there is always a need for dedicated people to help work to change the world.
I am not saying that service work is a lucrative business…far from it, actually. But it is definitely possible to make it one’s life work and to turn it into a career. Many of the programs I have listed on the opportunities in the United States and opportunities abroad pages also have employment information.
One common way that people start out with global issue work is through education. Worldwide, there is a huge need for people to teach, and there are many different opportunities to do so. For example, recent college graduates often are recruited to teach English in China, through programs that offer housing and a stipend, allowing the teacher to gain international experience as well as global issue work experience.
The bottom line here would be that one needs to be willing to travel someplace that is very different from one’s own home, and not many people are willing to do this. One also needs to understand that global issues are not something that one should pursue to become rich and famous. They are issues that need to be addressed by dedicated, passionate individuals who believe that they can change the world. It is possible to make a living off of it, but it is difficult to make a ridiculous amount of money off of it.

What kinds of employment opportunities are available for service work?
If you check out the opportunities in the United States and opportunities abroad sections of this site, you can find lots of different organizations that hire employees to work for global issues. Soon I will have a page of employment opportunities available to search for service work. Also, you can search for employment opportunities by type of work. Here is a list of career search sites for both the United States and abroad.

What kinds of internship opportunities are available for service work?
I will have a page on that coming soon, but in the meantime, you can check out the pages I have for volunteer programs in the United States and abroad, which lists lots of internship opportunities as well.

Can I receive college credit from volunteer work?
Sometimes – it depends on the program. If you are volunteering for a summer program, then usually the program will count for college credit. You will need to have it cleared with your professor beforehand though.

Is it safe to volunteer in, say, Kenya or South Africa?
Usually volunteer programs are safe, but one should always be aware of the political and economic situations of the country. If an incident does come up in which there is a war or some kind of natural disaster in that area, then volunteers are to be evacuated. One thing that you should look out for is general travel safety, which you can see on the travel safety section of our website (coming soon). Here is a list of links that allows you to see what you can do to be safe while traveling.

How can I tell which organizations are scams?
Unfortunately, some volunteer programs are not out there to genuinely help, but rather to make money. These usually are the ones that charge an outrageous amount of money for very little volunteer work and for a very short amount of time. For example, if you want to go on a volunteer vacation for two weeks, you should be doing just that: volunteering. If the program guideline says that you will be staying in a five-star resort in a third-world country, and only volunteering at an orphanage for about an hour each day, then it is likely not the best program. Not to say these people are evil, but their emphasis is more on vacationing, not volunteering.
Also, try to cut out the middleman. Many programs offer flashy websites and come up on the first page of Google searches, but these should be pursued with caution. Many of these are actually middlemen that charge for an application fee and an enormous amount of money to stay in a tent in the desert (seriously, $50 a day for a tent? I could camp out at the beach in Key Largo for less than that).
My advice is to check out which organizations these middlemen will place you with, and then contact that organization directly. Usually they have their own websites and will be happy to accommodate you for a much smaller fee.

What are volunteer vacations?
Volunteer vacations are trips on which one can stay with a volunteer organization and work with them to help their cause. They usually range from one week to several months, and they cost about as much as one would spend on a regular vacation.

How can I find a graduate school program that will prepare me for service work?
We have a list of links to college search engines so that you can search for a program by type.

I heard that people who volunteer find it difficult to get a job later on because they don’t have “real world experience.” What’s up?
It is a true complaint among many volunteers that it is difficult to find a job because they are told that they have no “real world experience,” when in fact, they have quite a lot of it. It is frustrating coming back from overseas with up to two years of volunteer experience and feeling like one is the oldest of a pool of recent college graduates who are fresh out of school and ready for work.
The problem with finding a job is that many businesses look for experience like “worked in such-and-such an office in Washington, DC” or “managed high-profile mucky mucks when I was twelve years old.” So it definitely can feel frustrating, but there is hope!
Many organizations offer career fairs that volunteers can attend and talk with employers. For example, if you are a returned Peace Corps Volunteer, you can check out the Peace Corps website to look for career fair information, where employers will specifically look for returned Volunteers to work with them.
Also, try to stay open to the international career field – if you are in the United States, try not to confine yourself to the United States. There is a huge world out there with lots of employment opportunities for people who are willing to take the risk and go somewhere they have never been before (and for international volunteers, this should be right up their alley).
Finally, we have a huge list of career search websites on our own site, which you can view here.

When I am abroad, how will I get my birth control and other medications?
Usually you can contact your doctor and have him or her call your pharmacy so that you can go ahead and pick up all of the prescriptions you will need for the amount of time that you will be abroad. Also, you can have someone pick up the prescriptions for you each month or each week and then mail them to you. Some pharmacies overseas will carry the prescriptions you need, and will most definitely have emergency ones in case you become sick while abroad.

What parts of the world should I not try to travel to right now?
The (department of whatever) website has up-to-date information about what countries are more dangerous than others at the moment.

I want to study abroad – is there some way I can combine my studies with service work?
Soon we will have a list of programs that combines classes with service work, and you will be able to view that and search for opportunities to study abroad and do service work.

I want to go on a service trip, but I don’t have enough money for it. What can I do?
Usually people who go on service trips do not have enough money to pay for it all at once when they apply. So what they do is fundraising. Soon we will have a page dedicated to fundraising and you can get ideas off of there to start paying for your program.

How do I get a passport or a visa?
Here is my page on how to apply for a passport and a visa. The United States Department of State has an in-depth section on how to apply for them as well.

For which countries do I need a visa?
Here is a list of countries for which you will need a visa.