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If you are looking for a summer job or a gap year, voluntary work abroad may be the perfect way to gain a valuable experience abroad. With a volunteer project you will get professional and personal experience, and improve your career. But an experience abroad will allow you also to learn about another culture and encourage personal development, co-operation, tolerance and open-mindedness.

There are many organizations that will help place you in the perfect work experience job. We will give a list of different organizations throughout this article, focusing on volunteer organizations.

You will find more information on summer jobs, holiday jobs or internship abroad in our other articles on the left column of this page. You will find also details on visa and health insurance in those sections.

What is a volunteer job

Volunteer service is offered by choice - it is not mandated or coerced. It contributes to the well-being of an individual or the community, and is usually coordinated by a non-profit or public sector organization, and in theory it does not pay any salary or wage.

Volunteer work is often equated with unpaid work, and people who contribute their time and energy freely to build a better community don't necessarily get the support systems and recognition they deserve. However regarding people working as volunteer during their summer holiday, they will get accommodation and often a small amount of money for their personal care.

Volunteering in the USA

Camphill Communities

Camphill Communities run volunteer placements throughout the world. Volunteers work in communities with adults with special needs. Camphill Village USA (http://www.camphillvillage.org) works with adults with mental disabilities and asks that volunteers stay for at least six months.
You will be expected to work for 6 days a week and it is usually preferred that you stay for at least one year.

Nobody in Camphill is getting any wages. Each gives the benefit of their work to the community and is supported through the work of others. As a volunteer co-worker you will be given a room of your own, you will have your meals as a member of the household and be supplied with the basic necessities of living.

For those more interested in conservation and cultural work, a number of organisations arrange social work projects, such as Concordia (http://www.concordia-iye.org.uk) which encourages international youth exchange as a mean of promoting personal development, greater cultural awareness and international understanding and enable young people to participate in volunteer projects throughout the world.
Projects last for up to three weeks, in the summer months.

All volunteers are supplied with food and accommodation and are required to pay a fee of 150 USD to register with Concordia.

Activity Projects

Lattitude Global Volunteering (http://www.lattitude.org.uk - formerly Gap Activity Projects) is a not-for-profit organisation, specialising in voluntary work placements overseas for 17-25 year-olds, in a transition year before going on to further education, training or employment.

Many year abroad programs are based around voluntary work and these organised programs will sometimes subsidise some of your costs. These kinds of programs include Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL), schools/caring, environmental work, camps and outdoor education.

Each project is 4-6 months long starting usually in September or March and you can choose to do 2 projects the same year.

Before departure, every volunteer will have to pay the GAP Fee:

• GBP 250 deposit when you accept the project (this is non-refundable)
• GBP 1250 (GBP 1450 for Australia or New Zealand conservation projects) balance due 8 weeks before departure. This could give you over 12 months to save after you have accepted the project.

Volunteers are provided with accommodation, food, and sometime living allowance.

Insurance

Wherever you go, it is recommended to subscribe a travel insurance. It will cover any event that might occure when you are abroad. Morever this is mandatory for a lot of work in "exotic" countries.

We have selected below a series of companies to help you in your choice. Of course you might find others on the Internet.

• Coverworks Worldwide Travel Insurance: Coverworks Travel Insurance was established to specialise in providing dependable and affordable cover, for both the backpacker and for the independent traveller.
• Insure & Go: Cheap cover online for gap years & backpacking, skiing, adventure travel, single trips & annual travel.
• Down Under Insurance: Offers travel insurance to residents in the UK, the USA, Australia & New Zealand.
• Go Travel Insurance: This is a leading provider of online travel insurance for UK & Irish residents (backpackers insurance is about £150 for 1 year in Europe).
• Travel Insurance Online: It can cover UK or US residents from £40/year, depending on the garanties requested.

You might also look at our other articles on Summer Jobs and Internship abroad on the left column of this page.