Volunteering and gap years. A rip off, right? Why should we pay some filthy rich company to work for free on a project in a developing country? Can't we give them the money direct? Positive lobbying and active protesting!...
I have always wanted to do more volunteering abroad. What puts me off, are the numerous companies and charities that are charging people a fortune just to participate, in addition to the cost of food, accomodation and flights. For example, I remember being in my last year of college (of the British kind i.e. before university) and looking to take a gap year, and do some volunteering abroad, only to find most organisations were charging in excess of £2000 excluding accomodation etc.
In the end, I volunteered with an organisation a little closer to home in Greece, on a conservation project and returned a year a later, simply because, rather than charge an exorbitant fee, they ask for a voluntary donation (which I happily gave) and a small administration fee which also includes camping space and training materials (I think it was something like €80).
Recently, I received an e-mail from an international aid-agency (who I won’t name) asking if I’d be interested in taking part in a project in India, at a cost to me of £1500 plus flights and accomodation, so I proceeded to google the details of the project and found that this international company actually had an agreement with a charity based in India, so I e-mail them, and have been offered the chance to volunteer for free. Of course I will make a donation to both the Indian and the international organisations, but that’ll be on my terms - I just refuse to be ripped off just because I want to help!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m quite happy to give charities as much money as I can afford, but surely that should be on my terms? Surely I shouldn’t be charged (a massive amount) to work for free? Of course, these charities are doing a fabulous job, and deserve all the money they can get, but I can’t help but think that in a lot of cases, some individuals are getting quite wealthy out of gap-year students and similar.
More recently, I stumbled accross a this site which I think does a good job at making volunteering abroad much more affordable, which will hopefully encourage more people to do it. They have projects all over the world, starting from as little as £15 per week. Not bad, considering some charge more than a hundred times that.
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