How to Live Your Dream of Volunteering Overseas


	Every month, VolunteerOverseas.org will feature one of the eighty volunteer organizations profiled in the book. Profiles include facts as well as evaluations based on our six years of research in over 25 countries. Visions in Action 2710 Ontario Rd., NW Washington, DC 20009 phone: 202-625-7402 fax: 202-625-2353 www.visionsinaction.org visions@visionsinaction.org My time in South Africa was among the most stimulating, interesting times of my life. As a Visions volunteer, I represented an organization with values that matched my own. The job and home-stay gave me a great entry into life in South Africa. -- Carol Gales, volunteer, South Africa Countries where volunteers are placed Burkina Faso, Liberia, Mexico, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe Field(s) of work Volunteers work as interns with local non-governmental organizations in a range of fields including agriculture, childrenss issues, environment, human rights, education, housing, health care, family planning, refugee relief, journalism/media, and small business development. Requirements or special skills necessary Volunteers must be at least twenty years old with a college degree or equivalent work experience. Visions prefers volunteers who speak French (for Burkina Faso) or Spanish (for Mexico), but many volunteers we spoke with in Mexico were not yet proficient in Spanish. Visions accepts married couples as volunteers and can arrange for them to room together. Unmarried couples are also accepted as volunteers, but there is no guarantee of a room together. Duration and dates Programs last six months to one year. Visions has six-month programs in Liberia, Mexico, and South Africa, and one-year programs in Uganda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Burkina Faso. Volunteers who will work in South Africa, Liberia, and Mexico depart in January or July, July for Tanzania, January for Zimbabwe, September for Uganda, and October for Burkina Faso. Training while overseas lasts five months for long-term volunteers. What volunteers pay and what they receive Program fees, ranging from $3,800 to $4,500, cover housing expenses, medical insurance, language instruction, orientation, home-stay, some in-country support, and a small stipend during service. Partial scholarships are available to people who volunteer in the DC office. Airfare is not included in the program fee. Visions provides fundraising advice and support to volunteers who need it. Typical volunteer responsibilities The type of work a volunteer does depends on the needs of the local organization. Tasks include writing proposals and articles, editing reports, doing research, working with children, facilitating workshops, teaching, fundraising, and photojournalism. Number of volunteers sent annually 43 (2000) Age range 20-60+ Typical age 27 How to apply Request an application from the office or print one from the website. Enclose a $45 application fee and two letters of recommendation with the application. Stated mission "Visions was founded out of the conviction that a community of self-reliant volunteers committed to social justice can make a difference in the developing world by working closely with grassroots organizations." History Visions in Action was founded in 1988 by Shaun Skelton, after a trip to Kenya. In Kenya, Shaun had been inspired by community-based organizations, doing great things with limited resources, and saw that the groups welcomed qualified volunteers. He knew that many people in the U.S. wanted to volunteer. Thus Visions was born as an intermediary or matchmaking organization to link volunteers with dynamic NGOs in a variety of fields. Observations and commentary Visions in Action is distinguished by its explicit commitment to social justice and the quality of some of the partner organizations with which volunteers are placed. After an in-country orientation, volunteers are interviewed by organizations that match their interests. This approach both allows volunteers to understand more about an organization before accepting an assignment and also gives the organization the opportunity to learn about the volunteers before making a decision to host them. As one host organization spokesperson said, "The interview process helps make sure both sides are happy." Visions' greatest asset is its network of partner organizations with which volunteers work. These partner NGOs include groups such as South Africa's Weekly Mail, the Kilimanjaro Women's Rights Organization, the Ugandan Foundation for Human Rights Initiative, and Mexico's Metodos Consultora. Visions has experience finding volunteers placements that suit their interests; they can even find placements in specialized fields such as journalism and human rights. Most volunteers feel that they learn a great deal from their placements and at the same time make genuine contributions to their host communities. Because the partners are mostly local organizations, volunteers gain an insider's perspective on local culture, politics, and economics. The match, however, does not always work. Volunteers with small organizations sometimes feel that they are not given enough supervision or that the organization does not know how to fully utilize them. Visions, we were told, makes it clear to its partner organizations that volunteers are not secretaries. Most volunteers told us that they received meaningful assignments. If the match does not work, however, volunteers can change assignments. In most countries, volunteers live together with other volunteers in a group housing situation, and in some countries such as Tanzania, volunteers can choose to live in a group house, with a host family, or independently. Group housing is a great way for volunteers to network and share ideas but some find the interpersonal issues that arise between volunteers to be challenging. Some volunteers feel that group housing isolates them from the local community and does not immerse them in the local language. The program does include a week-long home-stay with a rural family as part of the orientation. Some volunteers wanted to stay longer with their host family; others felt that group housing was best for them because of the support volunteers provided for one another and the comfort they found in returning each night to people who spoke English. Volunteers give the Visions' orientation good reviews. The orientation lasts approximately three-and-a-half-weeks. It consists of two-and-a-half weeks of education on the culture and history of the host country, study of the local language, and the one-week rural home-stay in which volunteers participate in community activities. In Mexico, Visions volunteers told us that the lectures were excellent and that the speakers were animated and knowledgeable. In the first lecture speakers discussed the lives of campesinos, the second day the history of Mexico, the third politics, and the fourth issues such as machismo and safety. There were a few hours of Spanish instruction each day. The instruction, however, did not work for all volunteers. Teachers did not provide a review of Spanish grammar and classes were not grouped by Spanish level, and therefore volunteers at advanced levels got less out of the sessions. Most Visions volunteers felt that Visions gave them an experience that would have been difficult to arrange themselves. Visions helped them find appropriate organizations to work with, housing, and provided them with an orientation to living in the country. For these reasons alone they felt they had received their money's worth. The knowledge that Visions is available to help volunteers with problems gives the parents of volunteers a sense of security they would not have if their children had traveled alone. "If I came here with another organization," said Shonbe Sharp, a Visions volunteer in Zimbabwe, "I could have lived in Zimbabwe for three years and never have had the experience I had during the home-stay in a low-income urban area." Volunteers we spoke with in Mexico and Africa complained that they had to fight tooth and nail with Visions staff for the expected financial assistance that, after all, comes out of the program fees paid up front. Despite Visions' promise that all apartments would be fully furnished, for example, some volunteers said their apartments were handed over to them lacking the most basic amenities. One volunteer in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, told us that there was no closet or dresser in her apartment when she moved in. After much discussion, Visions said they would split the cost of a dresser. After further discussion Visions agreed to pay the full cost of the dresser, but when it arrived it was clear Visions had bought the cheapest dresser on the market. Another volunteer told us that it took a long time for Visions to concede to fumigating an infested apartment. Volunteers reportedly wind up paying for most of the items in their apartments, from utensils to furniture. Some volunteers suggested that Visions is not well funded and therefore cannot afford to provide volunteers with the material support they request; others feel that Visions is well funded and wonder what their fees are going toward. Most of the volunteers we spoke with in Mexico felt as if the Washington, DC, office was worlds away. They felt virtually no support from headquarters staff while in the field. Pre-departure support received mixed reviews. Most of the volunteers we spoke with in Oaxaca were pleased with their in-country staff. Some volunteers in South Africa, however, were not pleased with the level of in-country support. Visions headquarters claims that they have improved both communications with and support for volunteers, especially in Mexico, its newest program. Visions does not conduct evaluations of volunteers or its host organizations' projects, although volunteers are required to write quarterly reports in which they evaluate themselves and their projects. Some volunteers felt that evaluations of themselves by others would likely be more honest. Some also felt uncomfortable with evaluating their organizations. Volunteers also complained that they had not received any feedback from headquarters concerning their reports. In addition to the quarterly reports, volunteers complete evaluations at the end of their term. They turn these reports in to the very people they evaluate. One volunteer told us that a staff member whom she had given a low score confronted her. We recommend that Visions review and improve its evaluation procedures. A number of volunteers stay in-country after completing their period with Visions, sometimes with paid jobs at the same organizations in which they volunteered. Some find that the Visions experience gives them a base and a network they can use to find other paid employment. Examples include Polly Dewhirst, who stayed in South Africa as a researcher at the Center for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, and Dana Starr, who stayed in Burkina Faso as director of the Rural Agricultural Training Center. Returned Visions volunteers are among the more active we have encountered. Volunteers are asked to do at least one presentation upon returning but are not given much support in preparing this presentation. Some volunteers have taken the initiative to write newspaper articles. Kendall Hunter wrote a book, Black Taxi, about her experience in South Africa; Amy Maki made a video titled "Aftermath of Apartheid" about her experience as a volunteer in Johannesburg. In addition to its overseas programs, Visions hosts the Working for Global Justice Conference in the Washington, DC, area. The event includes panels, workshops, and presentations with hundreds of returned volunteers and individuals working in various sectors of the international field. The conference is a place for returned volunteers to network and would-be volunteers to learn about their options. The conference features international justice issues like the campaign to ban landmines or the movement for a free Tibet, and also provides students with a chance to build skills for bringing international issues to their campus. Visions accepts applicants with varying degrees of experience and expertise and provides opportunities to work side by side with local people promoting social justice. While resources are modest and internal management structures often spread thin, Visions does provide meaningful support to some progressive partner organizations overseas while giving volunteers a chance to learn and contribute in the area of their choosing. Visions is a good choice for people with a commitment to social justice who want some support but can also function well independently. We do not recommend Visions for people who want a consistently high level of support.