Searching for volunteering opportunities

Charlotte Stemmer looks for voluntary work which doesn’t break the bank.

A volunteer at the Oxfam Music Shop, Glasgow.

This year’s Christmas holiday was pretty hectic, what with organising a uni snowboarding holiday, catching up with family and friends and revising for the January exams. As well as all this, I spent many hours trawling the Internet in search of the best volunteering opportunities. I plan to make the most of the coming summer before (hopefully!) embarking on postgraduate study in September.

Previously, I have had many fantastic experiences travelling, which have made me appreciate everything I have. I visited a village in the Gambia where people were really eager to show off their newly installed water pump - which saves them hours of walking to get water a day – and it really put things in perspective. So, volunteering appeals to me, as it is a way to help people who aren’t as privileged as I am, whilst learning more about different cultures.

The amount of gap year and volunteering organisations that exist is overwhelming, as can be proved by a simple Google search which brings up 1,000s of results. It soon became obvious that many volunteering opportunities are not cheap and as my overdraft has taken a battering over the last three years I am beginning to lose hope.

To some people the idea that you have to pay to volunteer is unbelievable. I appreciate that by paying a volunteering company you spend less time organising your trip and have support if there is a problem while you are away. However, many of the companies I have looked at charge hundreds of pounds a month and that doesn’t even include flights.

It’s not surprising that volunteering has been recently criticised by the BBC as being only for the privileged few. I would happily work hard and save up this much money if I could guarantee it was only for necessities and that profits would go to people who need it, but with so many companies now marketing themselves as ‘ethical’ it is hard to know which ones are genuine.

So, as a cash-strapped student, I’m going to stick to volunteering opportunities closer to home. Although dreary Sheffield may not seem as exciting as the African wilderness, it’s important not to forget my reason for volunteering which is to help other people.