Hotels with Ocean Views VA | "10 Simple Tips for Successful Solo Volunteering"

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It’s week two of my trip to China and I’m pleased to present the second of three guests posts being published while I’m away.
This time we have Shannon O’Donnell who has actively traveled around the world since 2008; she travels slowly and volunteers in small communities along the way. Shannon is author of The Volunteer Traveler’s Handbook—a how-to guide for ethical volunteering. Her travel stories and photography are recorded on her travel blog, A Little Adrift.com.

Hotels with Ocean Views VA

Volunteering abroad has become an increasingly popular activity for travelers as the internet and global communications shed more light on wealth disparities, poverty, and environmental issues facing us all. As a solo traveler interested in giving back on your travels, you’re in a unique position because you can truly lead by your own interests and find a volunteer experience that fits exactly with how you want to spend your trip.
There are countless volunteer experiences out there. Some tours and trips will claim to cater to solo travelers in particular but it would be better to explore within your specific niche interest rather than a specific company. There are a range of great projects with varying levels of facilitation. You simply have to narrow it down, vet the organization, and take the basic safety precautions before you set out.

1. Learn the basics about development and aid issues. Important for every potential volunteer is understanding and adjusting expectations. Before you even begin searching for potential volunteer opportunities, read relevant books about aid and development so you have a better grasp of the core issues you’re trying to address by your volunteer service. For reading and researching, this post on understanding the developing world is a good place to start.

2. Pick a country you feel a connection to already. One of the great benefits of solo travel is that you, alone, are at the helm of your volunteer placement decision. So, perhaps you love a country because your best friend emmigrated from there or you had a childhood dream to travel somewhere? Your strongest personal benefits in international service often come when you pick a volunteer experience in a place that inspires you, or on a topic to which you have a close connection.

3. Read good books. Much of your excitement for volunteering will stem from the wonderful travel books you’ve read over the years. These books share insights into other countries and cultures, and reading about a place you’re about to visit helps you connect more deeply and understand different points of view, cultural norms, and their history. If you need inspiration, this resource lists great travel books for each region and country in the world.

4. Ask your organization a lot of questions. Once you pick a potential volunteer organization, you want to make sure their model for volunteering fits with what you’ve learned about aid and development work. And always ask for a breakdown of any volunteer fees so you know exactly where and how the program fee is used.
Be humble. Your attitude when you arrive and work at your volunteer experience will be the strongest indicator for success on your solo volunteering trip. Arrogance has no place in volunteer work—you are there to learn, support, and lift up other communities.

5. Show up ready to help in any way you can. Set no expectations for what you will do and be ready to offer whatever type of help your volunteer placement needs, even if it is not exactly the way you expected things to be. As a solo volunteer you should have the flexibility to go where they need you and do what they need you to do. As a volunteer you are there to help them, period, so be open to provide the help they actually need once you arrive—needs change and flexibility is a must in volunteering!

6. Make friends and travel the region. Volunteer placements are a perfect way for solo travelers to make new friends and connect with people you might not usually befriend if you had a travel companion. Be open to the new friendships and then use your time off from volunteering to visit local areas of interest. These bonding experiences with your fellow volunteers can become strong, lasting memories.

7. Respect new ideas and differences at your volunteer placement. Some volunteer placements will jolt you out of the familiar as you adjust to new cultural norms, traditions, and ways things get done. Business policies, economies, local governments, and cultural attitudes are very different in some places, so respect other ideologies and be willing to learn new ways of interacting and accomplishing needed tasks.
Fund-raise for your cause once you return home. You owe it to the people and community you worked with to become an evangelist for that cause, and it’s a great way for you to overcome reverse culture shock while sharing the experience with the friends and families you left behind.

8. Be flexible. Though we touched on this in other tips, it really is a huge factor in volunteering—be willing to expect the unexpected. Traveling can be wacky, unpredictable, and stressful and this holds even truer for volunteer travel when you have obligations, expectations, and countless other factors weighing in on the experience. Take the experiences as they come and be willing to accommodate the new realities you face on the road, and at your volunteer placement.

9. There is no surefire recipe for crafting a good-fit volunteer experience but making sure you’ve chosen an ethical organization, abandoned your fixed expectations, and learned a lot about your host country sets the stage for success. Volunteering is not an ideal option for every trip. If you don’t have the time to fully dedicate yourself in a meaningful way on a planned trip it might be best to leave volunteering for the next one.

10. For solo travelers volunteering can be a wonderful way to connect at a deeper and more personal level with the country. You’ll have a structure for your trip, points of contact to help you along the way, and it’s likely you’ll leave with many new friends.