Volunteer Global

Read it, review it, love it, hate it -- but it's all free!

Your Totally Awesome Guide to Volunteer Travel features 173 pages of info, including:

• Introduction to volunteer travel - what is it?
• Choosing a program - what's mutually beneficial for you, the organization, and the community?
• General travel - booking a flight, getting your vaccinations, and keeping safe
• Coming home - how can your volunteer experience augment your career and pay for your education?
• Plus an expanded directory (you saw the old one, right?) of 400 international service programs, with information on where they work, what they do, and how to get there

Questions? Comments? Shoot me an email at info@volunteerglobal.com.

I've been apologizing for the lack of updates for the past few posts, so I guess an explanation is in order!
 

First of all, it's only the blog that I haven't been updating regularly -- the interior pages, particularly the full list of volunteer programs and the list of programs by region, have been updated daily. I've added a bunch and taken off a few, so that's all rolling right along :)

This also explains why I've removed the blog from the front page of VG. A lot of people have been calling this site a blog, which is kind of misleading. There are about 900 pages of content on here, ~850 of which are NOT the blog. Because I don't update the blog nearly as often, though, I want you guys to see the pages that get almost all of my love -- so there's a permanent section on the front page now explaining what VG actually is. Cool!

Also, I've neglected the VG blog in favor of finishing up this super great eBook I've been working on for some time. Unless something goes horribly, horribly wrong, the book should be online this Monday, June 21.

On that note, thank you so much to everyone who downloaded the 2010 Directory! I hope it's proven helpful, or at least provided a couple minutes of entertainment. With that said, Monday will be the last day the 2010 Directory will be online as a free download. I've consolidated it into the eBook, and expanded it by ~30 volunteer programs.

Come back Monday -- my extremely poorly titled eBook Your Totally Awesome Guide to Volunteer Travel will be online. Cool!

So you’re traveling abroad for your super awesome volunteer project, and you have people back home that you absolutely, positively must check in with while you’re away. And by “people back home,” I mean, “parents who get really, really worried regardless of how much you travel.” S’ok.

Always check ahead of time with your host group to see how their volunteers get in touch with family and friends. Depending on where you go, you could have easy access to your email or phone, or be in the middle of nowhere and off the grid.

Many volunteer organizations are online at their main, in-country offices. If they aren’t, then see if there are Internet cafes or WiFi hotspots in the host community. For longer projects, volunteers often take weekend trips to the country capital or to another larger city to check their email, update their blogs, or add pictures to their Facebook albums.

Skype can be used either through an Internet connection or with your cell phone. For other wireless plans, check with your current provider on whether there’s coverage in your host community, and what rates they have available. There also are inexpensive cell phones you can buy or rent for the duration of your trip—check groups like STA Travel for their offers. And finally, you can purchase a phone card that will cover the costs of your call for designated lengths of time.

Cool cool! Sorry for the lack of useful updates this month, guys. Most of the work I've done has been on interior pages. So with that said, go take a look at the Big List of volunteer organizations! We're up to 403! And by that, I mean VG lists 403 international volunteer programs with full information about each one, including where they work, what they do, what they're looking for in their volunteers, and how to get there. Go, go, go now!