Gap years/ volunteering overseas/ working abroad

lady_fuschia

Just wondering, has anyone done any of the above, or any other type of careery (i.e. non-holiday) travel. Would you do me a favour and tell me a bit about it including:
- What you did and how you found out about/ organised it?
- How much it cost?
- How did you raise the money to do it?
- Tips for doing it as cheaply as possible?
- Did it act as a help or a hindrance to your career? Did having to leave your job/ live without a regular income cause problems?
- For those of you with families/ partners did you all/ both go? How did the rest of the family deal with the problems of you not earning for a year?
- Any other advice?

It's not something I'm planning for a while (still in debt at the mo!) but something I'd love to do in the mid-term future, although I'm really concerned about how I'd manage it financially, and I just want to start testing the water and get as much info as possible early on to try and decide whether it's worth it. Input from "grown up gappers" particularly welcome!
Thanks

melancholly

are you entirely open to suggestion, or do you have a particular type of thing you want to do - learn a language, do humantarian charity work, environmental charity work, go to any particular part of the world.... etc

novelli

ive just returned from 6 months volunteering in India(in the slums). Was a fab experience, go for it. U can do it very cheaply. Ours was actually a project, which i set up for young people suffering from ADHD to give them the opportunity to volunteer overseas. We did a massive fund raising drive starting over a year before we went to get the funds together. But u could raise funds by doing things like sponsored walks, parachute jumps, all sorts of things. then plan it all once u have the funds.
by the way i have 2 children, one with special needs, they are 22 and 15, and they were both fine with me being away, both visited me out there and did some voluntary work too, was an excellent experience for all.

PM me if u want more details

lady_fuschia

are you entirely open to suggestion, or do you have a particular type of thing you want to do - learn a language, do humantarian charity work, environmental charity work, go to any particular part of the world.... etc

I'm pretty open to suggestion at the moment. I like the idea of doing some form of work with children or teenagers, but still fairly vague on ideas. I speak Spanish and a bit of French, so I suppose that could open up a few more options.

Confused_traveller

i want to do volunteer work abroad as well but have decided to be selfish and travel for 9 months with a friend first.

we have flights booked to LA for 2 wks and then we're headin onto Australia.

I have managed to live debt free for a few years now (i find for me abstinence from any kind of credit cards helps me) but because of this i have no savings as i spend most of my earnings each month

i was in debt a few years ago and i know that i will have to get a loan &/or credit card for going but am worried that i will pick the wrong one and get myself into a situation i can't get myself out of!

does anyone have any suggestions?

Thank you in advance!!

lynzpower

Confused traveller- come over an join me & lady fuscia on the debt free wannabee board- you dont have to be in debt ot join us!

Lady- it really does depend what your skills set is, for one. A mate of mine has just come back from a VSO placement for 2 years in India which was utterly fraught but ultimately enriching.

theres STACKS of info on the web but do be aware. Some "organisations" are companies, tapping more out of you for the shareholders than they give to the projects on the ground. ( i-to-i in particular is shocking PM me if you want to know more)

Its not difficult to simply email a project and offer to voluteer, they will arrange a homestay and you sort out your flights and enough money to tide you over et voila. Ive met loads of people whne travelling who have done this, just rocked up at a project with their police clearance in thier backpack and got on with it. Clearly the amount of money youl need depends how long you want to be away for adn where in the world you are. Youll need less in say Namibia than you would in Japan for example.