Volunteer Abroad Stories

Current & Past Volunteer Stories

Want to know what it might be like to volunteer abroad?

Omprakash volunteers have been posting stories, photos and even videos from their time abroad since 2007. We now have an extensive collection of personal stories from volunteers who've worked with our partners abroad. You can browse through the most recent stories below or use the category selection tool to narrow your search. Alternatively click on the Stories tab for each organization we work with to see specific accounts from a particular organization. Be careful - you might lose a couple hours of your day in here! Happy reading.

Volunteer Mision Gaia- Minca Montains!

January 17, 2013

Fundación Misión Gaia, Colombia
Natalie Stewart

I spent two weeks working with Diana and Mision Gaia to help with the current spay and neutering campaign. The area of Minca,and surrounding towns has a population of animals that is growing rapidly with no contorl and there is a lack of vets and medical facilities where the animals can be taken in to be neutered or spayed, or treated for the various diseases they carry such as worms and skin diseases. I jumped on right as the funraising portion was ending but we were able to throw together two events in town: One which we made a homemade Sangria and convinced a local Cafe to let us sell it at one of their events, with live music. The next we hosted a small benefit with another establishment...

Misión Gaia review

January 15, 2013

Fundación Misión Gaia, Colombia
Adam Buzga

I´ve worked with Misión Gaia since 2011 in several capacities...as a chef, teaching vegetarian cooking classes to a rural community of La Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta...as an Engish language advisor and text reviewer in a more administrative capacity....and as a general volunteer during a few spay / neuter campaigns for cats & dogs. All of these experiences have had a wonderful impact on my relationships with different communities & helped me to grow and understand my own capacities as well as helped me to communicate with people of very different backgrounds, skill sets & lives. I can only hope that the people that I´ve worked with and taught have had an equally enriching experience....

A truly enjoyable experience

July 13, 2012

Development Action Awareness Nationwide, India
marie baxani

Volunteering with DAAN was an extremely worthwhile and rewarding use of my time in India. I was able to visit both youth education centers, situated in rural areas of Rajasthan, and taught computer skills and basic English to the children there. The children were very respectful and a pleasure to be around. I also worked on the websites for the organization. A laptop was provided to me, and I had a very comfortable work environment, at the family home, where I was provided with delicious home cooked meals everyday. The owner of the organization, Dr Samvit Audichya, is a truly inspirational person who cares deeply about these village children and is working hard to provide education to them. I learned a lot from Samvit and he was very accommodating...

Memorable Experience

July 11, 2012

Development Action Awareness Nationwide, India
Mohita Kahale

It is my pleasure to write about my experience at Develpement Action Awareness Nationwide,Udaipur,India.Dr.Samvit Audichya ,the founder Director of Development Action Awareness Nationwide is a dedicated and passionate social worker and he infuses the same spirit in the volunteers.He took utmost care to make my stay comfortable and memorable. I taught kids at one of the centers run by Development Action Awareness Nationwide .These children came from socially and economically backward community in a small village -Hawala ,near Udaipur. I taught them English,Math and also gave them general information about Geography,different cultures of the world and technology. The kids were eager to learn and really enjoyed their time spent at the school .Their glowing faces and wide smiles said it all.The school began with a short...

Volunteering- A comparison

January 30, 2013

Shanti Bhavan, India
Carlyn Miller

I have now been at Shanti Bhavan for almost 4 weeks and as I said in my last blog my expectations have certainly been met. I wanted to use this blog to provide a comparison between Shanti Bhavan and the last project I worked at. I arrived in India on November 11th but could not start teaching at Shanti Bhavan until January 5th. I spent 10 days travelling; I went to Mumbai then to Jodhpur before arriving in Jaipur on November 21st. I knew of a project there which was linked with Strathclyde University in Glasgow. Communication was minimal before I arrived, there were a few emails back and forth confirming dates and I was sent a handbook explaining what my role would be. I could have devoted more time...

ITSA Changemakers

January 28, 2013 | 1 comment

Adriana Popa

My decision to postpone my application to graduate school and my sudden decision to go to India for an unspecified amount of time took everyone by surprise. I had never travelled to Asia and had little knowledge about the region, was routinely slammed as “high-maintenance” by my friends and had never approached an educational initiative of the magnitude that my partner organization in India (ITSA) had envisioned. I broke not only many of my personal barriers in India, but together with a dedicated team, dispelled many of the preconceived societal notions about youth leadership, education and social action. Most importantly, I was able to help ITSA enlarge its scope and outreach, sharing its belief that education constitutes a valuable tool of societal change. Our educative mission was aimed at community...

In an other future

January 28, 2013

Asociacion CEPIA, Costa Rica
Stela Bo

Hola from beautiful Costa Rica! Incredible how fast the last five months passed for me, the time I started working for CEPIA.

CEPIA - means Culture, Education, Psychology for Infants and Adolescents and is an costarican non- profit organisation.

We are working with teenagers, kids, adults and whole families with poor backgrounds in lot of villages in Guanacaste.

Let's start five months ago. My first impressions of CEPIA were a little confusing, as I am from Germany and we handle things a little bit different. It was very hard for me to understand that it is really possible for such few people to organize and take care of that many kids and their families, well IT IS POSSIBLE! CEPIA is an very important part of the villages in the area and without CEPIA...

CEPIA summer camp

Marjuri and her new wheelchair

Christmas decoration

Workshop about sexual exploitation

My time with Project Why

January 27, 2013

Project Why, India
Emily Fox

I can not believe that my time with Project Why is quickly coming to an end, I have less than a month left of my 6 month stay and the days are slipping by faster than ever! I think back to before I left America, when I didn’t know if I was going to like India or the Project and 6 months was seeming like such a long time. I look at myself then and I know that I am a different person now, all the lessons I have learned from the Project and the kids I have worked with have changed me forever. Being in India has opened my eyes to so many new things-- food, ideas, religions, etc. All of the staff at Project...

Painting at St.paul orphanage and child neglect school

January 26, 2013

justin whipple

It was exciting traveling to uganda and meeting the orphans i had longed to see for quite a long period of time.we had to teach English to these orphans at St paul orphanage and child Neglect school,an orphanage that is ran by Busoga Volunteers for community Development,a community based organization.the children enjoyed my accent,we painted a 4 block classrom,distributed schoolastic materials and held a cultural show from which some money was raised to buy food for the orphans,this was so exciting.i pray that i get chance to go back and see how this orphanage has transformed.

Thanks to Mr daniel Musota who worked tirelessly to see that everything about my stay uganda was safe.

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St Paul orphanage and Child neglect school Under Busoga Volunteers for Community Development