Monday 25 July 2016

Some Ways On How To Volunteer In Developing Countries

By Dorothy Cook


Developing countries are still grappling with a myriad of challenges that affect many sectors. These include healthcare, education, social and environmental among others. At the same time, tremendous growth has led to the emergence of a vibrant corporate sector involving indigenous companies as well as multinationals. As can be seen, there are many areas in which you can plug in if you are planning to volunteer in developing countries.

If you are passionate about volunteering, there are two ways you can use to secure a position. One of them is where you travel to the country of your choice and make applications to government and non-governmental organizations. This may be quite challenging especially if you are traveling to the country for the first time. The other option is to apply to an organization dealing with the placement of volunteers back at home and traveling only after a position has been secured.

The globalization that has been taking place in many places all over the world has presented newer challenges to professionals. Regardless of what you are involved with, you are bound to deal with clients from very diverse backgrounds particularly if you are working in a large cosmopolitan city. One of the areas in which this has become evident is in healthcare provision. There is a need to travel and familiarize oneself with conditions prevalent in other parts of the world.

Professionals and specialists can make a huge impact even if they were to offer their time for a short period of time. Healthcare professionals have numerous opportunities for volunteering. Most of rural parts of Africa have very few healthcare professionals in spite of a heavy disease burden brought about by diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDS. Doctors of all specializations, nurses and physiotherapists are all in great demand.

If you are a trainer in healthcare provision then you are bound to get numerous invitations especially in the rural parts where a good number of healthcare providers are semi-skilled. Since well-equipped hospitals are quite few, basic lifesaving skills are a must-have for most, if not all healthcare professionals. Medical disciplines for which constant training is usually needed include obstetrics, pediatrics and trauma.

The demand for qualified teachers is still quite high in many countries of Asia and Africa. Although the number of school going students is increasing every year, that of instructors is still quite low. Many of the teachers find it a tremendous challenge to teach the large number of students without adequate instructional materials. Volunteer teachers are almost assured of placement due to this constant need. Some of the subjects where help may be needed include science, mathematics and music among others.

The conditions of living for the majority of the population in these countries are still not ideal. As a matter of fact, many citizens are housed in substandard houses in slums. Levels of unemployment are very high and so are social evils such as crime and gender based violence. Social workers who can volunteer to work within these communities can create a huge impact.

Volunteering has many benefits regardless of the duration of time involved. The most important among them is the fact that one gets an opportunity to contribute to the less fortunate and contribute to a better world in their own small way. Another benefit is that they will get international exposure in their level of specialization which will help them become even better at what they do.




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