Overseas Volunteering 2009 events
Date / Name of event / Organiser / Location7-8 Feb / Radion International Collection Drive for Thailand / Pan Pacific Hotel Atrium Unit #03-03
28 Feb / Feast @ YEP / NYC-YEP / NACLI
17-18 Mar / 2nd International Conference on Character Development in Service and Experiential Learning / NIE
24-26Mar / Participatory Project Management Workshop / The Foundation for Development Cooperation / Singapore
19-22 May / Workshop on Participatory Project Management for Overseas Community Development / Singapore International Foundation / SIF
20 May / Saving The World - Experiences from Overseas Humanitarian Missions / MENDAKI Club / NVPC
15 Jun /
YEP Phase 3 and Beyond FGD
/ YEP / *Scape Youth Center Level 1 Lab18-19 Jul /
Outdoor Education Symposium
/ Outdoor Education Association, Singapore / MOE Labrador Adventure Centre1 Aug /
Th!nk YEP
/ Youth Expedition Project / *scape Youth Centre31 Oct /
Th!nk YEP
/ Youth Expedition Project / *Scape Youth Centre5 Dec / International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development
9-12 Dec /
The Sri Lanka Experience - A photographic Exhibition
/ B Scene Studios / Speakeasy Bar10 Dec / A Charity Fashion Fest / Habitat for Humanity Singapore / Red Dot Museum
Voluntourism 2009 links
Assessing Voluntourism and Traveler Philanthropy
Write read yet another blog talking about the debate on whether "voluntourism" was good or not, and came up with this image to illustrate her thoughts.
http://futureshifter.ning.com/profiles/blogs/assessing-volunteer-tourism
Making a difference beyond 'voluntourism'
Voluntourism can be a starting point for us to taste and see what life outside of our wealthy bubble is like, but if we truly want to help, we cannot let such short trips abroad be our end point. Rather, we should think of these 'sampler' trips as launch pads for thought and action in the long term about what we can do to effect positive change.
http://www.asiaone.com/Travel/News/Story/A1Story20090423-137073.html
"Volunteering" or "Voluntourism" - who cares! It's how you design it!
In Cambodia, there are many places where you can "volunteer", some paid and some unpaid. Straight up volunteering through one of these volunteer programs implies that you are there to "give" and I have to say, from what I have seen here in Cambodia, sometimes the "givers" are taking a lot more than they are able to give. How many orphanages take volunteers here to "teach English" for a few weeks or a few months? A ton? How many kids get to learn "head shoulders knees and toes" month after month from a new face? You get the point....
http://futureshifter.ning.com/profiles/blogs/volunteering-or-voluntourism
Taking time to volunteer while on tour
Each "voluntourism" trip lasts a few weeks and usually involves offering labour or professional skills. To fund the trip, these volunteers usually raise their own funds or take grants provided by the National Youth Council, if they fulfil certain conditions. Five charity groups The Straits Times spoke to said a steadily increasing number of Singaporeans are keen to lend a helping hand to the less fortunate in other countries.
http://www.asiaone.com/Travel/News/Story/A1Story20090629-151514.html
Be a Proud Shopper Friend - Travellers with a cause
Here's the problem we're having. Shipping in 3rd world countries can be prohibitively expensive and unreliable. A $5 item from Cambodia, for instance, may cost up to $25 to ship to you! We're taking it to a crowd-sourcing initiative to solve the issue, proudly called Proud Shopper Friend. If you're gonna be travelling to Malaysia or Cambodia in next couple of months, you can get involved and do some good! http://www.proudshopperfriend.com/
Volunteer & Conservation Work
STA Travel can help you see the world and learn heaps while you do it. So get out there and enrich your understanding and experience of new places and cultures. Be it doing a voluntary work around the bush in the Outback of Australia or learning another person'sculture and language around the world– your life will change for the better.
http://www.statravel.com.sg/cps/rde/xchg/sg_division_web_live/hs.xsl/working_holiday.htm
Worldchanging Essay: Creating Responsible Voluntourism
Voluntourism is like a festive paper umbrella, stuck in the swirling cocktail of the “small steps” debate. Will switching your light bulbs substitute wide-scale energy policy changes? No. Will playing with a child for a half-day change the fact that there are more than 500,000 orphans in Cambodia? No. Are both actions still better than nothing? Well, that depends on whom you ask. WorldChanging
Development Tourism: Volunteers
It’s easy to read books like Three Cups of Tea and feel inspired and heart-warmed (I was) by the thought of an ordinary citizen making a difference. I wouldn’t diminish even one iota the importance or value of little girls in Khobe having access to education. But I’ll just point out that it took at least two years and three trips to Pakistan for Mortenson (the person telling the story) to figure out what I consider to be the single most elemental concept in development work: listen to the people; let them describe what they want and need. Tales from the Hood blog
Taking time to volunteer while on tour
Charity organisations here are seeing more and more of the likes of Ms Goh Siang Hwee, a 25-year-old financial adviser who takes part in community improvement projects while visiting a country. She has just returned from a 14-day Youth Expedition Project (YEP) to Cambodia, where she spent 10 days building toilets and mending roads and the remaining time touring the country. AsiaOne Travel
eu4ria Inc.
Eu4ria Inc is a service provider catering to a niche group of people. We intend to venture into this relatively new industry, subsequently raising awareness through the implementations of workshops and sending different groups of people to undeveloped and less fortunate places as a means of ‘Volun-tourism’. Facebook group
Volunteering Research 2009 links
Overseas Giving: Should Charity Begin at Home?
In extending a hand overseas with developmental and humanitarian aid, is Singapore
doing what is best for itself and the recipient communities? And what role does its government
have to play in this arena? Dr Tan Chi Chiu weighs in.
http://www.lcsi.smu.edu.sg/downloads/TanChiChiuOverseasGiving.pdf
Need Intelligence
The Beneficiary DB is a user-edited infobase of villages, slums, refugee camps (beneficiaries) which aggregates information about the beneficiaries, their needs, and who is/was involved in helping them. http://needintel.org/wp/
Rallying Together
In 2008, the Institute for Public Policy Research (UK) was commissioned by Raleigh to research the long-term impact of Raleigh's work with young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
http://www.raleighi nternational. org/files/ ippr%20FULL% 20Raleigh% 20with%20front% 20cover.pdf
The Development Set
Ross Coggins wrote about The Development Set back in 1976 (poem below). More than thirty years later, his critique still feels very contemporary (though were he writing today, I am sure that white landcruisers, satellite phones and blackberries would feature somewhere).
http://www.owen.org/blog/116
Medical Relief Mission Handbook
Barely three days into their 12-day trip, the medical relief mission team had to tend to one of their own. A member of the 10-person team from Singapore was found unconscious in his hotel room. He had developed a fever earlier in the day and returned to his room to rest. Today
Teen links non-profits with companies
He doesn't always get taken seriously, but that's not stopping Julian Ang from embarking on charity projects like collecting spectacles for those in Third World countries, and coming up with a Web directory of companies willing to provide services at cost to non-profit organisations. Today Online
Global Causeways
SMU social sciences graduate Benson Tan has chosen to go into non-profit work by setting up his own company Global Causeways to undertake corporate social responsibility work to help poor countries build schools and infrastructure to alleviate poverty. RazorTV, part 1andRazorTV, part 2
Guerilla Guide to Youth Expeditions
This is a project by The Choice Initiative, in collaboration with the Expedition SG network. This guide represents the collective knowledge of some of those who have led or facilitated youth expeditions. Now combined with the Guerilla Guide to Expedition Facilitation and Expedition SG Directory. Scribd
Guidance for organisations sending volunteers overseas
The Volunteer Development Agency has produced a new resource for organisation's whose work involves sending volunteers overseas, as part of our celebrations for the United Nations International Volunteers Day on 5 December. Volunteer Development Agency
Volunteering Overseas 2008 links
SVO Networking Forum – Dec 5
S’pore International Foundation will be celebrating International Volunteer Day 2008 by hosting a Singapore Volunteers Overseas Networking Forum. Lined up are speakers from Japan International Cooperation Agency, Habitat for Humanity, Gleneagles Medical Centre and SIF.
http://www.sif.org.sg/fileadmin/newsletter/svo_networking_forum/edm02.html
A Gift for Every Child (20-28 Dec)
A Gift for Every Child is Connect-Corners inaugural overseas Christmas project. Its primary objective is to spread the joy of Christmas, by giving out a list of items of need to the cyclone-affected orphans of Yangon, Myanmar. www.connectcorners.org/
Radion International expedition (23-30 Dec)Christmas programme for 300 children from the Hmong hilltribe in Phetchabun Thailand.http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=39179548369
Volunteering Overseas 2009 links
Operation Vannakam
Raleigh Society is organising a hospital construction project in the Nilgiri Mountains in India, next year. The expedition will be over two phases, with Phase 1 from 16 May to 5 Jun and Phase 2 from 31 May to 20 Jun. They are looking for experienced volunteers to join as groups leaders and sub-committee ICs. If interested, please email Daniel Tan at daniel.tan@raleigh. org.sg.
http://www.raleigh. org.sg
http://www.facebook .com/group. php?gid=62365141 55
http://www.facebook .com/group. php?gid=20661145 237
Project Orion - Rovering with TurtlesProject Orion is the 2nd Scouts of the World Award (SWA) Voluntary Service Project of the SWA Singapore Base. Led by 9 Rover Scouts from Singapore and Malaysia, the project is set upon the beautiful wetlands and beaches of Setiu, Terengganu. Lasting 16 days from 20th June to 5th July, the team will not only be contributing to the conservation of sea turtles, but will also be involved in mangrove replanting, repair work for the villagers and WWF info centre, English and conservation awareness education, assistance in the local women's cottage industry amongst many others.http://projectorion2009.blogspot.com/
Project Yuksam
Read about the challenges and triumphes of Project Yuksam’s 17 members from SMU on their 3-week eco-tourism mission to Yuksam village in west Sikkim, northeast India.
http://yuksam.wordpress.com/
Independent Batam project (17 Jan)
Kartini Ali, former SIF staff, is sending 1000 reading books for young readers (Malay & English) to Batam, where she’ll be working with the Batam-Singapore Club and Yayasan Keluarga Batam to donate the books to 2 schools there.10-12 volunteers are needed to do catalog and help set-up the books in 2 different libraries. Contact Kartini at for details.
Team Café Diplo (Feb 11-16)In this trip, Team Cafe Diplo volunteers will support Radion International's work in Thailand among the Lao Hmong refugees. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=41573477359
Working in Bhutan
Ms Ong Li Ping, a systems analyst from Singapore, is serving as an SVO with the Human Resource Division of the Royal Civil Service Commission in Thimphu, Bhutan. Her role requires her to study the existing Human Resource Management Information System and conduct a needs assessment to determine how to improve its services. She will also provide technical advice to her counterparts in the Human Resource Division.
http://www.sif.org.sg/en/feature-stories/working-in-bhutan.html
Working in Bangalore
Stanley Goh is serving as aCoordinatorto assist the Indus International School, located in Bangalore, India, in effectively designing and implementing an integrated curriculum and then turning the curriculum into reality by the staff to carry out the curriculum and run the vocational training programme to benefitstudents from surrounding suburbs. These students will learn English, Lifeskills as well as ICT which will give them an edge in future employment opportunities.
http://www.sif.org.sg/en/feature-stories/working-in-bangalore.html
Project Cochin @ India, Kerala (YEP)
Project involving improvement of local sanitation systems, as well as providing basic English literacy skills and Sanitation lessons. E-mail
Project Argali 2
Information session for Dec 2009 Sikkim project on 11 Feb, 7.15pm at Seminar Room 3.8, Lee Kong Chian School of Business, SMU. Contact for details.
My very first experience volunteering in Yogyakarta
As an In-field SVO Chinese Language Trainer, Chong Nim, 46, is working at Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta in Indonesia. He trains its Chinese Language lecturers and teachers in enhancing the Chinese Language programme for undergraduates in the International Relations Department. He also conducts workshops for Chinese Language teachers in Yogyakarta to enhance their teaching competencies. Chong Nim has been in Yogyakarta since June 2008 and will be volunteering there for a year.
http://www.sif.org.sg/en/feature-stories/svo-in-field-volunteer-in-indonesia-part-i-my-very-first-experience-volunteering-in-yogyakarta.html
Summer Teaching Experience in China
Since its inception in 2005, this voluntary programme has been organized by Mr. David Lim, Director of Campus Development Office of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and his wife Mrs. Molly Lim in their personal capacity. It aims to help children aged 8 to 12 in a Fujian Village, China in establishing their confidence in English speaking, social courtesy, etc.
http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/osp/a/a1/summer%20teaching00.html
Video on volunteerism in Asia
Gozde Zehnder, a filmmaker/photographer based in Singapore, has been asked by CNA to pitch a story on volunteerism in Asia, which her team will shoot. Do contact her if you are doing some interesting volunteering work that merits being captured on film, or if you know volunteers in and around Asia who are making a difference. More about Gozde's video work can be found at http://www.freestatesite.com/
Vietnam JUMP 2009
VietnamJUMP 2009 is a community service project that helps building 2 function rooms (musical and medical rooms) for a local kindergarten in Quang Nam, Vietnam. Project will be held from 10th to 24th May 2009. http://vietnamjump.vncnus.net/2009/application.html
Tabitha Housebuilding Trip
House Building in Cambodia on behalf of Tabitha, 23- 29 May 2009. http://12houses.blogspot.com/
The Aasha Build
The Aasha Build is a community service project led by a team of youth that will take place over a period of 14 days, in a village called Devanahalli in the outskirts of Bangalore. The project is being organized in partnership with Habitat for Humanity Singapore and Habitat India, a non-profit organisation dedicated to eliminating the issue of poverty housing.
http://theaashabuild.org/