Voluntariado: por onde começar sua jornada de conservação ambiental
Since I often receive questions about volunteering, I decided to write a brief summary of the tools and websites I use to find positions. I will also share a few helpful tips.
In the beginning, I would have accepted almost any position in a field I'm interested in, such as international development, sustainable transportation, or nature conservation. I browsed sites like Idealist.org, ReliefWeb.int, Aidjobs.org or unjobs.org/organizations, and applied to whatever positions were posted. After a few volunteering trips, my interests narrowed and became more focused. Most of the time, I started by deciding on the topics I wanted to get involved with, such as marine biology or primate conservation, and the dream places I wanted to go to, like Alaska or the Caribbean. After a thorough Google search, I found dozens of organizations to which I sent cold emails with a short introduction, my CV/portfolio, and a link to my LinkedIn page.
Even with experience working for NGOs on several continents, it always takes a lot of work and patience. But, in the end, it's chasing a dream, so I'll never give up. You shouldn't either, even if you have no initial luck. After seven months of trying, I finally got my first unpaid internship, and every time I looked for a volunteering opportunity, it took about a hundred emails and organizations contacted to find a place. Maybe twenty responded; ten of those were automatic responses. Most of the remaining ten didn't work out for budgetary reasons, either on my part or theirs.
The most important things you need are a professional CV, language skills, and perseverance. Of course, you also need a budget. It's not always as expensive as it seems, though. The best organizations, or those in remote locations, often offer free accommodation and sometimes cover food costs. You still have to pay for travel, insurance, vaccines, and everything else, but if you volunteer for at least two to three months and your food and lodging are covered, your expenses will be comparable to what you would spend on rent and other expenses back home. Surely you're missing out on income by not working a paid position, but many of us are willing to make that sacrifice.
There's more to say on this subject, but that's it for this blog post. Feel free to ask any questions, though!
Deixe um comentário