Can I volunteer with my friend?

Re. Partnering Volunteers
We completely understand why you might feel apprehensive about heading overseas on your own and this is why we try to partner all of our summer short term volunteers. We also try to arrange things so that it’s small groups of volunteers starting on the same date and a number of you can then travel out and receiving your in-country induction together.

Re. Volunteering with a friend
Past experience has repeatedly show us that those people that we place together (following our own criteria) get on with one another exceptionally well and have a far better experience overseas than those placed with an existing ‘friend‘.

There is something about embrassing the new experience with another volunteer that you’re just getting to know and build a friendship with (that you also get to meet at training before heading overseas) that brings volunteer partners together. Existing friendships tend to be put under a great deal of strain as people often behave differently when placed in unfamiliar environments and this frequently results in unsupportive or tense pairings.

For this reason we don’t guarantee that we’ll place existing friends together before we’ve had a chance to interview both individuals. I must stress that we do regularly place friends together, however, we feel that we need to be able to make the best decision for all concerned and sometimes that means placing you with another volunteer.

If you have concerns about being partnered with someone you don’t (yet) know then please do get in contact us and we’ll put you in touch with a past volunteer who can discuss their experience with you…