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Six Ways Volunteering can Make you a Better Person

December 3, 2015 by Rosemary

Maria Alfonso from Spain writes..

Orphanage in Bangkok
Orphanage in Bangkok

My personal volunteering experience, I come up with the conclusion that volunteering travel makes you a responsible person rather than JUST travel.

How Volunteering Abroad Made Me A Responsible Person – A Better Person….

1. You become much more independent than you ever were

Gone are the days when you used to remain dependent on any of your friends to tag along with you for that long awaited expedition, and had to cancel if they backed out. The first thing I found improvised with myself is that I can make independent decisions, whether big or small, and realize what is good or bad for me.

2. You start respecting time and punctuality

BangkokPutting the alarm on snooze to take that extra 10 minutes nap, using that will be there in 5 minutes’ for an already 20 minutes late meeting, or procrastinating every second thing will no more be a part of my life. I soon realized how important and valuable is time, especially someone else’s, and how beneficial it can be to be punctual.

3. You understand the importance of smallest of resources available

Since several volunteer abroad programs are located in remote areas of developing and/or underdeveloped countries, it is only obvious to find limited resources during your project. However, with time, you cope up with the shorthand of all such resources; such as water, electricity, food, transportation, and more, and make the most of whatever is available. The same habit, then, not only follows you back home, but remains with you for eternity. You avoid wasting water while taking a shower, or washing your car, or in any other form. You stop wasting electricity by switching off the lights/fans/etc. in the room which no one is using, and so on.

4. You take measured risk and contemplate situations before reacting

There is a difference between being confident and, idiotically confident and over-confident. While volunteering abroad you face different kinds of challenges that makes you learn a lot about how to handle a tricky situation and to come out from a circle of conundrums; If need be. Being patient about situations and reacting only after measuring all aspects helped me a lot to handle situations during my volunteering trip.

5. You know the ways and situations where you can save money

It is not being miser to save money where you actually can without compromising on your comfort, time, and efforts. You may own your personal drive back home, but while volunteering abroad, volunteers break into the habit of taking public transport to arrive at their project location and back to their accommodation. Not that cabs aren’t available at the volunteering destination, but this makes for a more convenient and cheaper way to commute. Value of money, and what’s worth spending, and how much, is something that you will learn after returning from your program.

6. You educate others and spread the word

Lastly, but equally important and beneficial as all the above facts is ‘making others aware’. You have just come back from one of the most important and meaningful sojourns of your life, and you cannot be more excited to share the experience with your relatives, neighbors, friends, and family. You have learnt a lot from your travel time abroad and now you want the people to also learn and follow certain basic steps to make the society a better place to live in.

Volunteering SolutionsVolunteering Solutions gave me one such opportunity to Volunteer abroad and help to bring changes not just in myself, but other several lives.

More on Volunteering…

Doing good while travelling? What’s wrong with voluntourism?

Doing good while travelling? What’s wrong with voluntourism?

I walk along the brown Thu Bon river,in the  golden beauty of the UNESCO World Heritage town of Hoi An. I skirt the groups of Japanese tourists in traditional dress, Vietnamese women slender in white Ao Dai, and older women enticing me on to their brilliantly painted boats. I am neither tempted nor diverted: my […]

Being a Valuable Volunteer

Being a Valuable Volunteer

Here are some resources for those wondering if they should volunteer…. Volunteer Tourism has taken off in the last 10 years.  I set  up a page of links to Volunteer Tourism Projects on my Women Travel Website  However, someone recently asked me about whether they were all good or worthwhile projects – a very good question.  So […]

Volunteer Travel and Meet Someone LIke Ngima Doma

Volunteer Travel and Meet Someone LIke Ngima Doma

Volunteer Travel is a growing sector in the  Travel Industry – Our Women Travel website tries to keep an up to date listing of Volunteer Networks, here us a snippet from one of them Edge of Seven to celebrate International Womens Day. Ngima Doma is just one woman who is walking testament to the trength […]

The International Women’s Day`s flag to the Roof of Africa

The International Women’s Day`s flag to the Roof of Africa

Spread the word – people should value the girls’ education all over the world Please help us any way you can to collect 10,000 women’s names for our flag that we want to take to the peak of Kilimanjaro on March 8th to celebrate the International Women’s Day. With this message and this flag we […]

Volunteering with Special Needs Students in Costa Rica

Volunteering with Special Needs Students in Costa Rica

As a female nursing student from North Carolina who had never before traveled outside of the country, I was excited – and a little bit nervous – about my first trip abroad. I am studying to become a developmental disability nurse, so I chose to volunteer abroad in the special needs schools in San Ramon, […]

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Filed Under: Volunteering

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