ANY ADVICE ON VOLUNTEERING abroad?

[sophie_cheeks]

hi ,

anyone got any advice on volunteering in africa? i have been granted unpaied leave for 3-4 months from my current job as an RN on a cardiac unit in the UK... i want to work in africa and im ready to start planning my trip for around jan time. what i am finding difficult is the huge amount of companies that you can travel with (most of them charging a fee toward the charity for your attendance) can any one recomend a charity i can go with...i have been looking at RIPPLE AFRICA in malwi ....but its all so confusing..i just want to go and help...but of course im on quite a budget! i have looked at MERLIN and MSF and EMERGENCEY.org but they generaly require more expereince and are acutual jobs rather than volunteer placements.... i also dont want to be stuck in an gap year type expereince either.. i want to be in the community and/or hospitals helping as much as i can.

can anyone help to guide me in the right direction???

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

Have you posted this in the international forum? You may have luck there too...

http://tinyurl.com/4y58qjc (i use let me google that for you, it turns up grat results)

[Jenni811, RN]

Did you look at nursing schools?? A lot of nursing schools have programs to send their students to study abroad in places like Africa. Our school offered them in Africa, Japan and Belize.

We had nurses that would travel with us and our instructor incase we had any questions. they would help us out because the instructor couldn't be there all the time.

Your not acting as a chaperone because these are adults in college, but just a mentor.

[AnnieSnodz]

I volunteered in Tanzania, Africa just as a student nurse with Cross Cultural solutions. Best and most rewarding thing I have ever done with my life. They offer cultural classes as well as providing a supporting environment. http://tinyurl.com/ccdh3r :)