VOLUNTEERS in India FANTASTIC

– but every once in awhile…….

I don’t know what One! International would do without our wonderful volunteers on both sides of the world.

All of the work done in Canada is done by volunteers. Volunteers in Canada help with a wide variety of functions, but primarily in the area of Fundraising and Marketing. Without a large group of committed people helping One! International we would not be able to put on our annual Gala which helps us raise almost ¼ of our yearly budget.

We have always had volunteers in India to help out at the two schools. Volunteers come from all over the world, for various periods of time – 2 weeks to 1 year. We have had volunteers from: UK, Australia, Holland, Sweden, Malaysia, Austria, Slovenia, Belgium, Germany, Mexico, France, Spain, Poland, India, United States and Canada – and more.

Volunteers help out at the school with: teaching, skill development, administration, sports, arts, loving “our” children, etcetera.

The international volunteer community is changing as more and more agencies are charging – in many cases – a great deal of money for the opportunity of volunteering with their organization. We are being told that many of the opportunities resemble more of a holiday with the volunteer experience being secondary.

Our philosophy has always been that if people are willing to commit to spending 8 hours a day working with “our children”, than we have some responsible for contributing to housing and food, depending on the situation.

We do not consider volunteering with One! International to be a holiday. Rather it is an opportunity to get to know a country, a city, a group of people who do not have social benefits or a way to better their circumstances. The main opportunity is to work with “slum” children, making a difference, and providing them with options for a better future.

The great majority of the volunteers we have had over the last nine years have been wonderful.
Our children in India look forward to meeting new people from all over the world who give them love and attention, and help them to learn the skills which give them more options for the future.

Many of the volunteers continue to assist One! International in their home countries by: monetary donations, connections with schools and organizations, promoting the volunteer experience, having mini fundraisers such as book drives and races, and generally giving moral support to the work being done in Mumbai.

But, every once in awhile…………

Before the volunteer goes to India we try to prepare them as best we can for the volunteer experience. We tell them that the accommodation is co-ed, and the meals that are provided are basic Indian vegetarian. We have an “always draft” volunteer manual which covers most of the things to take into account when volunteering in India. We expect that the volunteer will have done research on their own, and will not be expecting five star accommodations. After all – we are not charging them for the opportunity to work with our children.

Recently we had a volunteer from Canada who was scheduled to work with the children for one month. The individual had experience with India. After less than one week the individual declared that the “accommodation was inadequate” and left to visit family in other parts of India.

Fortunately this happens rarely.
It takes many hours to organize the volunteer requests so that – as far as it is possible – there are 4-5 volunteers to help out with the children at the schools on a regular basis. When something like this does happen, it disrupts the school schedule, limits the number of people available to work with the children; but more importantly, it means that another potential volunteer was unable to have a volunteer position at that time. The very selfish act resulted in a loss for the children, a loss for a potential volunteer who would have committed to the experience, and, of course, frustration for myself as Volunteer Coordinator.