What can a volunteer do in a First Aid Hospital?

Any legitimate reputable organizations that allow individuals to do volunteer work abroad for room and board?

• I always dreamed of going to Nepal or Tibet but never had the opportunity or money to go. I hit a phase in my life where my life is falling apart and I thought this was a better opportunity than ever for me to have a reset button in life. Originally I was going to sell all of my belongings and fly out there and hope that I can start a new life and have it work out. I fear that it doesn't work out and I will be broke and/or homeless with no where to go. I then got an idea that I will find some sort of charity/relief/aid work in this area or perhaps other places i dreamed of going such as Peru. I was wondering if anyone can give any SPECIFIC insight on how to get involved in perusing this dream without risking: getting scammed getting trapped in a terrible position getting involved in some illegitimate cause being taken advantage of because I am an outsider not being able to take advantage of this opportunity or anything similar to these I know there's a lot of websites that offer similar stuff but I know that a lot of the scam ones take money for someone in exchange for a promise that isn't kept. I've also heard horror stories about Americans getting endangered or put in situations they did not want to be in. Can anyone help point me in a direction as far as how to find opportunities like this, agencies or company's that can help me do this, people that do or have done things like this or any advice or assistance that would help me through the process. I am not looking for something I will find on the first page of Google-ING "volunteer work Tibet" I am looking for concrete direct insight that will help make this happen for me sooner rather than later. Ideally I would either like to do work in a place where if I end up liking it I can decide to live there or if I dislike it, have the opportunity to go somewhere else and get involved there. Maybe I can spend 1 month doing relief work somewhere in Asia, another month in Africa and another in South America but I am open to ideas and suggestions. If I had it my way I would find a place in Nepal or Tibet that would pay for my flight, take care of a visa, provide a roof over my head, food for the table and MAYBE a few dollars to allow me to experience the culture or use for basic life needs such as clothes, basic furniture and maybe once in a while money for recreation. I feel this would be a great way to get my feet wet in a new culture and if I like it have an opportunity to jump in. Thanks in advance for reading this and hopefully thanks again for the good insight. PLEASE do not say there is a best answer, I would like to hear as many opinions as possible and the more help I can read the more advice i can take advantage of

• Answer:

  Hey there, You will not be able to find an organization that will pay for your flight, visa, housing, food, and spending allowance as you are doing **VOLUNTEER** work. You haven't actually specified what kind of work you want to be doing when you go abroad. Teaching English? Building Homes? Taking care of Children? Working at hotels? Professional internships? Basically, in order to avoid all the dangerous situations that you have listed, you need to go through a third party agency that will provide you a safety net and organize all the things for you like (pre-departure support, airport pick up, housing, food, orientation, training, etc.). You cannot ask organizations in developing countries to pay you (an un-trained foreigner) to come work for them when they can hire tons of locals who know their language, their culture, their customs and don't need to be taken care of in case they get sick, or are under dangerous legal situations. These organizations (non-profits and charities) hardly have enough resources to pay their own staff let alone pay for foreigners to come in and work and then hire more staff to take care of you and orient you. THUS, you must pay a third party organization to do all the "organizing" and logistics for you so you don't end up in bad situations. This does not mean that you should be paying a company $4,000 for 4 weeks of volunteer work. But something affordable, and something do-able. My advice to you would be to go through such a third party organization that you pay for the first 6 weeks (which are the most crucial when you get to a new country anyway). Allocate yourself 6 months to volunteer abroad....and use the agency's help the first 6 weeks. After the 6 weeks are over, you know more about your surroundings, your health, your safety, and you can move on and continue work on your own. Whether that means going through other cities or staying at the city you signed up for and going on to do other projects. You can check out Leave UR Mark as they have tons of volunteering opportunities to help start you off. http://www.leaveurmark.com Good luck, it seems like you have your heart in the right place but just need some guidance.