Give Your Gap | NGS Movement

Ashley Bulgarelli, Volta Aid Foundation

Name, Age:Ashley Bulgarelli, 23
University, Major:Queensland University of Technology, Bachelor of Business
Region:Africa
Length of stay:26 Months
Type of Work:Medical/Public Health, Education, Infrastructure (building houses, roads, wells), Community Development, Childcare

Tell us about the nonprofit/social business you work for:
Volta Aid Foundation is based in the Volta Region of Ghana. We work in towns and villages including Ho, Adaklu-Goefe, Adaklu-Tsrefe, Adaklu-Waya, Tsito and Kilkor-Agbozume. Our website is www.voltaaidfoundation.org

How did you find your position?
I founded the organization!

What’s your typical day like?
My position as the founder and director means I have to work on all areas of the organization, everything from volunteer and staff management to project site overseeing to budgeting and accounting works. I work endless hours.

One of our intensive first aid workshops complete with resuscitation mannequins.

What kind of people do you work with?
Younger, older, locals, international – everyone! Education and training depends on the specific program volunteers work on but most training is done onsite.

What are your living accommodations?
I sleep in a single room attached to the office which holds my mattress and my gas burner. Simple but it’s all I need.

What do you do in your free time?
I play football (soccer)! I have joined a local team and have dressed everyone up in jerseys from my team back home and shin pads and we train daily and play every Sunday.

Share a favorite memory or story from your experience!
I lived with a little Ghanaian boy when he started to speak. One of the first words he could say was ASH, ASH, ASH. From that point on every white person he sees he calls them Ash, even to this day!

What inspired you to do this kind of work? If you are taking a gap year, what motivated you to do that?
I was traveling around the world and ended up in London and was applying for my Irish working holiday visa and searching for jobs. I just remember spending hours upon hours of time on the web and something clicked in my head and I thought this is not for me. Two weeks later I was in Ghana.

How are you financing your time?
I do not take a stipend from the organisation. I rely purely on my personal savings and friends support.

What kind of special skills do you need to do your job?
None.

Do you feel like you are making a positive, critical impact on the global community?
I believe that the difference I make is enormous. Through my efforts we have sponsored two forgotten girls to attend school. Two might not sound like a lot, but it is two less girls apparently destined to be a market lady. We have also trained over 200 people in first aid and provided over 500 people with diabetes counseling and information. The list goes on but I truly believe in education and empowerment (however cliche that sounds) – knowledge is power. I am not just talking about school education but broader education such as first aid, health issues, business skills, life skills, social skills. A good example is the children in our partner orphanages speak better English, have better social skills, and achieve higher grades in school because of the impact of our volunteers over the past two years. This kind of impact cannot be measured quantitatively but helps the child more than anything else in this world.

This is our lovely host family for our volunteers in Ho. Bea, Sena, Senyo, me, Clinton.

What have you learned about the nonprofit and social business world in your experience?
Unfortunately I have become very critical of NGO’s and not-for-profits operating in Ghana since I have spent so much time on the ground. I think there are far too many organizations doing the same job and a complete spread of resources and know-how. I also think many nonprofits have lost sight of their vision. On the other hand there are plenty of organizations out there doing amazing work and millions of people out there who want to help but don’t know how to go about it and don’t know who they can trust. This lack of trust is hurting the ‘industry’.

Do you think you make a unique contribution to your organization as a young person? Is your perspective or approach different from others?
Definitely. I founded the organization when I was 21 so obviously as young person – a very young person – I believe I am more down-to-earth with what can be achieved and my approach is very relaxed and personal. I believe to understand what people want you have to live side by side with them, in their homes, with their family, eat with them and cook with them, and only then you will see what they see and know what needs to be done. I have done this by being a recently graduated poor university bum who could not afford to live and act differently.

How do you see this experience fitting into your long-term goals?
It was changed my whole life. Before I was a globetrotting party animal, now I am a better person. I will always be linked with Ghana, development and social work.

Partner Orphanage.

What’s next?
Setting up a workshop in Ghana to produce goods to export to Australia.

What is one thing you wish you knew before you came to your position?
Nothing. I came with an open mind and unbiased point of view.

Do you have any advice for prospective gap-givers?
Come without expectations and, as we like to say at Volta Aid Foundation, be prepared to ‘give a little, learn a lot’.

Are you blogging about your work or travel? How can we stay in touch?
www.facebook.com/VoltaAidFoundation
www.voltaaidfoundation.org
info@voltaaidfoundation.org – For volunteer inquiries
ashleybulgarelli@voltaaidfoundation.org – For personal messages to myself

Would you be willing to take questions from potential Gappers?
Yes.

in 1 Year + / Africa / Childcare / Community Development / Education / Featured Gappers / Features / Give Your Gap / Infrastructure / Medical by NGS Movement 18 Nov 2011 0 comments

Mugdha Golwalkar, Project RISHI

Name, Age:Mugdha Golwalkar, 20
University, Major:UC San Diego, Human Biology
Region:Asia
Length of stay:Flexible
Type of Work:Medical/Public Health, Environment/Conservation , Education, Community Development, Arts, Childcare

Tell us about the nonprofit/social business you work for:
Project RISHI (Rural Indian Social and Healthcare Improvement) is a student-run organization that works during the year to raise funds for several sustainable projects, which we then carry out on a two-week trip to a leprosy colony in rural Maharastra, India. We have chapters at UC San Diego, UCLA, Berkeley, UC Irvine, UC Davis, and Northwestern University currently, but we’re always looking to expand! You can check out the website at www.projectrishi.org or specifically the UCSD chapter at www.facebook.com/groups/ucsdprojectrishi or follow us on Twitter @SDProjectRISHI for updates!

How did you find your position?
I heard about the first GBM through another organization on the UCSD campus called Sangam, and went from there!

What’s your typical day like?
When we visit, we have a fair amount of flexibility with the kinds of work we can help with there. I woke up every day at 5 am to wrap leprosy wounds in the hospital, and then spent most of the day either working on our projects, teaching dance lessons to disabled girls, teaching/helping out at the kindergarten and nursery, meeting with officials to assess the kind of project that the colony and neighboring villages still need that we could help with, and working in the pathology lab taking blood samples from patients and testing them for malaria. There are tons of opportunities if you take the initiative to ask about them.

What kind of people do you work with?
This colony does get other organizations that visit it, so you will be working with natives as well as international people most of the time. The majority of the administration speaks English, so language is not a big problem. The ages of people we worked with varied a lot depending on what each person chose get involved in in the community. Most people in the colony are minimally educated, but often knowledgable in the specific trades they have learned.

What are your living accommodations?
The colony has a guest house, which is generally a small room with several cots and an attached bathroom with western style toilet and eastern style baths (out of buckets). They aren’t the most comfortable accommodations, and sometimes there are bugs, but they do provide all the meals and the experience more than makes up for the adjustment. Internet is available at a central location, but it’s pretty slow and limited as this is an extremely rural area.

What do you do in your free time?
In my free time, we learned sign language form some of the locals, we went hiking and biking around the area. Sometimes we would go out into the main city to the market or to little local restaurants.

Most of these girls are either partially blind or deaf or were affected in some way by leprosy, but most of them already danced in the orchestra! Teaching them was an honor.

Share a favorite memory or story from your experience!
I got to teach Indian classical dance to girls affected by disabilities or leprosy! Honestly, they were so sweet, and they welcomed me with open arms and called me their “older sister” even though I was younger than some of them! They wanted us to teach them some western dance, but then spent the whole time making fun of me and my other friend who taught them when we tried to show them a latin dance to Shakira. They’re definitely friends I’m never going to forget, and they’re a big part of why I want to go back.

How are you financing your time?
I’m paying for the trip mainly out of my own funds, but with some help from my parents. The trip we take through Project RISHI generally costs $1500 and lasts for 2 weeks, but the leprosy colony we stay at would gladly welcome volunteers who want to stay longer, and it wouldn’t be too much more expensive.

What kind of special skills do you need to do your job?
None.

Do you feel like you are making a positive, critical impact on the global community?
Yes, I do. I feel like outside the trip, I’m spreading awareness about leprosy, which for a completely curable disease that 95% of the population is immune to, is IMMENSELY stigmatized. And on the trip itself, I can tell I’m really helping by volunteering around the community, because they really need the manpower.

Sunset at Somnath

How do you see this experience fitting into your long-term goals?
I have always wanted to work in public health, preferably in a rural community as a career, but my biggest problem was that I wasn’t sure if I could handle the conditions. I’m applying to Masters in Public Health programs right now, and I’m thinking about medical school afterward, so this experience really solidified my future goals and showed me that I can handle an experience like this, and probably can handle rural medicine, more long-term.

Do you have any advice for prospective gap-givers?
Take the initiative! Most communities you will work in are really open to having volunteers. Ask what you can do, and it doesn’t have to be overt work, like in a hospital or a school. Teaching the locals a new game or babysitting for someone for a night so they can have a night off can be just as rewarding!

Are you blogging about your work or travel? How can we stay in touch?
Our blog is at projectrishi.wordpress.com but as we didn’t have very stable internet there, our blogging was a little limited. Feel free to comment and ask questions though!

Would you be willing to take questions from potential Gappers?
Yes.

in Arts / Asia / Childcare / Community Development / Education / Environment/Conservation / Featured Gappers / Features / Give Your Gap / Less than one month / Medical by NGS Movement 18 Nov 2011 0 comments

Voluntourism

The GiveYourGap team has been engaged in a lot of conversations lately about “Voluntourism.” Probably valuable to you, too – so here are some thoughts and resources for you to learn more about what voluntourism is and how to be responsible about it!

First off, what is Voluntourism?

Voluntourism is volunteering while traveling, a fairly recent trend that’s grown profoundly in the last twenty years. The goal of voluntourism is to travel and learn and making cross-cultural connections.

What to look for in a voluntourism program?

Here are five things we think are imperative when looking for a good program:

1) The history and mission of the organization. Make sure the organization is legitimate. If the org doesn’t have a website, ask for a write up of their bio. Find out the work they’ve done in the past and what their present objectives are.

2) Find out exactly what you’ll be doing. If the ad is to volunteer at a school, ask what this means. How many hours will you be expected to work a day? How many days a week? Will you be taking the kids on field trips? Will you be helping to cook, clean and feed them? These types of questions will help you get a better idea of what your time will be like at your placement.

3) Make sure you know where you’re living and whether or not you’re expected to find your own accommodations. If you’re doing a home-stay, make sure you bring photos of your family and friends and things from home that you can talk about with your new family.

4) Asked to be connected with a volunteer, either past or present, who can tell you more about their time there. Any good program will be happy to provide you with contact information. Looking at GiveYourGap profiles is a good place to start.

5) Understand where your money goes. Keep reading to find out more…

Where does your money go?

When deciding on a organization to volunteer with, it’s important to find out the fine print of the job description, especially if a fee is required for your placement. Don’t be shy to ask what the money goes to– any legitimate organization should be open to transparency and discussing these matters with you. Plus, you’re probably not the first person to ask. If you’re volunteering with a local organization, ask where your fees go: back in to the community, the organization, administrative costs, etc.

Volunteering through American organizations/companies is really popular right now, but keep in mind that traveling this way means that a lot of your money may be going to American staff and overhead costs instead of into local groups and causes. Make sure you ask for a breakdown of your fees.

No matter who you volunteer through it’s important to know exactly where your money is going!

Resources for Voluntourism
One of the hardest things to do when getting ready to volunteer is managing expectations, but it’s also extremely important! Talk to past volunteers, keep a journal, and stay open minded about the journey you’re about to embark on!

Voluntourism 101

Global Sojourn’s reading packets on preparing, learning and reflecting on travel and volunteering

Worldchanging: Bright Green: Worldchanging Essay: Creating Responsible Voluntourism.

Author judging a high school debate tournament in Cape Coast, Ghana

in Give Your Gap / Updates From the Field by NGS Movement 17 Nov 2011 1 comments

Diewitt Duong, PDS & Pacific Partnership

Diewitt Duong and Eric Wang, about to board the Cleveland

Name, Age: Diewitt Duong, 22
University, Major: UCSD, Human Biology
Type of Work: Medical/Public Health, Education
Region: North America
Length of stay: Over two years with PDS, seven weeks with Pacific Partnership 2011

Tell us about the nonprofit/social business you work for:
I volunteer and work with the University of California, San Diego Pre-Dental Society and Free Dental Clinics. I attend weekly PDS meetings and I manage our Downtown clinic location on Wednesday nights. At our clinics, we provide free comprehensive care to uninsured low income families, veterans, and homeless individuals.
This past summer, I had the opportunity through UCSD PDS to spend seven weeks on a US Navy greyhull ship, participating in the US Navy’s annual humanitarian mission, Pacific Partnership 2011. The main focus of UCSD PDS’s involvement in this year’s mission was to be dental and health educators.

How did you find your position?
I begun attending UCSD PDS meetings through a mutual friend and stayed because of all of the interesting lecturers that we have speak to our club. We’ve had congressmen and women, surgeon generals, deans of dental schools, forensic experts, and others and I’ve realized how wide the scope of the dental field is. Through UCSD PDS, I began to volunteer as a dental assistant and x-ray technician with the Free Dental Clinics, gaining exposure and experience in being a dental assistant and I applied to participate in PP11 through UCSD PDS.

What’s your typical day like?
On Wednesday nights at the clinic I manage, I and my co-manager work to make sure that the clinic we run has an environment that is efficient, safe, and professional. We ensure that the volunteer dentist has all of the instruments and supplies that they need to provide treatment, our patient’s needs are being addressed, and that our volunteer students are being as helpful as they can be. Work outside of clinic takes about 3 hours and a clinic night can last 6 hours.
On the ship, my workday would average about 17 hours. I would wake up at 0430, get on shore at 0800, work on site from 0900 to 1500, get back on and and eat dinner by 1700, do offshore work until 2100, at which time I would go to sleep. (Though there was a rough six day stretch where I averaged 4 hours of continuous sleep in a day.)

What kind of people do you work with?
At the clinics, I work with other UCSD and local college students who are all interested in dentistry as a career and profession. I also work with dentists from around San Diego who volunteer their time on average once a month. We also have wonderful staff who help maintain the surrounding facilities.
On the ship, I worked with US the Navy, Army, and Marines. We also had a wonderful contingency from the Australian, Canadian, Malaysian, French, and Spanish armed forces.

What are your living accommodations?
For the clinics, I live in your ordinary UCSD student apartment housing.On the ship I lived in enlisted berthing area, with a small bunk and a community head.

What do you do in your free time?
In my free time, I like being outdoors. I enjoy playing and watching sports of all sorts (especially football and tennis). I am also a diehard fantasy football player (curse you jamaal charles!)

Share a favorite memory or story from your experience!
On PP11, we had a patient in Timor Leste who had two fused molars which were causing her extreme pain. The process of extracting both molars required the teamwork of both a US Navy dentist and a Japanese Army dentist. They spent about an hour extracting the teeth in a fantastic example of international forces joining together to provide essential humanitarian aid for those who most need it. Truly inspiring.

What inspired you to do this kind of work? If you are taking a gap year, what motivated you to do that?
I was interested in dentistry and UC San Diego just happens to have one of the best pre-dental societies in the nation. You get exposed to multiple facets of dentistry and healthcare. Going on Pacific Partnership was a once in a lifetime experience that I just couldn’t pass up. I hope to participate again in PP12!

How are you financing your time?
I work part time with UCSD and I have personal savings and parental support.

What kind of special skills do you need to do your job?
Medical expertise

Do you feel like you are making a positive, critical impact on the global community?
I feel like I am making a positive, critical impact. We were teaching nurses, teachers, families, teenagers, and children how to take care of their teeth and overall hygiene. We were exchanging essential information that will lead to sustainable growth. The overall dental and overall health of these regions will improve over time and only strengthen their overall growth.

What have you learned about the nonprofit and social business world in your experience?
I have learned that if you don’t ask for something, you will never get it. Before 2006, there were never civilians working on US Navy vessels on humanitarian missions. The adviser to the UC San Diego’s Pre-Dental Society worked very hard to get UCSD PDS to be on the first Pacific Partnership mission in 2006 and ever since then we have opened the doors for other non-governmental organizations to work with the military.

How do you see this experience fitting into your long-term goals?
All of this experience in dentistry has only advanced my plans. I have experienced and witnessed first hand the access to care issue in not only third world countries, but also locally, in a city as great as San Diego. I know that when I eventually go and graduate from dental school, I will give back to my community and I will continue to volunteer where I can. There are many who need and deserve dental care who simply can’t afford it. Dental pain, infections and mission teeth impair one’s ability to learn, to work, and to live. I view that health professionals have an obligation to provide their services back to their community.

What’s next?
Dental school is my next eventual goal. Between that, I am continuing to manage one of UCSD’s Free Dental Clinics and working with UCSD PDS. I also plan on working with Pacific Partnership 2012, possibly embarking in the mission this summer.

Do you have any advice for prospective gap-givers?
Give back to your community! Volunteer where you can to help out those less fortunate. Your experiences can humble you and make you aware of the need that is around you.

Are you blogging about your work or travel? How can we stay in touch?
You can reach me at diewittduong@gmail.com and also keep in touch with what University of California, San Diego’s Pre-Dental Society is up to at fdc-pds.ucsd.org.

Would you be willing to take questions from potential Gappers?
Yes.

in 1 Year + / 1-2 Months / Featured Gappers / Features / Give Your Gap / Medical / North America by NGS Movement 11 Nov 2011 0 comments

Non-Profit Video Feature: International Rescue Committee, San Diego

Welcome to GiveYourGap’s first feature on a nonprofit organization, the International Rescue Committee. As you may know, the IRC has branches all over the world, working for the IRC’s mission: to help lead refugees from harm to home. Through refugee resettlement prorams, career development, microenterprise and many other ways – IRC branches everywhere are making a daily impact in refugees’ lives.

GYG is here because the IRC has countless opportunities for young people to get involved.
IRC-San Diego has an innovative, sustainable approach to a common challenge for refugees: food security.Since this is branch of IRC-San Diego that is so special, our feature focuses on the ways IRC has helped refugees find security in what we so often take for granted: food.

Our feature here – the video we’ve created and the interviews we link you to – will never be able to give a complete picture of all the ways the International Rescue Committee and its volunteers make a lasting impact for refugees and community development. Our mission is to share some of these stories, learn about the amazing ways IRC and young volunteers give back, what they have learned about development, themselves, change and the nonprofit world. Get inspired and get involved.

Hear from IRC volunteers who can give you the real inside scoop on volunteer experiences at the IRC: Madison McLaughlin and Lara Hamburger.

A Bit Of the Background
The International Rescue Committee San Diego was our first choice for a first profile for a number of reasons.

(1) the GYG team consists of a bunch of UC San Diego grads, all familiar with the great work IRC-San Diego does in our community. San Diego has a huge refugee population, and the International Rescue Committee is dedicated to to restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure.

(2) the IRC is well-known for integrating youth into their projects and volunteer programs. Can you say, “perfect fit for GiveYourGap?”

(3) We had a lot of friends working for the IRC. That’s where it always starts!

In all seriousness, though, working with all the volunteers at the International Rescue Committee has been an amazing first experience. We can’t thank the IRC enough for their flexibility, willingness to be our first feature and in many ways a guinea pig.

Special thanks to IRC volunteers Jessica Baltmanas, Lara Hamburger, Madison Mclaughlin, staff Mallory Cochrane, and all the farmers at the New Roots Farm and coordinators of the Fresh Fund Program. Stay tuned for a special feature next week on the New Roots Farm!

Thank you IRC for all your help!

This video was produced by Courtney O’Connor.

in Community Development / Education / Environment/Conservation / Features / Give Your Gap by NGS Movement 04 Nov 2011 0 comments

Earth Hasassri

Me with Dr. Tareq and another doctor at a United Nations Relief and Works Agency that serves Palestinian refugees. My work surrounded chronic diseases of hypertension and diabetes.

Name, Age: Earth Hasassri, 21
University, Major: UC San Diego, Physiology & Neuroscience, and Psychology
Type of Work: Medical/Public Health, Environment/Conservation, Education, Infrastructure (building houses, roads, wells), Community Development, Childcare, Human Rights
Region: North America
Length of stay: Less than one month

Tell us about the nonprofit/social business you work for:
ProWorld, Urubamba, Peru (http://www.proworldvolunteers.org/) – My experience here wasn’t a very great one. The volunteer project was good, but the logistics and organizational structure lacked experience and expertise. They need to work on more strategic planning before I would give them another shot.

Working in Urubamba, Peru in school 712, teaching these children math, arts and crafts, and environmental sustainability.

Cross-Cultural Solutions, Puriscal, Costa Rica (http://www.crossculturalsolutions.org/) – Overall good, but very pricey. I can understand because they have a great structure and good communication. However, they are definitely a little more voluntourist-y than I would like. The community interaction was very minimal and it’s very difficult to see the sustainability in their work.

Damar Services, Inc, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA (http://www.damar.org/) – One of the best organizations I worked with. They work with children and adults with behavioral and developmental disabilities, and I strongly believe in their mission and vision. They have a very high success rate (96%) of helping children with Autism live more independent lives and I can clearly see how they work with the public system to make what they do sustainable in terms of policy change.

Casa Familiar, San Diego, California, USA (http://www.casafamiliar.org/) – They work with migrant and border issues. I really enjoy their organization and how much they try to outreach resources to their target population.

How did you find your position?
School resource and personal connections

What’s your typical day like?
4 – 6 hours of work per day, doing various tasks

Working in Santiago de Puriscal, Costa Rica on construction of a soccer court at an elementary school with limited resources.

What kind of people do you work with?
ProWorld – Young orphans and victims of domestic violence local to Peru. I want to warn people against working with orphans unless it’s a longer term commitment since orphans already have issues surrounding attachment and separation. If a short term volunteer were to make an orphan happy, they would relive the same pains when the volunteer leaves.
Cross-Cultural Solutions – Younger, elementary school children who were Costa Rican.
Damar – Children and adults with behavioral and developmental disabilities who come from all over the US.
Casa Familiar – Migrant and refugee populations, mainly from Mexico.

What are your living accommodations?
Hostel with ProWorld, volunteer house with CCS, hotel with Damar

What do you do in your free time?
Explore

Share a favorite memory or story from your experience!
http://earthhasassri.blogspot.com/2011/04/reorientation-invisibility-of.html

What inspired you to do this kind of work? If you are taking a gap year, what motivated you to do that?
Wanderlust and active citizenship

How are you financing your time?
crowd-sourced fundraising, scholarship from school

What kind of special skills do you need to do your job?
Language, Teaching

Prom Clothing for Children with Disabilities: orking in a residential facility of Damar Services in sorting out Prom Clothing for children with disabilities, providing opportunities for these children to have a social rite of passage.

Do you feel like you are making a positive, critical impact on the global community?
Only with Damar I was. I feel that it’s very difficult when working with non-profits to make a positive, sustainable change unless both top-down policies from the public sector as well as bottom-up efforts in social movements or behavioral changes are pushed for.

What have you learned about the nonprofit and social business world in your experience?
That change mostly happens on an individual level, and that can turn into a collective social movement if organized well enough.

Do you think you make a unique contribution to your organization as a young person? Is your perspective or approach different from others?
Yes, and I hope so.

How do you see this experience fitting into your long-term goals?
Made me more understanding of how social issues are intertwined and permeate within each other.

What’s next?
Medical school

Are you blogging about your work or travel? How can we stay in touch?
http://earthinjordan.wordpress.com
http://earthhasassri.blogspot.com/
http://earf.tumblr.com

Would you be willing to take questions from potential Gappers?
Yes

in Childcare / Community Development / Education / Environment/Conservation / Featured Gappers / Give Your Gap / Human Rights / Infrastructure / Less than one month / Medical / North America by NGS Movement 01 Nov 2011 0 comments

Joeva Rock, Abusua Foundation

Name, Age: Joeva Rock, 23
University, Major: UCSD– International Studies
Region: Africa
Length of stay: 6 months – 1 year
Type of Work: Community Development, Human Rights, Youth capacity and capability building

Tell us about the nonprofit/social business you work for:
I spent the last year working for Abusua Foundation (AF) in Cape Coast, Ghana. Abusua was started ten years ago by a then University of Cape Coast student, and works on youth capacity and capability building and community development. AF has been engaged in a variety of projects including HIV/AIDS outreach, debate in the schools and an online youth magazine.
www.abusuafoundation.comwww.acipp.org

How did you find your position?
Idealist.org

What’s your typical day like?
While with Abusua I was the Volunteer Coordinator and oversaw an international volunteer program. I placed skilled interns at different sites in the community including a local TV station, hospitals and a human-rights commission. The funds generated by the volunteer program go directly into supporting the projects and staff that Abusua oversees.

What kind of people do you work with?
Staff at Abusua were all Ghanaian, in their 20s and 30s. Interns were from the US, UK and Australia and were usually in their early 20s. Almost everyone I worked with had a college or professional degree.

What are your living accommodations?
I lived in our volunteer house that was located in a village on the University of Cape Coast campus. We had regular electricity, but no running water. Chickens, goats and the local mosque and church were my alarm clocks.

What do you do in your free time?
Went to the beach, read books, traveled, went dancing, shopped at local markets.

Share a favorite memory or story from your experience!
Monthly BBQ and dance parties with all the interns and our neighbors!

What inspired you to do this kind of work? If you are taking a gap year, what motivated you to do that?
I had studied abroad in Ghana and knew I wanted to go back, so after I graduated from UCSD and couldn’t find a job in the US I knew I had to look to work overseas and get first-hand experience in the development field.

How are you financing your time?
I was paid.

What kind of special skills do you need to do your job?
Writing, Social media

Do you feel like you are making a positive, critical impact on the global community?
Yes, meeting and engaging with people different than you is always positive

What have you learned about the nonprofit and social business world in your experience?
Running a successful nonprofit is hard! It’s non-stop work: meetings, travel, grant writing, etc., but the outcomes are super rewarding.

Do you think you make a unique contribution to your organization as a young person? Is your perspective or approach different from others?
The whole organization was young people working together, which creates a culture of high energy and innovation that’s hard to find other places.

How do you see this experience fitting into your long-term goals?
Working locally on the ground allowed me to discover what I want to study in grad school and the type of work I want to do professionally ie working with youth.

What’s next?
Grad school (cross your fingers)!

Do you have any advice for prospective gap-givers?
Research your program and other options in the area just in case you need a backup. Be open-minded and talk to as many people as you can!

Are you blogging about your work or travel? How can we stay in touch?
@southsidetrees
http://joeva.tumblr.com/

Would you be willing to take questions from potential Gappers?
Yes

in 6 Months - 1 Year / Africa / Community Development / Featured Gappers / Give Your Gap / Human Rights by NGS Movement 01 Nov 2011 0 comments

The Beginning to Give Your Gap

Amber and Kim before GiveYourGap existed. We still look the same.

The Beginning: How GiveYourGap.Org Was Born!

Here’s the basic timeline-rundown of how GiveYourGap.Org was born:

Graduatin’

June 2011: Amber and Kim graduate from UC San Diego, think to themselves, “what to do next??!” Collectively decide: “Travel travel travel!” Some jumping and screaming in excitement is invovled.

July 2011: Amber and Kim live it up a little as post-grads, but constantly think about the trip coming up. Brainstorm lists of cities, famous sites, read a lot of travel books and blogs. But also realize tourism isn’t going to be “enough.” Begin looking for volunteer opportunities at nonprofits and social businesses around the world via websites like idealist.org, gapyear.com, anywhere google searching took us.

August 11-15, 2011, 8am: Amber and Kim reunite to discuss the trip. Share the sites/opportunities/programs each found. complain about how hard it is to get good information about opportunities. How to know which ones are “legit”? How could we pay “volunteer fees” upwards of $1000/week? Why are the websites messy? How can there not already be a better site for people like us??!

August 16, 12am: Amber and Kim stare at each other…considering options.

“Ok Amber, what if we go from place to place and offer to profile nonprofits and social businesses and stuff? Maybe they will let us volunteer for free if we create videos about them and talk about them on a blog?”

“Omg, Kim, I think that could actually work. We could call it givingyourgapyear.com*”

August 16, 8am: Amber and Kim stare at each other again, preparing themselves for the road ahead. Simultaneously think to themselves, and then share out loud: “Damn, this is gonna be an adventure.”

August-November: Idea completely evolves through friends’ suggestions and support, non-stop emailing, networking, brainstorming, meeting with people, creating the GiveYourGap Team, recording videos and envisioning this site.

Our first sketch of the site.

November 4th, 2011: We launch the site. BOOM! WHAT UP. We hope you like it.

*Name later revised to giveyourgap.org, with some killer recommendations from friends. Check out our thanks to first followers for more of the story.

in Features / Give Your Gap / Updates From the Field by NGS Movement 31 Oct 2011 0 comments

Madison McLaughlin: International Rescue Committee Volunteer

Name, Age: Madison McLaughlin, 20
University, Major:
Point Loma Nazarene University, Human Environmental Science, Business
Region: North America
Length of stay: 6 months
Type of Work: Academic Internship, Environment, Conservation

We’re especially grateful to Madison because she was our *very first* interview for GiveYourGap. Madison – thanks for your help, and for the great story your share below:

Meet Madison

How Madison Found Her Internship

What does Madison do?

Who does Madison work with?

What kind of skills did you need for this position? -You mentioned you were taking a gap year. Has work at the IRC influenced that decision? How has it affected your long term goals?

How has working with IRC impacted Madison?

What’s your favorite part about working for the IRC?

Any advice for anyone interested in volunteering for the IRC?

in 6 Months - 1 Year / Community Development / Environment/Conservation / Featured Gappers / Give Your Gap / North America / Video by NGS Movement 28 Oct 2011 1 comments

Lara Hamburger: Americorps VISTA, International Rescue Committee

Lara Hamburger

Name Lara Hamburger, Americorps VISTA
University, Major: Indiana University, Geography
Region: North America
Length of stay: 1 year
Type of Work: Capacity Building, Environment/Conservation, Agriculture

We first met Lara at the IRC City Heights Farmers Market. We lucked out catching her on her way out. Lara is an Americorps VISTA with amazing insights on nonprofit organizations, structural problems and making a daily impact on the lives of refugees.

Meet Lara