Volunteer Placement Organization: i-to-i

By Kate | Permalink | No Comments | February 5th, 2007 | Trackback

i-to-i places participants in international volunteer opportunities. In the last twelve months, i-to-i “helped 5,000 people volunteer at worthwhile projects in 23 countries.” i-to-i also arranges team-building challenges for companies, and raised $130,000 through the i-to-i Foundation “to buy much-needed materials for vital projects around the world.

There is a plethora of information on the website, which is best utilized by you, after you decide what you’re interested in doing and where you’d like to go, but to focus on a few examples to give an idea of what’s on offer:

Where are the projects? The majority seem to be in Latin America and Asia but there are other locations as well.

What can you do? There are a variety of teaching, sports, health, media, community development, and conservation projects - for example, there are community development opportunities lasting 1-24 weeks in 22 different countries.

How much does it cost? Every project is different, and details are provided on costs and what is included or not. In general terms, for four weeks, perhaps $1500 and up.

What do you get? Accommodation and often food, airport pick up but not airfare, and the experience to put on your c.v. Again, this varies project to project - investigate the opportunities that interest you.

With all this talk of fees, you might be wondering where the money goes. i-to-i puts it all on the table here, and lists the other benefits you get by using a commercial organization like i-to-i: safety and support, quality control, and “time saving” in the sense that you may only have a few weeks or months in a place and don’t want to spend all of it arranging a position.

A few examples of projects:
Radio work experience in Ghana –

“The significance of your role will depend upon initiative…” but there is the potential to be involved in “…programming, production, recording, research, reporting, copy-writing and even news casting.” The minimum length is six weeks, and you do need to submit your c.v. for consideration. For this you pay $2395, including accommodation, and $150 per week after that, up to 12 weeks.

Coastal conservation work in Peru – Volunteers “work with ongoing projects” and “…activities will include monitoring and collecting data about the marine and coastal animal zones, reserve maintenance, local environmental campaigns and beach patrols.” This can last for four to twelve weeks; you pay $1595 for the first four weeks plus $115 per each additional week; some food is included, as is basic dorm accommodation.

A variety of TEFL training programs are also available in different locations.

For more information, check out some volunteer reports and also the main i-to-i site. Happy volunteering!

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