Gap Year Volunteers

Who: Gap Year Volunteers
Age: Typically 18-26
What: Volunteer internationally in their gap years

The "gap year" is not as often exploited in the United States as it is in the UK and Canada in particular. There, many students take a year either between high school and college or after completing their undergraduate degree to explore the world outside organized educational boundaries. This story from the National Post is about students using their gap years to volunteer internationally.


Friday, March 28, 2008
Presented by 'You will face who you are': A guide to doing good for gap year
Sandy Fife, National Post Published: Friday, March 28, 2008
Courtesy Jacqueline Wong

The winner of a local election was throwing a victory party for residents of the baranguay in AlangAlang, in the central Philippines. He converted the basketball court to an outdoor banquet hall with music, tables and chairs, a stage for speeches and a feast that saw a whole cow spit-roasted over a fire. Jacqueline Wong, a 25-year-old volunteer health worker from Toronto, watched her neighbours party and felt she'd arrived in the Philippines. "It really opened my eyes to the sense of community," she says.

Wong is one of thousands of Canadians between 18 and 34 who take time out to volunteer, work or travel in other countries each year, under international youth programs made possible by federal agreements with about 40 other governments. Gap-year travel - or a trip before, during or just after college or university - is a time-honoured tradition. These days, many kids are choosing to combine it with paid or unpaid jobs.

Their reasons include the desire to do good, to offset travel expenses and to immerse themselves in a particular culture. "The best way to learn about a place is to spend some time living there, and working or volunteering provides that opportunity," says Jeff Minthorn, editor of Verge, a Canadian magazine about travel "with a purpose."

"Working or volunteering abroad also looks great on a résumé or university application," Minthorn adds. "It's one thing to say, ‘I spent the last year backpacking around Australia and Southeast Asia,' quite another to say, ‘While I was there, I worked on a farm in Western Australia and volunteered in Thailand teaching English to schoolchildren.' "

Other rewards are less tangible. "Clients come back from a work or volunteer experience changed," says Karen Moore, Ottawa-based manager of sales and development for Travel Cuts' international programs. "They are more confident, know what they want out of life and realize there is another world where people struggle just to survive. It makes them realize how lucky they are, and more tolerant of other cultures."

Nevertheless, the decision to work or volunteer abroad deserves careful consideration. A good start is to check out the opportunities offered by well-established programs such as Travel Cuts' Work Abroad and Volunteer Abroad. After that, a self-assessment is in order. Factors such as your age, finances, skills and previous travel experience may influence your choice of when and where you go and what you do there, program organizers point out.

"Travelling is not always cool. It is also difficult," says Jonathan Paquet, president and co-founder of Horizon Cosmopolite, a Montreal agency that helps students find and prepare for international volunteer placements. "You will face who you are. You may cry because you miss your mom. You will ask yourself why you decided to go to that village where there are cockroaches in the bathroom."

Here are the stories of three Canadians who braved those hazards and came back from their travels eager to do it all over again:

Alex James, Toronto

James was 18 and finished high school when she went to Guyana as a Youth Challenge International (YCI) volunteer in early 2006. She and 12 other volunteers spent eight weeks in three communities, leading workshops on health and social issues such as HIV/AIDS, teen pregnancy, substance abuse and women's empowerment.

She had no international travel experience and the trip was the longest that she'd been away from home. But the decision to go was easy. "Post-secondary education didn't excite me. Travel did," she says. "I was fascinated and intrigued and even a little giddy at the idea of volunteering abroad."

YCI, like many volunteer organizations with a focus on developing countries, requires participants to raise the funds for their project and airfare. Scraping together the approximately $5,000 James needed took a lot of work. She hosted an evening of live music and theatre, with a raffle and bake sale, and collaborated with other Toronto-area volunteers on another raffle, for a pair of Lord of the Rings tickets.

YCI provided pre-departure training about culture, communicating and the project, as well as orientation for the volunteers in Guyana. Its Web site warns applicants they may have to sleep on the ground or use outdoor bathrooms in their host countries. But James still missed the comforts of home. "I lived in very close quarters with my group members, slept in a hammock, bathed and washed my clothes in a river, and used stinky, dirty outhouses, which were covered in cockroaches at night," she says.

And she was often homesick. "The first night was especially hard. I was exhausted, already covered in

mosquito bites, and felt very sad - almost wished I could turn around and go home."

But she enjoyed connecting with people in the communities in which she worked, especially playing with the kids, who taught her that the hokey-pokey's appeal cuts across all cultures.

The residents of each community thanked the volunteers by holding a bonfire for them the night before they left. Everybody serenaded each other and had a good time.

James's trip gave her knowledge of another culture and the understanding that there are many other ways of life, not to mention an enduring gratitude for basics like running water.

"More than anything, I came home with itchy feet, wanting to get out there and see more of the world," she says.

Last fall, after a semester of college and a stint at a full-time job, she did just that, travelling to Uganda as a volunteer for Kirabo Canada.

"Travel is such a rewarding and enriching experience," she says. "It's a whole other kind of learning. The opportunity to go to school will always be there; most of the awesome youth programs out there have age restrictions."

Chris Roosenboom, Bathurst, N.B.

Roosenboom, a Guelph, Ont., native who's training in New Brunswick for a career as a geophysicist, had finished his undergrad degree in his hometown and worked for a year when wanderlust struck. He decided to travel instead of starting a PhD program in the fall of 2006. He left in October, on a SWAP UK working holiday that spanned 11 months and five mostly poorly paid service-industry jobs.

"I wanted to learn about who I was and how other cultures do things differently. I also wanted to improve my social skills and get more confidence," he says. He chose Edinburgh as his destination because he wanted to see the Highlands, drink Scotch and learn about the history - and because a friend told him the city is a great party place.

Roosenboom made friends in advance through a SWAP chat room, and arranged to meet them in Edinburgh. SWAP (which is run by Travel Cuts in Canada) helped him arrange visas and accommodation for the first few days. His biggest pre-departure worries were saving enough money for the trip, waiting for his visa to arrive and packing light.

His "Wow, I'm here" moment came when he stepped off the double-decker airport bus on Waverley Bridge, "with big buses going every which way, strange-looking taxis darting about and, down the valley, Edinburgh Castle with the sun shining behind it," he says. "Was quite the day."

Roosenboom used the U.K. as a home base, travelling to other countries as the opportunity arose. He didn't have to cope with a new language or culture. But he had to adapt to being alone and develop self-reliance. Building up his tolerance for alcohol was also a challenge. "It's all one big party," he says.

Well, not quite. His jobs ran from boring and sometimes unpleasant stints cleaning and working the reception desk at a hostel, where he lived for free, to customer service at a baked-potato shop, where he had fun, and waiter/bartender at an Oxfordshire pub, where he felt like a slave. But he landed on his feet at the Jam House back in Edinburgh, where he became headwaiter and employee of the year, winning a trip for two to Birmingham, with dinner at a five-star restaurant and a night of clubbing.

Roosenboom came home "a completely different person," more comfortable with himself, more sociable and more confident with the opposite sex. His advice to other students considering a working holiday abroad: "Take the plunge! It is freaking scary but once you get there, it is excellent. And most important,

don't plan - just go with it. The random experiences are the best, and the ones you learn most from."

Jacqueline Wong, Toronto

Wong, a pharmacy grad, wanted a chance to observe health care in other parts of the world. She spotted a Horizon Cosmopolite ad for a volunteer job at a clinic in rural AlangAlang on a university career Web site in 2006. Knowing many residents of the Philippines speak English and that she'd be close to other Asian countries she wanted to visit, she jumped at the opportunity.

Wong was a seasoned traveller, having toured Europe, explored Spain on her own and studied in Italy for a month on a university exchange. Still, she was nervous about travel and accommodation. Horizon Cosmopolite liaised with the organization Volunteer for the Visayans, in Tacloban, which arranged her placement and home stay. Wong couldn't attend the pre-trip seminar. But a Lonely Planet guide introduced her to the culture and everyday life in the Philippines.

Her home stay in Tacloban was comfortable and welcoming - her hosts gave her their bedroom - and her days settled into a routine: up at 7 for an hour-long jeepney ride to the clinic where she worked as a receptionist for three weeks, tutoring local kids or relaxing at a coffee shop in downtown Tacloban after work and dinner (typically meat, stir-friend veggies and rice) at her home stay. A volunteer for the Visayans arranged excursions to its projects, local tourist attractions and beaches.

Typhoon season limited travel. But Wong and a friend took a weekend trip to a neighbouring island, where they saw rice paddies and swam in hot springs and under waterfalls. Their driver ran out of gas and they purchased two litres from a roadside stand, which was poured into glass Coke bottles - "the perfect quirky ending to an unusual day," Wong says.

Her biggest challenge was "just letting go of what I knew from living in Canada," she says. "Things are done differently in Tacloban, and I needed

to adjust." Her worst time came after eating balut, a fertilized duck egg that's a local delicacy. It didn't agree, and she had to stay home for a day.

But she enjoyed learning about a different culture, making new friends, picking up a bit of Waray-Waray and seeing how health care is delivered in the Philippines.

"Keep an open mind," she advises would-be international volunteers. "Once you find a program offered by a reliable organization, don't hesitate to register. And once you arrive, enjoy what the country has to offer and don't dwell on preconceptions."

MORE: Weigh the risks and rewards

Working and volunteering abroad are popular gap-year options. Horizon Cosmopolite, a Montreal-based volunteer-placement agency founded in 1997, has seen participation grow to 350 a year from 35 in 1999.

Kids who do it may develop a new sense of direction, greater appreciation for family, freedom and our privileged lifestyle and an understanding of what it's like to be the outsider in an unfamiliar culture. They also get valuable international work experience: 82% of respondents to a July, 2007, survey of employers by the University of Toronto's career centre see travel abroad as an asset on a résumé.

On the downside, volunteering abroad is expensive. Most organizations require participants to raise funds, and the service-industry and ESL teaching jobs travelling students often take tend to be poorly paid and are sometimes exploitive. Loneliness and homesickness can loom large - particularly in places with limited phone and Internet service - and scams, illness, accidents and trouble with foreign authorities are real risks.

The Martlet, the University of Victoria's newspaper, warned readers last fall that Japan's biggest private

language school had ceased paying some of its employees, but was still hiring Canadian students to teach in its schools. In November, British schoolteacher Gillian Gibbons was imprisoned in Sudan for allowing her students there to name a teddy bear after the Easter Bunny. And in March of last year, British teen Georgia French died in a bus crash in the Andes while on a gap-year trip with friends; her parents, having learned that 500 people die each year in similar accidents in Peru, launched GapAid, a Web site meant to alert other kids and parents to scams and country-specific hazards.

Young, inexperienced travellers and those who strike out on their own are most at risk, regardless of their destinations. Jeff Minthorn, editor of Verge magazine, recommends that kids seek out reputable organizations that specialize in arranging international working and volunteering holidays. These NGOs (non-government organizations) help with everything from cultural orientation, travel arrangements and job and volunteer placements to ongoing support in the destination country. Moreover, they will take into account the traveller's goals, expectations and experience.

For example, Travel Cuts would steer an 18-year-old fresh out of high school to a work placement in the United Kingdom rather than, say, South Africa, says Karen Moore, manager of sales and development for the company's international programs. "It's not too far away and not too much of a culture shock. Our partners there help students find work and accommodation with roommates, and even organize social activities."

Students who hook up with well-run organizations tend to get more out their experiences, because they're well prepared and have realistic expectations, says Jonathan Paquet, of Horizon Cosmopolite.

Beyond that, it helps to cultivate personal qualities such as a positive attitude, sense of humour and flexibility. "We all deal differently in a cross-cultural context," Paquet says. "Some people go on a project and only have complaints; another person comes back from the same project only with positive comments."

Sandy Fife, Weekend Post

Making Voices Heard

Who: Fatuma Roba
Age: 21
What: Making Voices Heard

This week we are featuring a Digital Diary from UNICEF about a young woman from Kenya who is making voices heard. Fatuma is a founding member of a girls' centre in her community and has been moderating her own discussion group at the centre. Knowledge is power.

Listen to the audio here


Fatuma’s Digital Diary: Daily life for girls in the slums of Kenya
By Blue Chevigny

NEW YORK, USA, 24 October 2007 – Fatuma Roba, 21, lives in Kibera, a slum in Nairobi, Kenya. Deeply concerned about the rights of girls and women, she is a founding member of the Binti Pamoja group – a girls’ centre in her community.

During the last year she has been moderating her own discussion group at the centre, where she and other girls can talk about their concerns openly, safely and freely.

Over the past few months Fatuma has also started recording interviews for the Digital Diaries project of Voices of Youth (UNICEF’s online community for young people) and UNICEF Radio. She received radio equipment and training at UNICEF headquarters in March, while she was in New York as a Kenyan delegate to the 51st Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women.


Fatuma's objective

In the first instalment of her Digital Diary, Fatuma asks girls aged 13 through 21 in her community – mostly members of her girls’ centre – how they feel about their lives in Kibera. Along with her recordings, she has sent her own written description of her objectives for this Digital Diary:

“I’m interested in how young people feel about living in Kibera and what they fear most about being a young girl here,” Fatuma writes. “Most of the responses demonstrate that they feel good because [the cost of living] in Kibera is cheap and one can afford to live here even if they are jobless.

“Some argued that life is scary because of increasing insecurity and the dirty environment and the increased joblessness of youth. There are also incidents of rape, which most of the girls mentioned as a fear. This has been an issue because there are no rules and the laws must be amended by the government to punish those guilty of such acts.”



Access to unique viewpoints

Fatuma’s diary is an eye-opening cross-section of opinions and reflections by young women in Kibera, one of the largest slum districts in the world. Her intimate interviews allow listeners access to a point of view that they don’t often hear.

The girls who tell their stories have the unique experience of being in a group where they can express themselves and learn things like homework skills, self-defence methods and strategies for achieving their dreams. These are girls with hopes for the future and a sense that they can get what they need, despite their difficult beginnings in an impoverished and dangerous community.

“I am very proud living in Kibera,” says one young woman named Maureen, her voice forceful and full of energy. “I know that no one but me can make my life better. It’s up to me to create the change I want in my life and in the lives of others.”

Heading to Kenya this July to make the world a better place

Who: Lacombe High School Students
Age: 16-18
What: Heading to Kenya this July to make the world a better place

This Wednesday Believe In Youth presents to you a story of 20 high school students who are striving to make a difference in the world. They are taking a humanitarian trip to Africa to help people in Kenya who are suffering. This is something they didn't have to do, but wanted to do. We need more and more young people like that in the world to continue making a positive impact on our society. This article is from the Lancombe Globe.

Lacombe high school students plan humanitarian trip
A group of about 20 students from Ecole Lacombe Composite High School are heading to Kenya this July to help make the world a better place.

By Lisa Joy
Globe Editor
Tuesday February 26, 2008

A group of about 20 students from Ecole Lacombe Composite High School are heading to Kenya this July to help make the world a better place.

"This trip is about realizing that the world is bigger than ourselves and our desire is to create an opportunity for students to make a real difference in someone's life that is in need," said Jake Schellenberg, who heads the group Youth Unlimited.

"We believe that helping people is the main ingredient in making the world a better place in Kenya, as well as our world right here in Lacombe," he added. "As we make an impact on others we are impacted, so it's a win-win for everyone."

The students have planned this trip since last year and are not deterred by the post-election violence that has ravaged Kenya since December.

Grade 11 student Jordan Graber says he's not afraid to go and is looking forward to filling a need in Kenya.

"I've always wanted to go (to Africa) since I was little, to just help them out because they are suffering.


"There's so much we can do. The world is so big and you don't get these opportunities often, so any difference you can make is good."

Schellenberg–who just returned from a few weeks in Kenya with Eric Rajah, founder of Lacombe-based humanitarian group A Better World–says he felt safe while in Kenya. He went to assess the situation there before taking Lacombe students this July for disaster relief.

"I did not feel like I was in danger at any time," he said. "We took the proper precautions and made sure that we measured all the risks.

"We are definitely concerned about taking students to Kenya and we are really happy that we still have five months before we leave to understand what is happening," he added.

He said what struck him the most was the amount of need he saw in Kenya.

"I saw need from a school that desperately needs help, from kids in orphanages that have been taken in, and from the refugee camp we worked in while we were there."

Eight leaders will accompany the group of youth, ranging in age from 16 to 18.

Besides humanitarian work, Schellenberg says the students will have an opportunity to experience African culture.

"They will be organizing activities with kids, teaching classes, getting their hands dirty with some work projects, soaking in and learning about African culture and taking some time for safari."

A fundraiser is planned on March 8, at 7 p.m. at the First Baptist Church to help fund the students' trip. The evening will feature local entertainment.
Information will also be presented about Project Africa, a joint venture between A Better World and Youth Unlimited.

Update From Lwala Kenya

BIY got a note from Milton Ochieng after our feature on him this past Sunday. The clinic has opened and been a great help to the community, but there is still much to be done.

Here is the note from Milton:
“Thanks for featuring our project. We have made quite some progress, but with a lot of support from many young people. I just included some more websites that might give you a sense of what we have done and what else is still to be done.”

http://www.realmedicinefoundation.org/initiatives/IN1-13.asp

http://www.pulitzercenter.org/showproject.cfm?id=39

http://www.hopeforlwala.com/

An excerpt from the first site:
“During the first three months of operations (April-June 2007) the Lwala Community Clinic saw a total of 1854 new patients with nearly 60% of those patients being children under the age of five; approximately 13% more new patients each month.”

Brothers Start Kenyan Clinic

Who: Fred and Milton Ochieng
Age: 25 and 26
What: Two brothers start clinic in hometown of Lwala, Kenya

The following is an interview with Fred Ochieng from Exquisite Safaris. Fred and his brother Milton (pictured, center) are two of the most inspiring people we at BIY have ever met, so it was only natural to start with their story.

Who are you, where do you come from, what are you attempting to accomplish?

My name is Frederick Otieno Ochieng and I am the 3rd born in a family of 6 children. My brother Milton Oludhe Ochieng is currently in his 3rd year of medical school at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine whereas I am in the 1st year class. We all grew up in Lwala, a rural village without running water or electricity, in Nyanza province of Kenya. To get to see a doctor, one walks 5.5 miles down an unpaved road, then waits for public service vans, matatus, to take them on a bumpy 20 mile ride to the nearest government owned hospital. The lack of health facilities at times had tragic consequences. We vividly remember how one time, a pregnant mother who developed complications during labor had to be hauled in a neighbor’s wheelbarrow to try to get her to the paved road then to the hospital, passed away en route. The body of the baby and the mother were returned to a wailing village by the same wheelbarrow. While growing up, we were always aware of the lack of health care in our village and surrounding communities. Both Milton and I got interested in medicine. With inspiration from a cross-cultural service trip to Nicaragua during his undergraduate years in Dartmouth College when they built a medical clinic, Milton was inspired to start a clinic in our village during his first year of medical school. He consulted via e-mail and phone with my ailing father, Mr. Erastus Ochieng. He spoke with me about the vision. In early 2005, while he and my father worked on the plans and details, he asked me to begin fundraising for the clinic. During a Navigators Northeast Conference at the end of January 2005, I gave an address to students and staff from some 13 colleges and universities who raised $9,000 for the clinic. Unfortunately, along the way, we lost both our parents to AIDS. Beloved Margaret in January 2004 and Erastus in May 2006. My eldest brother Maurice Omondi Ochieng has taken over the role of the coordinator back in Lwala, working with the community members. The vision has gathered momentum. We hope to see patients early April 2007. Now we need funds and partners to sustain the running of the clinic.

How do two brothers in a remote village in Kenya get scholarships to Dartmouth and attend medical school at Vanderbilt?

My mother taught in primary school and my father taught Chemistry and Biology in secondary school. They both valued education; they acquired loans to send us to good boarding schools and instilled in us good discipline. Milton was the 1st to qualify for admission to Alliance High School, the oldest and probably the finest high school in Kenya. I joined him a year later. In his 3rd year, he was one of the 2 students selected to represent Alliance High School on an exchange program with Brooks School, Andover, Massachusetts. He met Alliance alumni who were attending Harvard, MIT and other colleges in the U.S. The capable advisors and fellow students guided us through the test and application process. We both gave up our chances to attend medical school in Nairobi University for liberal arts training at Dartmouth College in the U.S. The need-blind admission policy offered a unique opportunity for a wonderful education for both of us. Getting into medical school is especially tough for an international student given the narrow selection of schools that admit them. However, Milton, a Biochemistry major, was later accepted into Yale, Vanderbilt and Dartmouth Medical Schools. Warm weather for his tropical soul, a full tuition Deans Scholarship, amongst other things drew Milton to Vanderbilt. A Biophysical Chemistry major, I got in after taking a year off to do chemistry research at Dartmouth, fundraising and conducting a needs assessment survey for the clinic. Looking at how far we have come, we are always heartbroken to reflect upon the countless sacrifices our parents made for us to get educated, yet neither of them ever witnessed our college graduations nor ever got to see the country where they had faith to let their children go to learn.

What challenges do you face starting and managing a medical clinic in a remote village in Kenya while attending medical school in Nashville, TN

Medical School is very involving and intense. It is tough staying on top of the material you cover, making time to exercise and play soccer, let alone fundraising, and designing a functional clinic thousands of miles away. Poorly developed communication infrastructure in the village makes it tough to connect and frankly, quite frustrating. My brother Omondi has to travel to Rongo town 9 miles away to charge his cell phone. Due to the 8 hour time difference, we try to call either early in the day or late at night here in the U.S. We are but novices. There are lots of complex decisions that we have to wade through.

How would you describe the current need for medical, educational and basic infrastructure in Kenya?

Very urgent, especially referring to medical services and basic infrastructure. There are many more educational facilities around. However, with the HIV/AIDS pandemic, TB, malaria menace, just to mention a few, there is need for a more robust health network. Unfortunately, some recent changes may not be beneficial. Mandatory retirement at the age of 55 for physicians and the fact that young doctors right out of medical school are no longer assured of assimilation into the field are two examples of recent policy recommendations.

What’s your vision for the future of Lwala/Kenya?

To provide affordable health care to thousands in a rural setting.
To address and reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS.
To improve maternal and child health.
To improve the education of youths in Lwala and introduce microfinance projects.

How often do you travel back to Lwala?

Once a year, as school schedule and money allow. This year, due to the opening of the clinic, we may get to go home twice.

This article and photo are courtesy of Equsite Safaris and available at: http://www.exquisitesafaris.com/index.php/journal/more/philanthropic_visionary_travelers/

More articles on Fred and Milton are available at:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~dartlife/archives/17-2/ochieng.html
http://thedartmouth.com/2007/03/27/news/alum/
http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/root/vumc.php?site=lwala