International Volunteers: is motivation alone enough?

15 Nov International Volunteers: is motivation alone enough?

To experience international volunteering is amazing: it helps you feel “useful”, to touch human suffering without staying apart. This way you become active, you are close to those in need and you learn to be part of this big world full of different cultures, different habits, full of humanity. If it is this type of first-hand experience that made us decide that “this has to be my future” is motivation alone enough?

Helping children in conflicts, or victims of gender-based violence, supporting livelihoods even in a small remote villag, or supporting the local school, needs preparation and training.  In the last years, the international cooperation scenario -both in development and in emergency settings- is pushing for sharing best practices and for making all this “collective learning availble and shared so to avoid doing “harm” when intervening. This huge amount of knowledge can be utilized by new humanitarian aid workers. Training is essential and many online courses are offered for free. Our invitation is not to be satisfied just because “you do something” but try to do  it in a way it is effective. Vulnerable people deserve the best quality available.