Volunteer India

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES in 2010

Volunteer with The Association of Relief Volunteers

This page is for those of you who are considering volunteering, or simply want to know a bit more about how past volunteers found things.

You can read what our past volunteers would like to say to you by heading to our Comments for Volunteers by Volunteers page. You can also follow the links in the right hand column to learn more about various aspects of volunteering in India with ARV and Longitude.

THE STORY

Longitude has been working in India with the Association of Relief Volunteers (ARV) since 2005, when volunteers were working under the title of Building Communities. Since then, Longitude has sent over 200 volunteers to work in rural parts of Andhra Pradesh on life-changing projects. To learn more about these projects, please head to our Uncaste India page.

Volunteer positions that are available with ARV:

✤ Tutor Dalit children - School is a constant struggle for Dalit children. They face discrimination in school from their upper-caste teachers, and they are often sent home because they can't afford school fees or materials. Through ARV you can help a struggling child with her school work and get her back on the educational track.
✤ Build Houses in Dalit villages - ARV are now focussing building efforts on houses in the village of Gummallapadnum having already had great success in Kothasatram-Indirinagar. Work is completed on 25 houses already, but there is still much to do to complete the other 59. Work alongside villagers as they literally rebuild their lives.
✤ Become a Relief Volunteer - Each year floods, fires, and droughts ravage the countryside of Andhra Pradesh. The Indian government does what it can to protect its people, but unfortunately most aid is distributed along caste lines and the Dalit villagers rarely receive anything. Help ARV to even the relief by giving your time and energy to supply a medical camp to a needy village, distribute food to starving children, or help to rebuild a home for a struggling widow.

Being a Volunteer

The majority of Longitude and ARV volunteers so far have been JET’s (English teachers in Japan) simply due to the fact that one of Longitude’s founders was himself a JET. However, whilst English ability is strongly recommended, we are always delighted to hear from people from other countries and backgrounds so long as they are committed and enthusiastic. Therefore, feel free to ask your friends, family or colleagues if you are planning on volunteering with us!

At Longitude, we really hope to make your volunteering experience one that you'll never forget - for the right reasons! However, volunteers should still be aware of a few things:

❖ Volunteers are our ambassadors

We sincerely hope that our volunteers will help to represent us and what we stand for both before, during and after workcamps! By spreading the word about us, volunteers increase the amount of people we can help!

❖ Volunteers are expected to fund themselves

This includes:

•All transportation costs to and from the designated meeting and end-of-workcamp locations. An estimate for flights from Tokyo to Delhi would be around 100,000yen/ 1,000 US dollars. You would then need internal flights (although you may be able to fly direct to Hyderabad depending on your route and travel plans) which would likely come to 10,000-20,000yen / 100-200 US dollars. For some tips you can check out our Travel to India and Domestic Travel in India pages.

•Medical expenses, both in preparation for travel, during and after the workcamps. The cost of these will totally depend on what you've had before and what your doctor recommends. Check out our Healthcare page to learn more.

•VISAs - these will cost about 10,000yen (100 US dollars). Head to our VISAs page to learn more!

•Paying a workcamp fee, which goes directly towards the costs of food and water, accommodation in a local hotel (with or without air con) and travel expenses by train and in a hired bus or car: for a 10 day trip, this is usually around 60,000yen/ 600 US dollars (this is assuming shared rooms and may alter due to different factors). Your Volunteer Group Leader will provide more details of the exact fee in a group budget once it is finalized.

A total estimate of cost would therefore be 200,000 yen or 2,000 US dollars (depending on your circumstances and how good you are at finding cheap flights!).

❖ Volunteers are also expected to help fundraise for work camp materials.

Simply put: without the funds, there are no materials! Check out our FUNdraising tips page to learn of previously tried and tested methods.

Being a volunteer with us may initially sound like it costs a lot, both in terms of time and money. However, most volunteers would say how much more they got out of the experience than they ever put into it. Please consider this when making your final decision about volunteering with us.

Head to our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) page to answer the most common questions we are asked.

You can read for yourself what previous volunteers thought by reading our Blog.

May 2010 India Expedition

(April 28 - May 6)

Group Leaders: Anna Radke & Megan Pankratz