Charlotte Hindle

I bought this book fresh after a holiday. A real holiday, not the kind where I take a few days off and not leave the house until have to go back to work.

What prompted me to get it is the realisation that I would prefer to do something useful or educational while on vacation. Dashing around a foreign country on a controlled schedule with minimal interaction except for the part where they try to sell you things like snake placenta pills? No thanks and yuck.

The latest baby in this famous travel book series was put together by LP writers, with contributions from volunteers, who have or are still doing work in the international volunteering sector.

So you want to volunteer. Now what?

There's more to it than identifying what you want to do and picking a place to go. Volunteer work means you pay them to take you in for a certain amount of time. Depending on the type of programme you choose, food and accommodations may be included.

There are two kinds of international volunteering. Development Volunteering involves humans - emergency and relief, working with children, building and construction, community development and education. Conservation & Wildlife Volunteering involves non-human subjects - archeology, wildlife and marine conservation.

And then there are the programmes - Organised Volunteer Programmes, where almost everything is arranged for you; Structured & Self-Funding Programmes, where you'll have to figure out half the arrangements yourself; DIY Placements, where you cut out the middle man and go straight to an NGO or locally run program yourself.

The book also deals with the practical questions. How do you fund your trip? Do you have to quit your job for long-term volunteering? Can you volunteer as a family? What are you going to do about the house? Pets? Mortgages? Cars?

There is also a section for volunteers coming home after a stint in a developing countries. How do you deal with reverse cultural shock? How do you put your volunteer work to your advantage when looking for a job? What if your trip is prompting a complete career change?

Lonely Planet's "Volunteer" is subtitled "A Traveller's Guide to Making a Difference Around the World" - showing you how to get a different sort of holiday, the kind where you roll up your sleeves and pitch in on what other people might identify as "work".

In fact, certain organisations mentioned in this book welcome skilled volunteers - there's always some use for a doctor, veterinarian, architect or scientist in some far-flung destination... like exotic Borneo.

Which brings me to one disadvantage I identified in this book - it was written with the Western demographic in mind. Most of the organisations listed here are based in USA, UK, Australia and New Zealand.

Dr Kate Simpson, who completed a PhD on gap years and international volunteering, said in the overview chapter:

"International volunteering is part of a long tradition of people from the West setting off to help or change the countries of the Global South (aka the developing world) and have adventures while they do it. Where once these people were missionaries and soldiers, colonists and explorers, teachers and entrepreneurs - now they are international volunteers."

There's a tiny section somewhere in the book with contact information for volunteers based in Asia, but unsurprisingly, this doesn't include organisations based in Malaysia.

Borneo and Malaysia only pops up as one of the locations for volunteer placement, which raises the question of us looking at local volunteering opportunities to begin with. A local option will not take up as much of your time and money, and will give you a taste of what to expect when you decide to mount a major expedition.

For those of you looking to make a difference during your annual leave, I encourage you to look up local NGOs who may need a helping hand and a little more local awareness. However, I don't blame you if you prefer to work with street children in Romania or sea turtles in Greece instead. It's your holiday, and there are Western volunteers out there who will be thrilled to come here.

After all, the whole point is to get away from home, wherever that is, and learn about the side of the world you don't live in. You might do some good and change some lives while you're there.… (meer)