In my last article we talked about expectations and disappointment, so this time I wanted to share a little list of what I consider useful questions to have in mind after arriving in Argentina and during the experience of working with Voluntario Global. 

This list intends to share with you a glimpse of our perspective as workers and educators of the Voluntario Global team. It can give you some hints about the way we think about volunteer work, and hopefully inspire your own!  

What does volunteering implies to me? 

Maybe you've done volunteer work before and have some idea about it. Maybe you haven't volunteered before and you can imagine lots of things. In both cases, this question will hopefully help you clarify your expectations if you haven't thought about them. The specific implications we attribute to volunteer work can help us build a solid perspective on it, that will probably amplify or change during the actual experience.

What do I think is the impact of volunteering? 

Volunteer work has an impact on different aspects of life. It can impact our future, our ideas, the community and/or project we’re volunteering at, our studies, our way of seeing and thinking about the world, how we relate to others… Reflecting about the impact volunteer work has for us implies a commitment to it.

What do I think is my role as a volunteer in a project?

Thinking about our roles as volunteers is actually essential from my perspective. We are not volunteering by our own, we are immersed in a project that’s already working and that will continue to do so after we leave. This question can help us think about what we want to learn from the experience and the people we’ll work with, and what we can teach and can share with others from our own experience.

This questions are quite similar to the ones you have to answer in the application form, but I do think it’s good to deepen on them before starting on a project, and reviewing them after we finish to create a new perspective. Has my answer changed after the experience? What changed and why? It’s also good to write them down to be able to compare your answers during your time here.

Of course, this is nothing else but a suggestion. For us, like all learning processes volunteering needs a constant reflection. We are always wondering about our work and the way we do it and volunteer’s feedback is essential in that process. 

So we encourage you to keep an open and critical mind! Keeping our minds full of questions can be a huge impulse to find meaning and growth.

We will be right there to find the answers together :)