Why volunteer?
Why should you go abroad as a volunteer? What is the point? What can you accomplish? The reasons we find most important are explained below.
You really make a difference!
The first and most important reason: as a volunteer, you help people who need help. All our projects at which you can volunteer, involve people who are in need and who are less fortunate than yourself. Most of the time these people are children who have been affected by poverty, illness, racism or in some other way.
When you volunteer at one of our projects, it means you help the project. You make a contribution. You make a difference. Because our projects are small and offer instant help, your work has a great impact. You immediately see results: a smile on a face, a child who has learned something, a painted wall, a child who is no longer ill, a new building....
This reason is the most important reason for Be More's existence. We also hope this is the reason you decide to volunteer.
You create awareness, engagement and involvement in those around you
When you decide to go abroad as a volunteer, people around you will take note of it. Many people dream of doing 'something for developing countries', but there are few who actually take the step and go. Making the decision to volunteer abroad not only creates admiration but it also creates a strong sense of involvement in what you are doing.
This sense of involvement and engagement in your experience is important for Be More. Creating further awareness and involvement in the issues faced by developing countries, is the basis of why we offer help. Involved people want to know what is going on, they feel connected to the project and the people and they are willing to help out. Even if it is only a little help, it always makes a great difference to those in developing countries.
You get to know a different culture
When you go on vacation to a different country, you can see what life is like there. You take a quick look at a different culture and maybe learn something. As a tourist though, it is difficult to fully get to know another culture or to understand how people live, what their habits are, how they view things, etc.
Being a volunteer in a different country means you will be in contact with the local community. You will work together on a project and you will share the same motivations and the same goals. You will hear their stories, see their houses, meet their families. This gives you a much deeper understanding of what their culture is like.
But it also works the other way around. The communities you work with will learn about you and your culture. The same is true for the children you work with. For them, it is exciting to hear about a country far away, and to be told stories of what life is like there, and what children their age do there. Thus, you and the people you are helping will learn from each other and enrich each other's lives, bit by bit.
It's fun
Volunteer work is fun! There is no other way to put it. You work as a group with other volunteers, all from different countries, on a project you all care deeply about and put a lot of effort into. You are in a country different to your own, with new customs and habits. You work in difficult but also beautiful circumstances, for and with people who need your help.
All of this creates a special bond, both with the other volunteers and also with the local people you work with. Experiencing such a special time in your life with other people is something that will stay with you forever. It is a feeling you will never forget. This is what makes volunteer work what it is: fun.
The world isn't bad because of all the evil people, but because of all the good ones doing nothing.
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