Thinking of Volunteering Overseas ?

Comhlamh's Volunteering Options Programme

Comhlámh’s Volunteering Options programme is designed to provide information and advice to people thinking about volunteering abroad, whether with development agencies or with other organisations. The programme has its own website at www.volunteeringoptions.org.

The website contains a searchable database of over 115 organisations that arrange international volunteer placements. It also sets out information for people before, during and after their volunteer placement. Other sections include links to relevant resources and information on upcoming courses and events relating to overseas volunteering.

Part of the Volunteering Options programme has been the development of a Code of Practice for sending organisations, and a Volunteer Charter for volunteers. These can be downloaded from the Resources section, along with the findings of our research into the impact of international volunteering on host organisations.

The main purpose of the Code of Practice/Volunteer Charter is to set a standard for volunteering in the developing world. It was drawn up with input from a variety of organisations and returned volunteers, and has been signed up to by 29 Irish-based organisations.

There is also a Volunteering Options book, Working for a Better World: A Guide to Volunteering in Global Development, (2nd edition) which can be bought direct from Comhlámh for €17.95, including p&p. Call the office at 01 - 478 3490 for sales, or order a copy online from our Buy a book page. Alternatively, the book is available for sale in most major bookshops, including Easons, and it is also available for purchase via www.amazon.co.uk.

Our Options and Issues in Development Work Group offers people the opportunity to further examine the role of the development worker/volunteer in the broader context of development – please follow this link for more details Options and Issues in Development Work Group. For further information about the Volunteering Options programme, please contact Dervla (dervla@comhlamh.org) or Siobhan (Siobhan@comhlamh.org).

Sunday Tribune Article, January 2008

Read the Sunday Tribune article on Volunteering

Hot Press Magazine Article, February 2008

Read the Hot Press article on Volunteering

Courses

Comhlámh offers a number of courses for people who are thinking about volunteering or working overseas in developing countries. These include a one-day Options and Issues course and a weekend course that discusses the same issues in more detail.

Our “Moving Forward” courses are designed for returning volunteers who have spent up to three months overseas – please contact Siobhan (Siobhan@comhlamh.org) for further information about these.

We have also developed pre-departure courses for short-term overseas volunteers, in conjunction with Dtalk.  These will be available throughout the year:  for further information, please contact info@volunteeringoptions.org . 

Comhlámh also provides participatory training workshops for representatives of volunteer sending agencies, to support the implementation of the Code of Good Practice.  Topics include: Images and Development; Health and Safety; Volunteer Recruitment, Management & Support; and Child Protection Training.

For further information on these courses and other supports for volunteer sending organisations, please contact Dervla (dervla@comhlamh.org).

International Volunteer Day

The three video segments below were recorded by Comhlamh’s Audio-Visual Group to mark IVD 2007 and feature short interviews with representatives of host organisations that have received volunteers from Ireland in their respective projects. Comhlamh would like to thank all of those involved for giving their time and expertise in the making of these video clips.

Have You Returned from Time Overseas?

Bringing It All Back Home

On your return to Ireland, continuous engagement is the key to getting the most out of your time overseas. By drawing on the experience and learning you have gained, your input and perspective are invaluable to others and to yourself, whether you go on to study in a related discipline or get involved in campaigning or development education. As one volunteer remarked, "Commitment doesn't end at the airport."

Comhlámh (which means "Link Hands" or "Solidarity") provides an invaluable conduit for studying, campaigning, activism, and lobbying for change. What makes it unique, and imbues it with a specific understanding of volunteers, is that it was set up in 1975 by Irish returned development workers, who defined the organisation's principle objective as, "to enable persons who have rendered services overseas in developing countries upon their return to Ireland to bring to bear their own particular experience in order to further international development co-operation."

It now has activist groups and initiatives made up of volunteers from the public in the areas of Trade Justice, Anti-Racism, Focus magazine, Audio Visual Productions, and Options and Issues in Development, and it runs regular courses and training workshops for the public, volunteers and development workers alike.

Comhlámh members and supporters have always seen overseas development work as part of a broader commitment to global development and solidarity. Many of the causes of global inequality, poverty and oppression have their origin in the industrialised countries and can be addressed by education and campaigning.

People of all ages are joining Comhlámh and they believe that being a member and supporter of an organisation like Comhlámh is more important then ever in the ‘new' post-Celtic Tiger Ireland and an increasingly troubled and unequal world.

Right now, human rights, social justice and global development were never so important.

Get involved through Comhlamh...

Irish Aid's Information & Volunteering Centre Now Open on O'Connell Street, Dublin

The Irish Aid Volunteering and Information Centre is a state of the art, flexible multi-media exhibition space designed to raise awareness of development issues and the role of Irish Aid in tackling global poverty. Click here to learn more.

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Top Photo: Sok Rany and Vincent Doyle (APSO) watch Chea Sim making baskets, Takeo Province, Cambodia. © Derek Speirs/Report