With heavy time commitments during the working and parenting stages of life, volunteering/working overseas (or even in our own neighbourhood) can be an unattainable endeavour. But with more time being freed up at retirement, many people turn to volunteering to obtain personal fulfillment or give back to their community.
When work life ended for Vancouver’s Bev Taylor in 2001, she started volunteering for various causes in her own community, then moved to overseas volunteer work. It started with a trip to India on a home-build project with Habitat for Humanity.
“We were a group of women building houses for women – women who were widowed or abandoned or head of household because their husbands were unable to work,” says Bev.
When she returned home from that project, Bev started volunteering in the finance and accounting department at the local Habitat for Humanity in Los Angeles, where she was living at the time. Then, one of her daughters, a medical doctor who had joined Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in 2010, suggested she apply to work for them as well.
“She said they needed people with my experience and assured me I’d really like it,” recalls Bev. “When I reminded her that I had never worked in the medical/health industry, she told me how much administrative support is needed to make the projects possible. I applied and was accepted.”
Bev’s first mission was a six-month stint in South Sudan. She found the work so fulfilling that after a year’s break, she accepted a one-year mission in Swaziland, then another six-month mission in Tanzania.
“Of course, I have always taken a break between missions – to recover, to tend to my home, and to spend time with family and friends. And now I only do shorter missions. Last year, I spent three months in Yemen and I am now preparing to go to Iraq for three months.”
While MSF is not strictly volunteer (it pays for travel to the mission country, looks after food and lodging and pays a small salary), the monthly salary is well below the wage a person would earn at home. Sometimes the living conditions can be very challenging – harsh conditions such as living in a tent, extreme heat or isolation and threat of disease. Volunteers don’t choose their placements – MSF matches the worker’s skill sets with the project needs.
A volunteer can also refuse the offer of a mission. “I have never refused a mission,” says Bev, “but I might if I felt there was extreme risk for my survival, including kidnapping, or for my health.”
Wondering what a typical day on an MSF mission might look like? According to Bev, “there is no typical day. For example, my one-year mission in Swaziland was for HIV/AIDS and TB. Because it was a long-term project in a non-conflict country with virtually no security risks and no emergency, working there was basically 9-5, five days a week. On an emergency mission, such as the response to a natural disaster or cholera outbreak, we might work 10-12 hours a day, seven days a week. That means eat, work, sleep.”
“Working in a country such as Yemen, where there is significant risk for our safety,” Bev continues, “usually means almost complete confinement. We live and work in the same building, travel as little as possible under very strict protocol, probably working long hours and often six days a week. Team spirit is important because it’s only four or five expats depending on one another for any social activities. The long hours and stress of an emergency project can be quite exhausting. On the other hand, the boredom of a 9-5 type project can be really trying,” she says, “I depend on the Vancouver Library for e-books, so I always have something to read.”
There is also the issue of homesickness. Bev says access to the internet is often the only lifeline to family and, fortunately, even in remote locations, logistics teams install satellite access.
“Some of my friends think I’m crazy,” Bev shares, “but most are now used to my MSF ‘habit.’ Since one of my daughters also works with MSF, she gets it. My other daughter jokes that it’s good I had a second child who is willing to look after our affairs while her sister and I are flitting around the world.”
But what some people might not realize, is that it can be difficult to come back home after a placement, as well.
“For me, culture shock is worse coming home than going to a new country. When I embark on a mission, I have an idea of what I will find when I get there, especially having travelled to developing countries in the past. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to deal with some of the deplorable conditions people might be living in or violence that might be taking place. Not at all,” says Bev. “But the disparity is so great when returning to the excess that is part of our lives in the West. Although you’d think it gets easier the more missions a person takes, it’s not necessarily true. Post-traumatic stress is not at all uncommon for returning field workers, and MSF offers peer and professional counselling for anyone who needs it.”
All things considered, however, for Bev the satisfaction far outweighs the downsides to overseas volunteering.
“Being able to interact with beneficiaries and see the difference you can make in people’s lives is the ultimate reward. It is a wonderful experience getting to know the culture of each country and working with the locals. One of the most enjoyable things for me is that I get to teach and coach the national staff who are under my supervision, which means they get to learn/practice a discipline that gives them more employment opportunities going forward.”
“I feel fortunate,” says Bev. “After retirement from the corporate world, I found a new adventure doing work that I love. Being involved with humanitarian projects has changed my life. It is the most satisfying work I’ve ever done.”
Interested in overseas work? Bev’s advice:
– Be willing to respect the culture and follow the customs of the country;
– It helps if you’ve previously travelled outside of Canada;
– Be prepared to live in conditions unlike what you’re used to, sometimes harsh, and to eat the local food;
– Be ready to work in a team environment because it will be critical to the success of the project and possibly your survival;
– Good health is a must.
For more info:
Habitat for Humanity: www.habitat.ca
Doctors Without Borders/MSF: www.doctorswithoutborders.ca
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