Gap year - Free Guide to Volunteering Abroad

Welcome to Gap Year Guide - the Free Independent Guide to all things Gap year!! This website has been created to give students and professionals un-biased information on all aspects of overseas gap years, volunteering projects, Internships and work experience abroad which can include:-

Teaching, Care, Conservation, Environment, Medicine and Heathcare, Sports, Community Projects, Business, Law, Journalism and Human Rights.

We will be posting articles from our network of contributers who have all experience or are experiencing working abroad in the following countries:-

Volunteers in Africa

Ethiopia, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo

Volunteers in Asia

Cambodia, China, India, Mongolia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand

Volunteers in South America

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru

Volunteers in Eastern Europe

Moldovia, Romania

Here are some examples below of what you can expect with a gap year

Gap year in Africa

It was a dreary, late February afternoon in 2007 when I first came across the idea of a gap visiting a careers fair at my former university in Leeds. Ever since early childhood, it was my ambition to become a doctor. Bearing this in mind, a proposition of undertaking a medical project in a developing country like Ghana seemed irresistible. Although a bit expensive, the opportunities and experiences resulting from such a trip logically outweighed all the monetary costs.

In the end, the decision to come to Ghana was a relatively late one. This gave me very little time to prepare or research any information about the country. All I knew was that I will be living in Kumasi, the capital of the famous and infamous Ashanti region, with a local guest family in order to broaden my multicultural horizons and that I will be working at a small, private hospital called ‘Atasemanso Hospital Ltd.’. This proved to be a tricky conundrum, blending Atasemanso, all of the staff made me and my colleague volunteer Anna feel extremely welcome. Dr. Boateng, the owner and founder of the institution, is extremely dedicated to his profession, which also includes his patients, staff, as well as his volunteers. He spares us a lot of his precious time answering and explaining all our questions and queries. The same can be said of the surgeons, the matrons, the nurses, the lab staff, doctor’s secretary, andall of the technicians. They all have contributed enormously to my medical enlightenment and to my impressions of Ghana and its inhabitants.

Although one can say that I didn’t experience many ‘typical’ working days, during my whole stay in Kumasi I came across five types of days: the ones involving operations, the ones involving autopsies, the medical outreach program days, night shifts, and day shifts that can de best described as routine.

Gap year in China

Perhaps the most dangerous aspect of my life in Shanghai, for my bank balance at least, is that I am able to walk to the West Nanjing Road fake market from my office. Sprawling over three floors with hundreds of stalls, the market is a treasure trove of cheap, and often absurdly tacky, goods. It’s hopeless trying to limit yourself to the necessities of Shanghai, within a few minutes you’ll have convinced yourself that life can’t go on until you own a remote control helicopter or a glow-in-the-dark watch.

The stall owners are friendly and talkative, going on the principle that the longer they can keep you blathering the looser your wallet will become. Chinese people are always keen to learn about life in the west, and often conversations go off on a bizarre tangent. Yesterday, a discussion between a store assistant and a medical volunteer started as a negotiation over some shoes but ended up with the shop transforming into an impromptu health centre. After learning that Nirav was a doctor, the girl was soon regaling him with her various afflictions and asking for advice. Haggling is essential, and not for the feint hearted, but is all part of the fun. The first price given is often extortionate, but after you recoil in shock a ‘special price, just for you’ is usually quick to follow.

A personal favourite is a ‘handsome man price’ (flattery will get you everywhere), topped only by the ‘handsome gentleman price’ I got once from an anglophile trader (all Englishmen become gentlemen in China by default).

Gap year in Argentina

The new years has began with the joy and happiness of having lots of volunteers in Cordoba where they will be able to see their dreams of enjoying their projects, meeting new friends and visiting new places come true.

As you very well know, we are in the middle of the summer down here and the Cordoba Hills are more beautiful than ever. National and international tourists are tempted by Cordoba’s natural beauty, its green trees full of flowers and its crystal clear water.

Cordoba is known all over Argentina and in some of the southern countries because the festivals that take place in our
province. The most important ones are the folk festivals, like the ones offered by Jesus Maria and Cosquin, two of the tourist cities, but there are also some rock festivals that mostly youngsters and adolescents go to have fun and listen to some good music. Being a Mediterranean province, Cordoba gives people the opportunity to travel to other provinces without spending a lot of time travelling. Volunteers are likely to travel during the weekends to Buenos Aires, Mendoza, Salta or even Iguazu Falls as all of them are places worth visiting.

We also want to tell you that during the last months of 2008 and the first of months of 2009, the length of stay of all the volunteers tended to be long, giving us the chance to have projects like Care and Teaching with continuous volunteer help.

We are also making the last arrangements for a new project to offer you, which we are sure that you will like a lot. Soon we will tell what it is about….