volunteering in INdia
 

Hi all,
i am looking to spend some time in northern india this summer...does anyone have any ideas or know of any good organizations to volunteer with? I have found the dogga house as well as volunteer tibet. Anyone heard of these before? appreciate any insight. THanks a lot...

I have not heard of the two that you mention. Having looked at the website for Volunteer Tibet, it looks like many of their positions are long-term or permanent, while you are planning to just be there a few weeks/months; but some of their positions appear to be able to be done long-distance, like grant writing, editing or updating computer files, so maybe you can start a project in India and them complete it from home. I don't know anything about the organization.

I have had English friends who volunteered through Oxfam, which is a very well-regarded worldwide-relief agency, take a look at Oxfam International at http://www.oxfam.org. They have short-term assignments.

Also try the links below:

United Nations Volunteer Program at http://www.unv.org/
Habitat for Humanity at http://www.habitat.org/ap/housing_need.aspx
and for India specifically see http://www.habitat.org/ap/build/ap/94.aspx

I have had friends volunteer at Habitat for Humanity in south America and thought it was a very worthwhile experience. They have short-term assignments.

While north India certainly needs help, there may be a great need in Sri Lanka, which is still struggling to recover from the tsunami.

You may get in touch with Mr. Kay Schlag, of Germany, who is the Vice President of a boarding school run by the Children of Himalaya EV.This school has about 40 kids for primary education, the building, meals, education, uniforms & everything else is being run by the germans. It situates about 125km above Manali & at village Jispa, cut off from the world during the winters. I think they have computers too. Mr. Schlag can be contacted on email: [email protected]

Hi
I'm off in May to do 3months volunteering in India through Mondo Challenge - if ur UK based Challenges Worldwide are very good also - go to timebank.org.uk - they have lists of volunteer placements

The NY Times just had a piece about some volunteer vacations in India, see the Travel Section of the Sunday March 19 issue, or take a look at http://reliefridersinternational.com, http://www.sustainabletravelinternational.org/ or http://www.sustainabletravelinternat...odirectory.php