Asia, as a big continent and home to more than half of the world’s human population, offers many volunteering opportunities, providing destinations from the southern tropical rainforests to the heights of the Tibetan Plateau, a very diverse setting from which the volunteers can choose from. The unknown faces of Thailand, India, Nepal or Vietnam are in need of devoted volunteers, who can help with teaching, taking care of the children or just supporting the local community in every way possible. Without doubt, volunteering remains a highly rewarding humanitarian experience, an activity full of benefits not just for the volunteer but also for the society.
Boost your CV
The first obvious reason why you should take on some volunteer work would be the professional benefit, the work experience you would have gained in the process. Of course, this would not be the only profit, but an important one, especially when you are fresh out of the university and you are looking to add value to your CV, but also help the community at the same time. Volunteering will not only create a meaningful, lasting memory, buy will also provide the grounds for a great opportunity to improve your professional personality.
Learn New Skills
Boosting your practical work experience comes with the intake of new skills, not just professional ones like a new language or the teaching skills, but more personal ones like empathy, patience, tolerance and self-efficacy. Moreover, voluntary work will strengthen the self-esteem and considerably help your personal growth. The people’s skills, the most important ones in this kind of humanitarian work, will most definitely reach a new high level while doing voluntary work, because getting involved with people will require charisma, trustworthiness and a lot of empathy in order to get the job done properly.
Give Back
If you truly want to make a difference in the world, so you can pride yourself in your older days that you didn’t live a life regretting not giving back to the community, volunteering, in any kind of field, is most definitely the way to do it. Doing voluntary work is favourable and rewarding on so many levels because you get to invest in the community, give back to the people that are in need, regardless of the country you live in. An excellent way of bringing people together and investing into the local society, volunteering is beneficial for everyone.
Broaden your Horizons
Voluntary work can be highly therapeutic, an environment where you get the chance to learn many new things, not only about the community, but also about yourself. You get to test your endurance, your ability to teach and to listen, to care and protect. A great scenario for self-development, with both mental and physical rewards, volunteering will release stress, boost your immune system and make you reconsider your life choices. Voluntary work is a background for social happenings which will put you in contact with new languages and cultures, enriching your overall perspective of life.
Save Resources
Voluntary work is community work. Therefore, in order to truly help the society and the ones in need of support, the money used to pay the human help get redirected into buying material things, essential school and medical provisions, food, clothes and general necessities. The voluntary organisations are non-profit ones and the funds, usually donated, go to the areas in need, such as the schools, the hospitals and the support centres. Mostly working hand in hand with the government, the community resources go to the ones who request it the most and the fact that people volunteer and don’t expect a pay only helps raise more money.
Building Connections
Volunteering will open up your opportunities to make new contacts, friends and perhaps even future colleagues if you’re in a work setting. You will be surrounded by people from all backgrounds and beliefs but all with a common ethic: that helping people, animals or the environment is important. You might make life long connections giving you the opportunity to visit again in the future if you should wish to, as well as providing you with some excellent references. By working as a team and experiencing new things together, you’ll forge strong friendships with people you might have otherwise never met.
