Most visitors to India come to look: at the Taj Mahal, the forts of Rajasthan, the color and noise of the streets. Volunteers see all that and something more. They spend their weekdays in classrooms, shelters, community centers and hospitals, working alongside the local people who run them, and get to know the country from the inside.
The projects gain from the extra help, and so do you, often in ways you only notice once you are home. Here are six benefits worth knowing about.
1. Skills you can use anywhere
On a project, you learn by doing. You plan an activity for children of different ages, explain a game without a shared language, run an English conversation class or help paint a classroom mural. You learn to fit into someone else’s system, follow the lead of experienced local staff and solve problems with whatever is at hand. Those skills travel well, into a classroom, an office or a hospital ward.
2. A wider view of the world
Reading about poverty and inequality is not the same as spending your days with the people who live with them, and with the teachers, carers and community workers who tackle them every day. You see how much a well-run local project can do with very little, and why lasting change takes patience. Many volunteers come home with a clearer sense of their own good fortune and fewer assumptions about how other people live.
3. A head start on your career
Employers and universities look for proof that you can adapt, communicate and take responsibility, and a placement abroad gives you real examples to talk about. It is especially useful if you are heading toward teaching, healthcare, social work or development. Health students can gain hospital experience on our medical internship in Delhi, and every volunteer can ask for a certificate of participation at the end of the program.
4. Friendships across borders
You might arrive alone, but you won’t stay that way. You live with volunteers from other countries, swap stories over dinner and plan weekend trips together. You also get to know the local staff, your coordinator and the people at your project. Plenty of these friendships outlast the trip by years.
5. A new language, or at least a start
Your first Hindi phrases come at orientation, and every trip to the market or ride in an auto-rickshaw is a chance to practice them. If you want more, our Hindi and culture week includes language classes. And if English isn’t your first language, you will speak it all day with volunteers and staff, which makes a volunteer trip a practical way to build fluency.
6. Confidence that lasts
Finding your way on the Delhi Metro, leading a class for the first time, coping with the heat and trying food you can’t yet name: each small challenge adds up. By the end of your stay, you have proved to yourself that you can handle the unfamiliar, and that confidence comes home with you. It is one of the reasons a volunteer trip can change your life.
Want to find the program that suits you? See all our programs, or email info@volunteeringindia.com and our team will get back to you.