Five Ways to Continue Volunteering After Returning Home

Continue volunteering at home

Most international volunteers come home changed by their experience with a deep passion and connection to their host community. Coming home doesn’t mean that relationship has to end. Here are some ideas to make the most of your experience by continuing to support your volunteer project and community after your return.

1. Spread The Word: Be an Advocate for What You Believe In

Sharing your personal story is a great way to help the people and organization where you volunteered. Volunteer experience abroad gives you inside knowledge on the location, the issues and the culture of international communities. Write a story or article about what you learned, what you did, why you went, etc.

Did you volunteer for a specific human rights issue or environmental effort? There are tons of travel, volunteer and nonprofit publications that rely on reader submissions. (Go Overseas is one great place to start; you can even get paid for your story as a contributor.) Find other organizations, locally or abroad, which specialize in that field as well. Your hometown newspaper may even be interested in your volunteer abroad experience. Finding the right audience is important to getting your story out.

If writing isn’t for you there are other ways to get the word out. You can share your photos – post them on a blog; submit them to magazines, contests, art galleries, etc. Or you can speak about your experiences and what you learned to community and school groups.

2. Start an Organization

Recognizing the needs of communities abroad and then coming up with ideas to help is inspiring. Using this inspiration to start a nonprofit is a great way to support a cause you are passionate about. It may sound like a big task but it’s more than doable with the right motivation. Here are some tips and ideas to get started: Start an International Nonprofit and How to Start a Successful NGO in 10 Steps.

One great example of an organization that started this way is Puente a la Salud Comunitaria (Bridge to Community Health), an organization helping rural communities in Oaxaca, Mexico to improve economic and health inequalities. Puente was started in 2003 when two young American volunteers saw the potential amaranth, a high protein plant, had to support local culture, economy and health. The organization has helped more than 6,000 families improve their diet with amaranth. Read more about their story on Puente’s history section.

Become a teacher to help your community

3. Stay in Touch: Sending Support, Supplies and a Little Love

Keeping in touch with people you met while abroad is fun and beneficial. No one relates to your volunteer abroad experience like the people who were there with you doing the same work, sharing the same ideals. From other international volunteers to locals you met to people at organizations you volunteered with, anyone can support each other and the causes that inspired you to volunteer.

You probably have more resources back home than the community you volunteered with does. School and medical supplies are usually much cheaper and more available back home. Use those resources and your knowledge of their needs to send supplies. You can even ask local businesses to get involved in sending donations and materials. Here is a great example of “U.S. medical 'trash' saving lives abroad” from CNN.

4. Volunteer In Your Community

How does volunteering in one community help another one across the globe? You have great experience in the field you volunteered in so why not use it. We can sometimes get distracted by the adventure of traveling but don’t forget the importance of the volunteer work you do.

Maybe you helped fight poverty and economic inequality in Africa. Even though it may be on a much smaller scale, these problems do exist in other countries too. Educating yourself on what you can do to alleviate poverty in your own town will give you more experience in the field. Hopefully, you can even use that to help abroad again in the future.

Idealist has some good tips too, like volunteering with the organization you went with or “local organizations addressing the same types of issues (or even with local immigrants and expatriates from that part of the world)”.

5. Plan Another Volunteer Trip

Longing to return to your volunteer life abroad is a common feeling. After going through the experience once, it’s much easier to plan the next time around. Whether you want to return to the same organization in the same location or have a completely different experience, your next trip can be even better. Use what you learned the on your volunteer trip to make sure you make the most out of your next one.

Get creative! Do what you can to do good from anywhere in the world. Volunteering can be an on-going part of your life.

Additional Resources:

• Coming Home From Volunteering Abroad
• Turn Volunteering Abroad Into a Career
• Five Ways to Raise Money at Home for Your Cause Abroad

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