Volunteer Abroad Profile: Voluntrek

This week, I interviewed Yvonne Nader Bichara of Voluntrek, a Mexican volunteer organization placing individuals with local nonprofits to help children of low-income families. Founded in 2010, Voluntrek was created to give back to and engage individuals in local Mexican communities. Volunteers teach in three different programs including productivity workshops, English, and physical education and safety; currently, negotiations are in the works to expand to other projects of interest to applicants.

Children in a Voluntrek workshop

Application and Pre-Departure

Any person 18 or older may apply for programs through the Voluntrek website. The organization works with each applicant to determine skills and potential project areas via abilities tests and an informational interview. If someone applies to one program but may be better suited for another project, he’s encouraged to take that project instead, ensuring that the placement benefits both the organization and the applicant.

Once a volunteer is accepted, Voluntrek sends out an orientation kit. According to Yvonne, this includes preparation tips (e.g., how to acquire a visa), program notes, information about Mexico, Spanish class options, and arrival information. In addition, a coordinator stays in touch with the volunteer through Skype or email, answering any questions that may arise before the trip.

During the Project

All volunteers receive a two-day orientation once they arrive to their project site—during this training, they learn about local and general Mexican culture and history, meet staff and other volunteers, get acquainted with their project area, and settle in to their stay. Support is provided throughout the duration of the project.

To ensure programs are sustainable, Yvonne notes, "We carefully select the non-profit organizations and Programs in which our volunteers will be working, taking into considerations several aspects.

• Information regarding the organization, its mission, objectives and values.

Teaching in a Voluntrek partner classroom
• The organization should promote human values in some way.
• The program's objectives.
• We can only place volunteers in Programs that could not be able to exist otherwise. The last thing we want is to take away job opportunities from Mexicans, therefore, we only place volunteers where there are no resources to hire a Mexican or if the required abilities are not easily acquired in Mexico.
• The Program should be operated and administrated by our partner-organization, if a third party is involved, we need to know and investigate them before accepting.
• Voluntrek staff visits the organization and personally evaluates the Programs before starting to work with them.
• Volunteers should be able to work together with local people, in order to learn how things are done in the local community.
• Besides the arrival orientation given to Voluntrek to our volunteers, our partner organizations need to prepare an orientation where volunteers can learn how to perform their tasks according to the organization´s and local standards.
• Volunteer placements should always be nearby the place where they will be living, in order to reduce transportation time and its consequences.

And finally, when asked her favorite part of working with Voluntrek, Yvonne says, "Visiting the Programs and watching how the local community is being benefited, and how volunteers change internally day by day in a positive way through their Volunteer Program. But I also love meeting new people from other countries and being able to share the beauties of Mexico with them."

Most importantly, knowing that I am actually doing something to make my country a better place, and knowing that we are providing life changing experiences to young people that will most probably do something else to help once they are back in their countries.