An option for travel to distant and exotic places is to partner with an NGO that is working in the country or region you wish to see. Although participating on an organized trip or with an organized, ongoing operation can lead to restrictions on the ability to go where the wind takes you, there are many positives that can overshadow the perceived downsides.

One of the most common misconceptions is that you have to be specialized in some highly technical area to be effective working with one of these organizations. Nothing can be further from the truth. When we take medical and dental teams, there are only a few people involved that are actual medical or dental professionals. It takes support personnel to keep everything running well. For example on a recent dental team we had three dentists on a team of seventeen people. No one else was trained in dentistry or any aspect of it. Still we needed interpreters, someone to sterilize instruments, someone to dispense medications, someone to hold a flashlight on the teeth being extracted, someone to hold the instruments for the dentist, someone to keep order in the line of patients, someone to stand outside and take Polaroids (sometimes the only family photo folks will ever have) to distract the kids, and even someone to keep chickens, dogs and goats out of the clinic areas.

As you can see, on this particular team we needed much more than just dentists and dental assistants. That principle applies to nearly every NGO operation active in the world today.

You would also be surprised at how many different trades are in great demand with NGOs around the world. I have had requests to send welders, Toyota mechanics, teachers, police academy educators, computer specialists, carpenters, bricklayers, farmers, aquaculturists, seamstresses, etc. There is a place for anyone who has a desire to help others. It can be as mundane as moving rocks from point A to point B, or as highly specialized as a bush pilot that can navigate to remote airstrips and drop supplies or transport the critically ill or injured. Regardless of the apparent importance, rest assured each task is deemed vitally important to the operation and effectiveness of the NGO. Most organizations will operate to the capacity that they have funding and human resourses to accomplish their particular goals. Everyone that participates helps them reach those goals and in turn helps to make a positive difference in the world.

Aside from the obvious positive aspect of working with NGOs (which is that warm fuzzy feeling for doing a good thing), there are other components that have appeal to travellers who want more than what a travel agent has to offer in a package. You can find an NGO working anywhere you want to go. If you want urban, rural, jungle, refugee camps, war zones, ANYTHING, you can find some well meaning NGOs there waiting for you.

Now I need to interject something here. Many of us who run or work for NGOs are kind of wierd. We have a tendency to have character traits that make us want to leave society behind and get our hands dirty. Now that may not be a problem since you want to go where we work. You may just find kindred spirits all over the world, but if you work with different groups long enough, you will find a true nutcase from time to time (more than just the regular wierdness). Something about the isolation can just mess with some people’s heads. Don’t judge all NGOs by the nuts please.

A nice thing about volunteering with NGOs is the fact that much of the infrastructure for adventure travel in DPs is already in place. You will work with people who have an understanding of security situations and will, hopefully, have prepared their operations to run as safely as possible. HEED THEIR ADVICE!

You don’t have to go hunting for a place to visit, the NGO is already there. These groups have a tendency to get to the kind of places that anyone reading this would want to see.

Working with one NGO will almost always provide a lead for the next trip. Nobody works in a vacuum. Every group has a network and by spending time providing your blood, sweat, and tears, you may earn access to that network and a whole new world could open up.

When your time working with an NGO is over, you also have the option of just taking off and doing your own thing. After donating yourself to the cause, you will also get information from someone who lives in-country and they can point you in directions to see and do things you would never known about, without living there yourself. Use the workers as a resource to make your adventure more of an adventure.

These are just some points to consider when planning your next excursion. If you are fortunate enough to be able to travel, you are already way ahead of most of the inhabitants on this planet. Consider giving a little. I promise you, you will get much more back than you give.

Resources for finding groups at work in Honduras:
www.projecthonduras.com
www.mmex.org

Dr. Dave