Culture SHOCK!

Say Hola to Mexico this summer! You could be unwinding on Marquelia beach while protecting turtle eggs. Or perhaps you have your sights set on India, attending the Festival of Lights and learning all about Indian culture. No? Maybe you’re visioning yourself on safari in South Africa helping out at a Rhino Sanctuary? Do these international locations pop up daily in your daydreams? Well UNA Exchange can transform your fantasies into reality. UNA Exchange gives people of all ages the opportunity to experience different cultures whilst learning skills and making a vast impact on the world. Read on to see how you can become a globe trotter whilst volunteering.

About the Organisation

UNA Exchange is an organisation which provides people with international volunteering opportunities. They provide the majority of their volunteering in Wales, but they have a substantial amount of volunteering opportunities abroad also. They are a registered charity and they provide volunteering opportunities in fifty countries worldwide. For many of their overseas opportunities, you have to be eighteen or over to apply, although there are a few opportunities available for those people who are sixteen and seventeen. The overseas volunteering opportunities for these ages are mainly in France and Germany. The organisation recruits volunteers all year through and their website allows budding volunteers to explore the many different types of volunteering they have to offer. Their organisation offers three programmes:

1) Volunteering in Wales

Around 250 volunteers each year join 2-3 week projects all over Wales, working alongside local people to carry out community activities. The volunteers come from more than 30 countries, including Wales, and work on environmental, social and cultural projects.

2) Volunteering Abroad

The second programme is designed for people who want to volunteer in a different country on projects ranging from 2 weeks until 3 months. This programme requires the volunteer to pay for travel costs and things such as visas and vaccinations. UNA Exchange asks the volunteers to pay a contribution of approximately £150 to the project also and obviously, volunteers will want to take some spending money too. Therefore the main areas that are provided are accommodation and food.

3) Supported Volunteering

This programme, which is also about volunteering abroad, has two main parts, the long-term (6-12 months) ‘European Voluntary Service’ (EVS) and the shorter term (2-4 weeks) ‘Step by Step’ project.
For the EVS programme, the organisation requires volunteers who are strictly in the age range 18-30. The programme takes about 6 months to set up and it also involves an informal face to face interview so that the organisation and volunteer can get to know one another better. On this programme, everything is paid for. That means food, accommodation, travel costs and a small personal allowance are taken care of.
The Step by Step project has been designed for volunteers in the 16-25 age group, who join it as part of their own personal development, and who have the support of a local youth/community worker. As with EVS, all costs are covered but UNA Exchange does encourage people who apply for the ‘Step by Step’ programme to fundraise, but the organisation gives the volunteers an easy to reach target of £100 to give as a contribution to the project.

UNA Exchange stress that they are open to all applicants and volunteers don’t need any specific skills to apply for the programme. All successful applicants will be required for a training weekend before the volunteer’s jet off to their desired location. Volunteers can submit an application online or pop into the UNA Exchange office to apply for their next adventure.

The types of volunteering with UNA Exchange are dramatically diverse. The UNA Exchange website allows the potential volunteer to search for their idea role, and there are so many different positions available that there is bound to be something on their list that appeals to their taste. The categories that they have to offer are education, social, cultural, construction and so much more. Sheila Smith, the Director at UNA Exchange, explains that the programmes inevitably bring cultures together, and provides an opportunity to learn about people from different backgrounds and races, whilst having fun in exotic locations. So when asked about the different opportunities, was there one that she believed was most sought after?

‘The programme of protecting turtle’s eggs in Mexico is quite an appealing one. The programme requires volunteers to guard turtles eggs once they have been laid on the beach. Many poachers steal the turtle eggs to sell as a delicacy, but they don’t realise the negative effect this will have upon our environment, so the programme will also require volunteers to educate poachers and locals about the importance of protecting marine turtle eggs. Once the turtles eggs have hatched, the baby turtles look towards the moonlight as a guide to lead them back into the ocean but buildings that are close to their nesting site flood the beach with light, making it difficult for baby sea turtles find their way, so volunteers are also needed to guide baby sea turtles by directing them with torches.’

Volunteers spending their days digging their toes into the warm white sand, and looking out onto the waves gently crashing in the distance while immersing themselves in the scorching heat…..it’s hardly surprising why this project is one of the favoured ones! Volunteers on this type of project will probably sleep in tents on the beach, but accommodation differs on each project. Volunteers mainly stay in hostels, tents or in churches that have areas for people to sleep in. Projects usually provide a kitchen for volunteers so they are able to make their own meals. This is a good culinary experience as you’ll be working with volunteers who are from different parts of the world, so this is an excellent opportunity for volunteers to experience different types of food that their co-volunteers usually eat in their home country.

Although we don’t need much swaying in the GwirVol office, how would Sheila sell her programme to potential volunteers?

‘The programmes are designed to help bring cultures together. In years to come you might not remember the work you‘ve done, but you’ll remember the people who you met while on the project.’

Sheila stresses that the projects are fun, but she also addresses the important issues of these programmes.

‘It’s about experiencing new cultures and learning new values and bringing these values back home to change our world.’

For example, a volunteer could be completing a project in Ghana and become aware of harsh and unfair working conditions for people who are gathering coffee beans. After such experiences, UNA Exchange hopes volunteers will turn what might be negative experiences and change them into positives. For example, they might make a choice to only drink fair-trade coffee, or talk to others about their experiences. Volunteering with UNA Exchange has the ability to redefine your morals and to appreciate different cultures when experiencing things first hand. On the lighter side of things, Sheila also tells us about the amusing side of volunteering while you are working with the locals.

‘I went to India to work on protecting marine turtle eggs and part of the project needed our group to raise awareness amongst the locals about the dangers of poaching the turtle eggs. We were putting on a presentation in a village, but as the local language wasn’t English we had to mime the presentation instead! Luckily the people in the village (the children especially) really enjoyed the presentation despite the lack of verbal communication! Many people in the village have never seen people from the West before, so once people knew we were coming, word got around fast and there were so many people who turned up to watch. It was a very surreal experience as you couldn’t help but feel a tiny bit like a celebrity for the day!’

Where do I sign up?

To put it simply, the UNA Exchange programme is an opportunity for people to travel overseas, to experience different cultures, to meet new people and most importantly to be part of something that makes a difference to a community. What’s stopping you from getting involved?!

To read more about the organisation and to start applying for projects NOW, visit the UNA Exchange website http://www.unaexchange.org or visit their office in the Temple of Peace, Cathay’s Park in Cardiff. Once you discover a voluntary trip that appeals to you, you could be saying Bon Voyage in just a few days.