Would you like to do a volunteering project as a way to start 2018?

Peace and development are not possible without the help of the volunteering community. This is basically the message that the International Volunteer Day (IVD) aims to spread, held each year on 5 December. IVD 2017’s theme #VolunteersActFirst recognizes the contributions of volunteers as first responders in times of crisis. The goal of IVD 2017 is raising awareness and giving importance to the role that volunteers play all over the world.

The United Nations designated this day on 1985, when all the governments were invited to celebrate volunteering in one day. Volunteers are the first ones to provide life-saving and protection services to migrants, work in communities to promote health, prevent diseases and respond to the basic needs of people affected by drought, poverty and conflict.

In honour of the International Volunteer Day, this article proposes a bunch of opportunities in order to start 2018 doing a volunteering project abroad. NGOs from all over the world need people ready to contribute to their projects thanks to their expertise in different fields. Those fields could be human rights, education, health and environment, among many others.

1. Strategic EVS in Ivancice

Dates: 1/8/2017 – 12/31/2018

Location: Ivancice (Czech Republic)

Hosting organization: SVC Ivancice

Vacancies: 1

Tasks: Volunteers will do different tasks such as educational activities with youth, participation in public events, activity productions for an open centre and regular meetings to explain each one’s culture and country. Besides, volunteers will be able to combine those activities with his own interests: media, sports, creation, dance, etc…

2. Youth, Culture and Media

Dates: 9/1/2018 – 8/31/2019

Location: Normandy (France)

Hosting organization: MJC Le Rond-Point

Vacancies: 2

Tasks: The missions of volunteer promoting EU citizenship and openness to the world, using web radio and web TV to reach objectives of the project, the participation and organization of events and activities of MJC and developing the volunteer personal project.

3. Do your best for migrant children!

Dates: 1/5/2018 – 8/31/2019

Location: Gaziantep (Turkey)

Hosting organization: Gaziantep Egitim ve Genclik Dernegi

Vacancies: 10

Tasks: In this volunteering opportunity selected people will be organizing learning activities for Syrian and Afgan Kids from Monday to Friday. The hosting organization works with a network of organizations in Gaziantep in order to support families in the educational development of their children.

4. Explore diversity!

Dates: 1/7/ 2018 – 8/31/2018

Location: Barcelona (Spain)

Hosting organization: Fundació Catalunya Voluntària

Vacancies: 1

Tasks: The project has 2 main action lines. On the one hand, volunteers will support communicational tasks such as uploading contents to the website, social media, info sessions with local people about EVS and other European opportunities and translations Spanish – English –Spanish. On the other hand, there will be workshops created and implemented by volunteers for local people with the aim to promote a multicultural space.

5. Cultural folk formation in Sweden

Dates: 2/1/2018 – 1/31/2019

Location: Växjö (Sweden)

Hosting organization: Medborgarskolan region öst

Vacancies: 1

Tasks: The volunteer will mainly work in the dance studio Kulturama Preparandum in music activities. The volunteer tasks will be updating social media, preparing room and equipment for an evening activity, attending and assisting during a street dance class, preparing for a big show, creating a decoration, helping plan the logistics and doing an inventarium of the dance and music equipment.