It is important to volunteer abroad

During my last trip to Haiti, I was walking on a trail towards a house that we were going to distribute food around. I was on the trail almost at the house when I saw a young child about 8 or 9 years playing with a 7up 2 liter bottle. I stopped and watched this kid play with his bottle, and I watched his face and how much he enjoyed playing with this piece of garbage. Watching this changed my perspective on how i see the world today.

I am telling you this to show the importance of volunteering abroad.

I have a lot of experience under this subject of volunteering. In the last 2 years have been on 2 trips to haiti, i been 2 volunteering in New York City, I have been in West Virginia and Indiana volunteering.

So you might say have plenty of experience with this matter

And this afternoon i want to talk about how everyone should volunteer abroad at least once in a lifetime, And how it can change your life in great ways forever. During the speech i will address the pros of doing volunteer work. But since i have done a lot of work i have also talk to people who informed me about things that really turned them off from doing this kinda work, i will also address these issues that people informed me of the disadvantages of volunteering abroad.

Like I said when i talk to people who are debating on going to do volunteer work in other countries, one issue that they tell me is that they don’t want to take time off or use vacation time to do the trip.

The one question i ask them after they tell me that is if they would use their time to go on a cruise or to a resort. Most say yes. I tell them that what you get when you do a volunteering trip is lot greater than what you could do at a resort.

One other issue that they tell me about is that it costs too much money. Also, when volunteering like this you are able to fundraiser for the trip, where if you were taking a personal trip you would not be able to.

Many people talk to me about those issues with volunteering but take it from me, the Advantages of doing a humanitarian trip or Mission trip, out ways the disadvantages or the trip. There are countless pros about why everyone should do a trip at least once.

The best part about doing these trips are that you get to see the world. When going on a trip to a resort, the resort’s pick and chose what you see and what you don’t. Doing a volunteer trip that doesn’t happen. You get to see the world and you get to see how the people in that country live. If i was not on that trip into the jungle in haiti i would not been able to see that boy and his Bottle of 7up. Doing these trips also gives you a new perspective on how you will live your life.

A quote from a student who did volunteer work said “ It will challenge your mindset and it will help you become more open-minded and more culturally aware.” Going to volunteer is not just to impact the lives of the people you are helping it is also impacting your own life. You look at the world differently. Maybe it's just saving water in your homes after you seen the people dying of dehydration. Doing this has affected you in one little way. The best thing about volunteering abroad is the feeling you get. Take my word on this one the feeling you get when you give someone food who is starving or give a kid a soccer ball so he does not have to use a pop can as one. That feeling is like no other feeling in the world. I can not even begin to explain it.

Let me finish with this last thing. When you volunteer in poor places in the world it is not always about helping the person you are meeting, it honestly helps you more. It changes the way you look at the world, You get to see the world and see things that you can not even explain, but the biggest and the best part is the feeling you get when you do these things for other people.

I really want to encourage everyone to think about taking a trip to volunteer, and to see how it will change your life forever.

I want to thank you all for considering volunteering abroad and thank you for hear why i love doing these things so much.