For a while now, I've been interested in volunteering my time and labor while visiting a country I normally would not visit for concern about safety or other restrictions. I'm thinking about places such as Haiti, Cuba, South Pacific Islands or Central Africa. I'm not religious so I am not interested in any work associated with a religious organization. I don't mind paying my own way to get someplace but I would want to work with an organization that takes care of ground transportation and accommodations - even if it is in a private home.

Have you helped inoculate children? Set up computers? Helped with hammer and nails? Something else?

I'm curious to hear about what you did, where you went and if you felt the experience was valuable. Did you have time to yourself to visit tourist sights on your "day off?" Details about accommodations and safety/security are appreciated as well.

You don't say what your field is but here is a link to Project Hope.

http://www.projecthope.org/joinhope/volunteer.asp

I spent a week in Haiti last year, and would say it was definitely a worthwhile experience. If for no other reason, it opened my eyes to the day-to-day situation of a large part of the world, and made me much more appreciative, intentional, and less wasteful of the relative prosperity that I have been granted.

Even though my work was with a religious organization, I hope that you'll find my notes helpful. The organization I was with runs an orphanage/feeding program/clinic in a very rural part of the country. Officially, I was traveling with a journalist helping him to document what the organization was doing there, although I also did some other random "hands on" stuff such as fixing a 4-wheeler, taking food to families in the community, and hiding easter eggs for the orphanage kids to find.

We stayed at, what can best be described as a compound, which was open during the day to locals (since it housed a clinic). The compound had dining and sleeping areas as well as it's own generator and water purification facilities, which was great given that we were in an area which does not have electricity or clean water. The organization I was with handled all of the transportation, both within and outside of Haiti, and also made sure we had all the proper shots, malaria pills, etc before we arrived.

Since we were in a rural part of Haiti, I can't say there was much in the way of tourist sights to see, although the organization I was with did offer day-long "excursions" to some of their projects in other parts of the country, in order to give you a broader picture of Haiti. Haiti does have some more "touristy" areas near the major cities, and if you were traveling on your own I'm sure you could find places to go for a day.

I can't say I ever really felt unsafe there. In the rural areas, a white person is pretty high-profile and the attention may work in your favor. That being said, knowledge of the language helps, so venturing too far out on your own without a local guide is asking for trouble. The organization I was with employed a few locals for just that purpose. I'm also told that the larger cities (Port-au-Prince, etc) are considerably more dangerous, as one would expect in any major urban area.

I can't speak for other countries, but with Haiti, the biggest concern I would have is medical. Some major organizations bring in their own medicine/supplies from the States and have trained medical staff on site. Try to get on with one of these. I would not want to get sick there and take a gamble with the local hospital system.

I think volunteering is a great way to spend your vacation, at least once. Good luck!

I went on a service program with Global Volunteers in Costa Rica some time ago. Our team worked with locals to build a school in the Santa Elena area. The work at that point was pretty basic - shoveling out the area where the foundation would be built, mixing concrete etc. A couple of older participants worked in the school library with the children.

The program fee included transfers from/to the airport and local lodging/food/transportation. We stayed in a local family-run hotel within walking distance of the project site. International airfare and optional tourist activities were not included. The organization is a 501c3 so I was able to take a tax deduction for the program fee and IIRC the airfare as well.

The weekends were free to explore - some people visited a volcano and hot springs, I went with others to the beach and went on a rainforest canopy tour.

They're not affiliated with any religious group and have programs all over the world, including the USA.

Years ago I took a buyout offer at work that had a higher percentage of salary payable in a lump-sum severance (75% of a year's, vs. 40% thru their more conventional offers). The money was payable 50% upfront, 50% in 7 months with documentation. They would also continue benefits for 3 years. BUT, as one of the strings attached, you had to either teach, become a student, or do volunteer work for a certain number of hours in those 3 years and document it every year.

My goal was to use the buyout proceeds for a year of travel around the world (a lifelong dream, as I hadn't been able to do it at a younger age). So I looked into the sort of thing the OP is mentioning. The company threw cold water on a lot of ideas when they said the volunteering couldn't be outside the U.S. (Truth to tell, I don't think the company liked what I was doing much or imagined that that buyout offer would be used in such a way).

Anyway, because of tight finances and a general frugal nature, I didn't like most of what I saw in the "volunteer vacations" research I did. I was OK paying the transit costs to and from the sites, but the daily costs often were as high as vacation costs (for me, at least), and that didn't seem right.

What saved the day was Passport in Time, a little-publicized U.S. Forest Service program where you go to national forests to help the archaeological people ("arkies") on projects. The projects are provided for by the National Historic Preservation Act (signed under Nixon). Some places have prehistoric (Native American) finds and others have historic ones.

What really helped in my case was that there were a few projects listed in their bi-annual guide where you could be lodged at no cost in quarters used for firefighters during fire season. I made sure to go for those. Sometimes it wasn't a slamdunk, as the program had a dedicated corps of retirees who'd do multiple projects, and some projects had too many volunteers.

Anyway, I'd either get a low airfare deal or use miles, and rent by the 2 weeks on cars, and would have to pay for my own food (though the quarters had refrigerators and kitchens). Did 2 projects at the Plumas National Forest in gold rush country, sorting and bagging historic artifacts. Did a summertime dig in southern Washington looking for arrowheads, and a cabin restoration of a Depression-era log cabin in southern Oregon where there turned out to be tension between a hired masonry contractor and the project leader. Also a dig in far southwest Kansas where sun was a real problem, and where the whole town showed up to see what was going on. Digs were hard work, as you'd have to level off your "unit" every 10 cm and have lots of attention to detail. I usually had to sift, and wasn't that good at telling a "cultural" artifact from a rock.

But it was great experience. I would do a 2-week trip every 6 months for that (to get in enough hours) and work that around my other trips.

More recently, a sister-in-law and niece did a volunteer/mission trip through a megachurch group to the Dominican Republic that had such a high "co-pay" that I had to bite my tongue to avoid saying that you could do a resort trip for that if you shopped it carefully!

I think there's also a deal where you can teach English in Spain for 4-6 weeks and get room and board for free (You just do airfare). Transitions Abroad magazine has lots of listings for things outside the U.S.

Yap on Yap Day a few years ago was interesting. The two main volunteer groups of outsiders with a standing presence on the island were the Peace Corps volunteers, and the LDS missionaries. Couldn't have been more different, it seems. The PC people tried to "go native" as best they could, while the LDS ones were just like the ones you might see in your own neighborhood. The Peace Corps ones seemed to do much better in winning over hearts & minds.