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Volunteer From Your Computer!

By Literacy 'n' Poverty Project
If you, like many, would like to do more to serve local and international communities through volunteerism, but don’t have the money to travel or lots of time to commit, I recently came across another great way of contributing – right from your own computer!


The UN has launched the United Nations Online Volunteering Service. This great service connects online volunteers with organizations working around the world for sustainable human development. According to the site:

‘Volunteers contribute their skills online to help organizations address development challenges. Organizations collaborate with online volunteers over the internet to strengthen the impact of their development work.’


You can search on the site for volunteer opportunities by your own skills, topics you are interested in such as education or health, or by a region of the world. A quick search on the site gave me multiple opportunities to contribute my skills very easily over my computer. I chose to search by my own skill, writing and editing, which produced 33 results – from editing reports for an organization in Syria, to helping write grant proposals for orgs in West Africa.


If you are looking to volunteer but can’t afford the traditional methods –online volunteering could be a great way to get involved with organizations and issues around the world that you care about!

This post was written by Katherine Osgood, Director of International Programs at United Planet. Katherine has her own blog focusing on women’s rights issues and is a volunteer blogger with Literacy ‘n’ Poverty Project.
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Comments

Anonymous said…
Wow, Katherine! This is really cool, especially if you're like me and don't have a car to get around to volunteer sites. Thanks for posting, hopefully I can find something on there too!
March 11, 2009
Katherine Osgood said…
Thanks Leah! It has been a great opportunity for many of my friends to connect with communities around the world! Good luck and I hope you find something!
March 16, 2009
HelpFromHome said…
Have you also tried Help From Home's website http://www.helpfromhome.org/ which claims that you can do volunteering dressed just in your pyjamas. The opportunities appear to be different to those ones mentioned on the UN site.
June 13, 2009

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