Online Volunteering

Hey guys!!!

Let me tell you something. Entering the working world has great advantages and challenges that make it exciting. However, it also has some not so good features. Being the most important of those (at least for me) the lack of a reasonable amount of free days at work. That's one of the main reasons I haven't been posting that much about trips and adventures recently. No free days at work means no time for doing what I love the most, traveling. Now, I really value my time at university, when you could skip classes without consequences, had three main holidays a year (Christmas, Easter and Summer) and, also quite important, could go out on Thursday night knowing that the next morning sleeping was an option. So as I'm not able to get out of my country as often as I would like, I divert the content of my posts in some way. This doesn't mean I will stop talking about my future adventures, just that I still feel the need of writing even when traveling is not involved.

Today I just wanted to share with you another great opportunity to help I got to know recently and which I'm already part of. It's called Online Volunteering, and as its own name suggests it consists of devoting some of your time (as much as you have available or want to, that's up to you) to helping the people in need through the internet. The basic idea is to help with small work, like translating, organizing paper-work, contacting sponsors, preparing material... from your home. So the best part is its flexibility and that you can organize your time however you want, as long as you finish the task.

I believe it's a great chance for those who, like me, don't have much free time left but want to help. There's a lot of opportunities out there to get involved. I'm just gonna mention the two I'm part of now, but if you type in Online Volunteering in Google you would find many others. The first one is part of the United Nations Online Volunteering program. In this case there's a bunch to choose from depending on your abilities, your free time and so on. I translate articles from English to Spanish for a pretty interesting magazine. The website is


So try and check it out. The other one is called International Humanity Foundation (IHF). It's a non-religious, non-political, non-profit organization that strongly believes in an equal opportunity for all and in preserving the cultures, traditions and beliefs of the marginalized communities it works in. They offer a bunch of different Teams, each of them focusing on specific tasks, that you can join. When selected, you choose the amount of hours you can devote every month and start helping. As simple as that. Their website is


I encourage you to at least have a look at what they offer and then decide. I believe it's a great way of helping and improving the world we live in, specially for those of us already working and with limited free time.

What can we do?

Something is clear, we need to improve the world that we live in. But how can we contribute to this global goal as individuals? Well, here I present eight actions stated by Jeffrey Sachs in his book Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet that can guide us.

1. Learn about this generation's challenges: this basically refers to being informed and read about what's going on in the planet, being aware of problems we face as humanity.

2. Travel, to the extent that it is personally possible: seeing other places and cultures is the best way to understand the common interests and aspirations that unite us as well as the special challenges that are unique to different parts of the world.

3. Start or join an organization committed to sustainable development: you and your organization may change the world and inspire others to do so as well.

4. Encourage the engagement of your community and inspire others to join the cause of global sustainable development.

5. Promote sustainable development through social networking sites: this way we can take advantage and use the most popular and advanced tools of the internet for the spread and support of social activism. It can be Facebook, mySpace, Tuenti... you name it.

6. Get politically engaged: demand of our politicians that they honor our government's Millennium Promises.

7. Engage your workplace: every company can add to global sustainable development. This is where corporate social responsibility comes on stage.

8. Live personally according to the standards of the Millennium Promises: donate time, money and the energy of your social networks; seek out contacts across countries, cultures and class divides; lead among your friends and colleagues; act honorably as a consumer; act honorably as a citizen.

So remember, ours is the generation that can end extreme poverty, turn the tide against climate change, and head off a massive and thoughtless extinction of other species. Ours is the generation that can grapple with, and solve, the conundrum of combining economic well-being with environmental sustainability. Ours is the generation that can harness science and a new ethic of global cooperation to maintain a healthy planet to future generations.

Kiva

Well, I'm starting to like the new style my blog is getting. It started out mostly with posts about my trips but now I feel comfortable posting a whole lot of different stuff I find interesting. This doesn't mean I will stop writing about my adventures around the globe, after all, its my number one passion (traveling I mean, not writing). However, I like sharing ideas, sites, books, opinions... which I believe are worth spreading.

Now it's the time for Kiva, a website that allows you to make micro loans to entrepreneurs in impoverished countries. Each of them has his/her own profile you can check in which you can learn about what they want the money for and how much they need. You don't need to lend them the total amount, since they can rise the money from different lenders. Then, if everything goes well they'll pay you back gradually.

I think it's a great way of helping and an amazing opportunity to change the life of someone. The amount they usually need is not much, but just too high for them to have it. And it's a shame that because of the lack of start up financing they cannot break the poverty barrier and out of the poverty trap they are in.

So please, give it a try. I already did myself and found out that it works perfectly. Let's try make this world a better place for everyone!!