You have never volunteered and that is exactly why you have not started. You assume you need prior training, or to have gone through some process, before a foundation will take you.
It does not work that way. The vast majority of foundations in Colombia take volunteers with no experience, and they do it gladly: everyone who has been doing this for years started out not knowing what to do. Experience gets built in the field, not before you arrive.
What matters at the beginning is not what you know. It is that you come back.
Lower your expectations for the first month
Your first week — probably your first month — will be watching. Learning names, working out how the day runs, getting to know people without intruding, absorbing the protocols.
That is not wasted time. It is what lets you contribute properly afterwards.
Start with an operational role
Some volunteering is intense from day one because it deals with very hard realities. If you are starting out, it is better to come in through operational tasks: logistics, organizing materials, helping at events, administrative work.
It gives you time to get used to the environment before taking on something more demanding. Nobody loses anything by that.
Ask how they support new volunteers
Not every organization has the structure to take people with no experience. Some assume you already know what to do and leave you to it, which is the fastest way to lose a new volunteer.
Three questions before you commit:
- What does the induction look like?
- Who will be my point of contact?
- Who do I ask when I get stuck in the first few weeks?
If none of the three gets a clear answer, consider another organization.
You will feel useless, and that is fine
The first visits are uncomfortable. You will not know what to say. You will get something wrong.
Anyone who has been doing this for years went through exactly the same thing. The only difference is they did not quit in week three, right when the discomfort was about to turn into confidence.
Find an informal mentor
There is almost always a volunteer with several years behind them who will happily orient someone new. Go over, ask, listen.
What would take you months to work out alone takes weeks with company.
Do not compare your start to what you see online
Those videos of volunteers holding happy children and grateful families are the edited version of months of patient work.
Your start will be far less cinematic. Uncomfortable in places, boring in places, moving in places. That is the real version, and it is the one that counts.
Two habits that help
Write down what happened, in a private notebook rather than for social media. What you felt, what you learned, who you met. Six months in, rereading your first entries is revealing.
Commit to three visits, not one. The first day is the hardest emotionally; after that each one gets more natural. That small commitment protects your motivation from the nerves of the first encounter, which is where most people give up.
Keep reading
- Best foundations to volunteer with in Colombia
- What you need to volunteer in your city
- How to join active volunteering projects in Colombia
In the Corag application, needs state what is required and by when. Starting from a concrete task is usually easier than starting from an abstract decision.
