Before you leave for an international volunteer project, you first have to arrange a number of things properly. IBO offers good preparation for your volunteer work abroad. You will receive a digital information pack with information about your project, the country and general advice on volunteering abroad. In addition, IBO organises a preparatory meeting for outgoing volunteers every year. Before you leave, you should definitely pay attention to the following matters.
1. Preparation and travel
Preparation
IBO-Nederland organises a meeting for all individual volunteers to prepare for your workcamp abroad. For groups, seperate arrangements are made.
In this meeting, you get to know the people behind the organisation of IBO-Nederland as well as the other volunteers. You will receive information about IBO and what you can expect from a volunteer project abroad. Of course we will try to answer any questions you may have to the best of our abilities.
Travel
You arrange the trip to the project by yourself. In this way you can decide with which type of transport and via which route you want to travel. You can also decide to reserve extra days before or after the project to enjoy your destination country for an extra long time. You will be informed about the meeting point and exact meeting time in advance.
IBO asks you to choose your trip as environmentally friendly as possible! Traveling by plane is not friendly to the environment. Still, you will not be able to avoid flying for some destinations. In any case, what you can do is to compensate your CO2 emissions through a recognized organisation. Would you like to travel by train or bus but could you use some help with booking? Let us know, we are happy to give you some tips!
2. Documents
Passport or European Identity Card
With a European ID card you can reach many projects, but beware: you cannot go everywhere with this card! So check in advance whether you need a passport for the country you are traveling to.
Is your passport or identity card still valid long enough? For some destinations, your passport must be valid for at least 6 months after return. Please check this carefully!
Visa application
For a number of countries you must apply for a visa. We will indicate what we know, but always check yourself whether a visa is required to enter your country of destination (or transit!). Beware, information can change.
If you need a visa, apply duly in advance.
Certificate of Conduct
As a volunteer you come into contact with many other people, such as your fellow volunteers, the project organisers, employees, the target group of the project and the people in the immediate surroundings of the project location. One of the goals of IBO-Nederland is cultural exchange. We strongly encourage contact between people.
With a number of actions we want to keep our organisation safe for vulnerable people depending on others. This concerns for example children, elderly, people with a physical or mental disability and people who live in poverty; these are all people who (can) be part of the target group of your project.
That is why, regardless of the type of work you are going to carry out, you need a Certificate of Conduct for every IBO project. At our foundation, this document is valid for three years.
Send the original Certificate (not a copy/ scan/ picture) to IBO-Nederland, St. Annastraat 174, 6524 GT Nijmegen, The Netherlands, at last 1 week before the start of the project.
Code of Conduct
In addition to the certificate of conduct, we ask every volunteer to sign our code of conduct. A code of conduct is a document with guidelines for the interaction between volunteers, paid employees and people in a dependent position, like minors or people with mental disabilities. The code indicates the boundaries in the contact.
3. Health and insurance
Health certificate
Some project, for instance Brezovica in Croatia, require a completed and signed health certificate from volunteers. You can download the health certificate here and ask your doctor to sign it.
Insurance
When you go abroad, it is always important to take out a Personal Liability Insurance and an appropriate travel and cancellation insurance. Check carefully whether volunteering abroad is covered by your travel insurance!
Vaccinations
For all your questions about vaccinations, you can contact your local health post (in the Netherlands: the GGD). Check this well before departure (4-6 weeks). Depending on your health insurance policy, these vaccinations may or may not be reimbursed. IBO-Nederland does not reimburse vaccinations.
Healthy travel
On Gezondopreis.nl you will find lots of practical advice about all possible health aspects of traveling (information in Dutch).