Ask Slashdot: Geeky Volunteer Work? 229
An anonymous reader writes "I plan to be in-between jobs for 1-2 months later this year and use part of this time to do some volunteer work in Africa. My naive question: what to do and where to go? Is it possible to make good use of the skill-set of a typical geek? Any interesting projects worth supporting on-site?"
Geek Corps (Score:4, Informative)
Depending on your skill set Geek Corps might have something for you:
http://www.iesc.org/ict-and-applied-technologies.aspx
http://www.linux.com/archive/feed/58011
Help with Maintenance! It's what's missing! (Score:5, Informative)
I spent three years in Africa (South Africa and Zambia) doing geek work. Here's the deal, you can't do something "important" in one or two months, so don't plan on being the knight in shining armor coming in to help. However, if you go in with an attitude of humility and a desire to learn, you can be helpful.
My suggestion, based on my experience: Most of the NGOs I worked with had crappy old donated computers running some pirated version of XP, full of viruses. You could be a great help by finding a local (i.e. Africa run, not international aid agency) NGO and helping to clean up their computers, install anti-virus, get their printers working etc etc. Good computer support is in short supply, so folks do what they can but it's not easy. If you are thinking about this, also bring along a box of CDs or DVDs with latest versions of software, because getting on the internet is either impossible or slow or really expensive, so doing on-line updates is a pain.
I tried teaching people to use Ubuntu with limited success, everyone wanted Windows with Word, because that was what everyone else was using, and that was what was "known". It's a good solution, but without support falls down like everything else.
Good luck, let us know how it all worked out.
On a side note - Vaccinations (Score:4, Informative)
Please talk to your doctor ASAP about starting your vaccination courses. Some can take up to 6 months to hit maximum effectiveness. I wish you good luck on your journey.
Come to Uganda! (Score:3, Informative)
By all means, do come to Africa. It's an experience that will change your life. It did change mine. Am stuck here for 6 years and enjoying every single day of it.
And drop me a line when you want to join us for hacking or a beer.
Re:Don't worry if it's "Geeky" (Score:4, Informative)
It is, however, not the only need.
There are lots of places where there is existing infrastructure where the people still need computer systems set up and training in how to use and maintain them.
Africa, especially, in the wake of the AIDS epidemic, has lots of orphanages, where they have sources of clean water and electricity (if only for a few hours a day), but a few computers, especially if you can find a way to connect them to the internet, and some training in their use and maintenance, can go a long way to improving the lives of a great number of children.
The non-profit I work with gets a lot of requests from Africa - more than we can fulfill with our limited resources. If you're serious and have time and resources to get yourself and some equipment there I can help you get in touch with somebody.
Not for such a short period (Score:3, Informative)
This is something I have done, and I think you will find that 2 months is not enough time to make an impact in any domain, much less a geeky one. One thing to remember is that volunteers are not tightly supervised; their labor is free and therefore a lot of managers just let them float. You will have to manage yourself, which means getting to know the organization, its needs and its weaknesses, and then initiating your own project to work towards these. This takes time, my best guess is a year or so. What is more, if you do find yourself actually contributing something, you might find that you are actually hurting the locals more than helping because your free labor makes it impossible for a local to get paid doing what you do.
To be entirely honest, a better use of your time (and money, since volunteering is going to cost you) is to go to a poor area and try to contribute to the economy. Take a month of classes in the local language. Hire local organizations to show you around. Stay with a host family. Try to use your money to encourage sustainable growth.
I have done both of these, and I walked away from the latter feeling like I did a lot more good and I enjoyed myself a lot more.
Just my $0.02