Volunteer Work In Mississauga, Ontario

[-PakistaN-]

Hey guys.

As we all know, we need to do at least 50 hours of Service for us to pass IB (I'm not including Creativity and Action because its irrelevant). I live in Libya, and I'm NOT Libyan, which makes service work extremely difficult. I can't speak fluent enough Libyan to help out anywhere like hospitals and what else.

I am a Canadian citizen and its easy for me to go to Mississauga alone and stay with my relatives, so I'm thinking of going there during the winter break and do some volunteer work.

If anyone has experience with this IN CANADA then please help me out. I need a place to volunteer IN MISSISSAUGA, preferably a hospital because of my interest in medicine. I've Google'd this, but its confusing, because websites aren't specific enough. I sent an email to Credit Valley Hospital about my issue and I just got an automated message, and I called them and got another automated message telling me their youth program is full.

HELP!

[Abu]

First off, there's no such language called 'Libyan'. People in Libya speak Arabic.

I'm not in Toronto but a spot of googling (less than a minute) would help you on your way: http://tinyurl.com/2dqkel3

From what I know (in Vancouver), it's fairly difficult to get a position in a hospital because there are far too many people who want to volunteer there.

If you're willing to spend the money to travel to Ontario, then you're probably willing to pay money to volunteer. There are programs that take you to Africa (you're already half way there!) and organise everything. One such program costs ~CAD4000 but there may be cheaper programs.

[Summer Glau]

Which hospital? Credit Valley has a two year waitlist...believe me, I've tried I believe Trillium has a waitlist too, but try contacting them anyways... In the summer Trillium opens up its volunteering to students because their regular volunteers are on vacation, etc...

[Matthew Sinclair]

Just a thing to keep in mind, I'm pretty sure that CAS now requires that you no longer just do '50 hours' of each thing and get it over and done with. I'm pretty sure it's more of a continual process that shows long-term involvement. At least that's what our school required us to do. Just keep that in mind cause just going there during a holiday might not be enough. I'm pretty sure that there would be A LOT of things you could do in Libya! Try contacting the red cross perhaps (or Red Crescent as I think they call it).

http://www.ifrc.org/address/ly.asp

Maybe you could volunteer at a local Libyan school as like an English teacher or something? Or perhaps offer free tuition to local kids?? There's a wealth of opportunities around you...

oh, and another thing. You don't have to go somewhere that offers a volunteering package deal or anything - you can initiate it yourself. I'm going to volunteer with the Red Cross in Noumea later this year and there was no 'package deal' or anything like that, I had to organise it all myself from funding to accommodation to contact people etc. You can do it if you really want to.

Edited November 27, 2010 by Aboo

[-PakistaN-]

First off, there's no such language called 'Libyan'. People in Libya speak Arabic.

I'm not in Toronto but a spot of googling (less than a minute) would help you on your way: http://tinyurl.com/2dqkel3

From what I know (in Vancouver), it's fairly difficult to get a position in a hospital because there are far too many people who want to volunteer there.

If you're willing to spend the money to travel to Ontario, then you're probably willing to pay money to volunteer. There are programs that take you to Africa (you're already half way there!) and organise everything. One such program costs ~CAD4000 but there may be cheaper programs.

I said Libyan because the dialect is very different from actual classic Arabic, and a lot of people here call it Libyan.

Yeah, my cousin told me its real hard to get into hospitals. I think i might just go and ask around and see if i can get in on some charity runs or something, and plan for summer work there. My school's trying to get something working with an orphanage, and I've put my name down as a volunteer, and im trying to do some research in finding a place to volunteer in Tripoli that won't require me to speak in Arabic.

@Fire.Realm: okay thanks, I'll see if I can get myself a summer one then.

@Mathew: Your right, they do require us to do a gradual slow learning thing, but if i get my 50 done now, then i can relax a little, and focus more on my studies. I will still do CAS even when I'm finished 50 hours each, because they require you to do it over the 2 whole years. Don't you have to know Arabic, to teach English to Arabs? How will there be any communication? It will be chaotic I think, unless I go with someone who speaks Arabic. Thanks for the link, I'll check it out.

Thanks guys.

[Matthew Sinclair]

If you're teaching kids, you can get away with not speaking any arabic, just tell simple stories and draw pictures idk. Also, if they already know some english, you could just do an immersion class. That's what a lot of schools here do. From day one you forget you speak english haha

[Summer Glau]

You could try volunteering at doctor's offices too, if you really want to volunteer somewhere medicine-related. Just a thought...

[-PakistaN-]

would it be hard to get a "work in a doctor's office" gig ?

[Summer Glau]

I don't know anyone personally that does it but I've heard of people doing it nearby where you want to go. You could also try other areas in the GTA if you can't find anything. Give it a shot, who knows