Project India – Volunteering to the max

Who is fundraising? Hi! My name is Denise, I'm 24 years old and I live in The Netherlands. This year my goal is to go volunteering in India! The focus of the trip will be focussed on helping children :)

I just finished a FaceTime call with Shivani, who set up a shelter for girls in Mumbai. When I told her I was looking around the internet to volunteer with kids, she immediatly asked if we could talk to help me work out some options. She has a lot of experience with volunteering, charity and knows a lot of people in India. Shivani told me about fundraising websites, so I thought let's give it a try! 

Which projects will I attend? The plan is to go to Mumbai to start with volunteering at the Sharanam centre for girls. I was told that there is good time to do several projects at the same time, and maybe even set up my own projects within the other projects. Already have a few good ideas about that :) But in stead of making beautiful promises about what I'll be doing exactly, I'll just be honest with you: I'm not entirely sure yet. I'm not the person who plans an afwul lot, because oppurtunities don't stick to a calendar :) 

Where do I stay? I'm told that I could check out hostels to cover for my stay. But to maximize the 'help' I can offer, I would only like to stay in a hostel for the first week. Just for the "getting settled period". After that, maybe share a room with one of the girls who are already in a college dorm (to help cover for her rent expenses), or stay with a family. I'd rather pay people who are in need than pay a random hostel. Even though giving up things as privacy and your own bathroom will probably be strange at the beginning, if you go to a foreign country to help, why not help a little extra ;)

What will I do with the money raised? Normally volunteering costs a lot of money. The organisations ask for a sort of tuition to get in the programme, which is ridiculously expensive most of the time. Since this isn't via an organisation, I will only have to pay for the ticket and for the stay. I'd like to use the money raised only for a percentage of these costs. 

With the rest of the money I'll be supporting the kids on the programmes. That can be: buying what they need (think of simple things like books, pens etc), organising trips, projects.. Just use it wherever it is needed most. Since I don't have a solid plan of the projects, I cannot tell you exactly where the money will be spend on. 

What will you get in return? Besides my eternal gratitude? My plan is to either construct a website or open a special FB page to keep track of the journey. I will keep a travel diary, make and post video's, and give updates about the projects in progress! That way everybody who helped can check out the results of their efforts :) 

I will get to that later this week, and I will post the link as soon as I have one! 

If I manage to work out how to keep some sort of accessible account to show the donations coming in and where the money is spend on, I will. This depends on the amount of donations though, if for this project is only raised like 1.000 euro's, I don't think there will be a lot of animo for something like that.

Personal note:  I sincerely hope you are just as enthusiastic about this as I am :) If you want to help, have any questions, suggestions, tips.. Just email me!  Warm regards, Denise