Re-tiring or Retread?

Boomers and International Volunteer Service

By Ann McLaughlin

These are exciting times: Idealistic Boomers are contributing time and expertise internationally and there is exponential growth in international citizen organizations.

The Southeast Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina elicited an unprecedented outpouring of heart and help in a new wave of volunteering.

Where, for example, a dozen NGOs (non-government organizations) existed in Czechoslovakia in 1990, there are now approximately 60,000 in the Czech Republic (though only about a third of them are active). The changes in the former Soviet bloc and throughout the African and South American continents have contributed to the growth of citizen groups within these nations and citizen groups connected to these new democracies.

This global rise in people-power is accentuated by the Baby Boom generation’s idealism. Many individuals in their 50s and 60s want to fulfill a lifelong dream of making a difference.

Wonder if you are suited to and can handle international service? At NGOabroad we ask: Feeling creaky but not crotchety? Feel that you have learned a lot over the years and haven’t forgotten it all yet? Can your digestive tract handle Montezuma’s revenge? Can your bum handle 10 hours of a bumpy ride on a hard seat? Can you sleep through the raucous band in the bar below? Feel that you have a lot to give despite any hardships? We need you.

But first find a setting that fits for you. Be realistic, if you will drain more energy from the host organization than you will give, then your special needs are too special. A retired nurse who knew how to manage her needs said, “I have MS. I need my meds refrigerated, level ground to walk on, and to pace myself and not exhaust myself.” People who know how to handle their special needs at home are more likely to know how to adjust abroad. We encourage people to come up with contingency plans with their doctor.

A woman who is “old enough to know better” came to me saying, “I have worked all over the world as an accountant. I still have a lot to give. I don’t need to be paid but I don’t want to drain my retirement account. I also need a bed.” Gone are the days of “crashing” on someone’s floor. We’ll do whatever it takes so that we can count you in to the next cribbage game in Botswana.

In a world where a quarter of humanity lives in slums and goes hungry, we need you still in the game.

Genuine volunteering matches your skills to needs. Take some common interests: wood working, mechanics, or sewing are all valuable skills to teach to street kids or someone looking for a job. You love reading? Teach literacy; it is a ticket out of poverty.

One woman sent me an e-mail from Kansas, and said: “My husband and I have taken all the Red Cross classes; we’d like to help in whatever way we can.”

“It’s not just Red Cross that helps,” I explained. “We need more people from the Heartland, as you understand farming. I will most likely place you in a farming community.”

It’s not just vocational skills that determine where you might be helpful. It’s life skills, too. You’ve been a foster parent? Countries ravaged by AIDS need your experience to help orphans. You’ve been in local theater performances and directed plays? Theater is powerful medicine used to express traumas, build self-confidence for job interviews, and reclaim culture and history.

The Boomer mantra is “make a difference.” Thinking of re-tiring? Why not just get retread and get back out on the road?

Ann McLaughlin, a social worker gone to seed, directs NGOabroad, a unique service that helps people enter international humanitarian work and provides frugal, customized international volunteer options. See www.ngoabroad.com.