International Volunteer HQ - IVHQ

It is truly rewarding when you can actually get to see, help, and communicate with refugees is Brussels. Talking with them and knowing their stories are really eye-opening.

When we finished serving coffee and tea for refugees on the first day, the local team leader using his body language and speaking some simple English words to ask us if we paid money to help them, and we nodded. He said that we are all angles. I literally cried a little bit at that time. Also, I remember help the clothes distribution program in local NGO, that is the most meaningful thing I’ve ever done.

Besides, we can also explore the city when we were done the volunteer work. Most importantly, I knew some cool volunteers all over the world and we talked about our stories and did a lot of fun things. This is the experience that I could never had without doing volunteer work. They are the treasure of my life.

I love this program and every single one I knew during this journey.

I left a piece of my heart in Brussels.

I volunteered in Fiji for 3 weeks doing the kindergarten project. The local staff were amazing. So helpful, encouraging and friendly. I made so many friends during my time in fiji and created lots of amazing memories with them. The kindergarten was a huge eye opener and was a great opportunity to see more of Fiji’s culture. Tutoring was so much, the kids are so clever and kind! The locals in Fiji are so accommodating and friendly and helpful. I miss it so much and will definitely will be back in the future

I participated in the Nakavango Conservation Program through IVHQ just this February and it was a wonderful experience. IVHQ has many programs to choose from and I basically flipped a coin to decide on Africa, which worked out well. If you are interested in volunteering, consider this program. There were people ranging from 18-65 and because it didn't require any special skills or training, it was a great intro to volunteering abroad. If you can prune a tree or pull weeds, you can be useful to this project. Working as a team, about 20 volunteers and two guides did things such as creating garden beds, alien plant removal, weeding, and general maintenance. It was all simple work and though it didn't always feel like we were doing much, the manager assured us that even the simple tasks meant other staff could focus on other work. Even simple tasks like pulling out datura saved rhinos and elephants from liver damage and improved grasslands while just weeding the gardens at the local school helped provide food to the community. With a scheduled week and relatively short shifts (we weren't expected to work during the heat of the day), the days passed way too quickly.
I always felt supported by the staff, safe and well taken care of. I would compare the accommodations to camping with a trailer or in a nice cabin. There was staff to clean our rooms (everyone had their own room) and excellent chefs made delicious meals, often with fresh veggies from our own garden. We had shared bathrooms, private rooms, laundry service on Weds, several common areas, and a pool. Overall, we had everything we needed plus some little perks. One of the highlights was how often we did game drives in the park. I should have brought a better camera!

IVHQ and Serve the city in Brussel are like a big family helping people who need help. As a one-week volunteer, I just thought I could only do some basic work for them, but to my surprise, Aneles was such a good leader not only explain the whole organization to us in detail but also introduce us some history about people we help with. Also, there were some other nice people there to help us answering our questions and guided us to places we did our volunteer work. I like the whole project a lot and it taught me a lot of meaningful things I have never known before when I was in China.
Actually, we don't have refugees or people without paperworks much as in Belgium, so I basically know nothing about this area, but after the whole week, I had so many feelings about this. Especially after the day we helped with making breakfast and serving them, there was a man from Syria we had a little chat when I was working, and after I finished my work I met him on the tram. I asked him some questions about why coming to this country and his plan about future. This was my first time to talk to people like him face to face. He was just like everyone else, no different, but he had to leave his country because of the unsafe circumstances in his country and find a place to stay. He also showed me his son's picture on his phone. I could see how much he loves and misses his son, but he couldn't go back. After talking with him, I felt so upset and even cried on the tram, I felt it was so hard for me to imagine people's lives under such circumstances. More I thought, more upset I got. But at the same time, it made me so powerful to continue me volunteer work there, because that was the only something I can do for those people.
So, the volunteer program is wonderful and meaningful, the friends I knew from this program are nice and friendly. I really want to recommend this to all my friends!

My volunteering experience was an amazing one that I will never forget. I would advise that anyone who is even giving this programme a little consideration should absolutely go for it, you won't regret it. The work hours aren't particularly long but if you go in as a team ready to work hard you'll quickly see the difference you and all the other volunteers who come through can make. The program is very well organised and follows a neat schedule. The staff are also incredible in their jobs of looking after the volunteers, so you will certainly be comfortable if you choose to stay here. The guides who take volunteers to worksites have so much knowledge to give about the environment which they give with great enthusiasm. Each drive had something interesting to be seen and something to be learned from the guides.
Be warned that probably not want to leave. You really can't overestimate how long you'll want to stay here and you may feel that you didn't stay long enough. Can't reccomend this enough.