Your chance tomorrow to volunteer for work overseas

Your chance tomorrow to volunteer for work overseas

IRISH AID, the Government’s overseas development programme, will host “the largest overseas volunteering fair ever held in Ireland” this Saturday.

The fair aims to highlight long and short-term volunteering opportunities in developing countries. It will be held in the Irish Aid Volunteering and Information Centre in Dublin, with 29 organisations taking part, including GOAL, USIT and Slí Eile as well as Irish Aid.

The fair is free and open to the public. It will run from 11am until 4pm, and according to Overseas Development Minister Peter Power is “the perfect opportunity for individuals looking to get involved in volunteering abroad to discuss their options with volunteer-sending organisations”.

Speaking ahead of the fair, Minister Power encouraged those interested in overseas volunteering to attend…

Events such as this also help to promote synergies among organisations working in volunteering. The health and safety of development workers and volunteers overseas is of crucial concern and it is very important that volunteers are managed in a professional way. The Volunteering Fair will showcase the Irish Volunteering Code of Practice which supports organisations that manage and work with volunteers.

Visitors to the Fair will be able to meet with representatives of the organisations and past volunteers, and attend workshops on volunteering options. There will also be presentations on the work and requirements of several of the organisations.


Meanwhile next week Minister Power will accompany Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin to New York to attend a “major” meeting on hunger.

Micheál Martin and the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will co-host a meeting of international leaders to address world hunger and under-nutrition.


The event, 1,000 Days: Change a Life, Change the Future Partnering to Reduce Child under-nutrition, will be attended by world leaders, international organizations, civil society and the private sector.

It is designed to “highlight action to reduce child under-nutrition, focusing on programmes targeted at the 1,000 day window of opportunity, the period beginning with a woman’s pregnancy and continuing until a child is 2 years old”.