Volunteer in Special Needs/Childcare in Vietnam

The best moments from volunteering was any time spent with the disabled children classroom! Their smiles are life changing! Do it! So fun to explore a new culture with an underlying purpose. Have done trips through IVHQ twice now, and love it!

Before this opportunity, I already have a lot of experience working with disability groups and with children by being a Community Support Work at Saskatchewan Abilities Council, and I really enjoyed the work I did with them. This volunteer trip was a great experience to see the differences in mental health support between developed countries and developing countries. It gave me a better picture of how I can utilize my skills to support diverse groups. I was surprising that there is so many skills I used at work are from my study at school. This industry is for sure a place of interest for me in the future. Overall, I enjoyed this experience very much. First, this hospital is way more organized than I thought, due to language barrier, the hospital specifically signed coordinators who speak English to work with us. Second, I was able to walk out of my comfort zone to work at a developing environment. Most importantly, I was able to use the skills and knowledge I so far learned at school at real work place, it made me enjoy the program at school more and made me more certain that this is the area I want to study and work for in the future. I learned so much from this trip.

I really wanted to start volunteering and didn't know how to go about it. To try and find a good program and company that I could do it through was challenging. I had heard through a friend that a few years ago she had Volunteered through IVHQ and even after looking them up and reading the amazing reviews, I was still a little hesitant. My volunteer program was in Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh) and it was nothing short but amazing. Helping out with children who had disabilities and providing them support every single day for 2 weeks was such a rewarding experience. Just to see the smile you put on their faces was more than enough. I've met some amazing people and have made new friends through this experience!!