As I'm out of work with no sign of anything coming along I wondered about doing a month or so stint in Haiti helping the disaster recovery. I've googled it but its a maze of volunteer groups unrelated to the current situation. Does anyone have experience of this kind of thing and have a good idea of what to do? Also, would I actually need any skills / qualifications?

pack toothbrush and get a flight in the right general direction.

Also, would I actually need any skills / qualifications?

If you don't have skills that can be usefully used then all you will be is one more person to be looked after by those that do. Sorry to be blunt but that is the reality of the situation. If you really do want to do something to help you could try helping to raise funds for charity whilst remaining in this country or volunteer to work in a charity shop perhaps?

What gonefishin said. Unless you're a paramedic or have relevant engineering/whatever skills, fundraising/charityshop work here is the way to help.

It's sobering isn't it – very sad

If you have a medical background and speak French well then I'm sure that Medecins Sans Frontieres would like to hear from you.

http://www.msf.org.uk/work_overseas.aspx

If not, as stated above, you could do something in the UK to help raise funds for the relief effort.

I'm doing other volunteer bits here already. was after something a bit more, err, exciting in terms of experience.

http://www.petergreenberg.com/2010/01/13/how-to-help-haiti-volunteer-opportunities-and-global-relief-efforts/

"Many concerned citizens are looking for opportunities to volunteer in Haiti, but those are usually limited to people with technical skills in health or engineering, or people with prior disaster experience. If you want to register your skills for a potential volunteer opportunity, you can visit the Center for International Disaster Information’s registration page."

http://www.icrc.org/eng

http://www.ifrc.org/Docs/News/pr10/0210.asp

I'm doing other volunteer bits here already. was after something a bit more, err, exciting in terms of experience.

When the initial rush is over and the emphasis switches to reconstruction there may be more opportunities. Sounds like you are doing your bit already to be honest, certainly more than I am.

Another thing that the rest of us can do long term is to actually travel to the place and spend money there. That way the local economy is boosted and people don't end up living on handouts. It may not be much but it is probably the single best thing an individual can do to help a country out of poverty.

i'm not doing my bit here for Haiti but for other stuff. there's only so much voluntary i want to do (and its not loads to be honest but its something).

Did you see the BBC news article this morning?
Witness: a plane load of young American Christian missionaries getting the first plane out!
Make of that what you will.

think beyond the first response. If you're not an action hero who can drag the dying out of the wreckage then your time to get involved isn't right now. But recovering from this is going to take Haiti years and long after we stop reading about this in paper.

Helping people pick themselves up doesn't require a skill or qualification. I met some young architects who went out to Pakistan after the earthquake there. Oddly they were working with the local equivalent of English Heritage as they had realised that it was the traditional vernacular architecture that had killed a lot of people (heavy flat roofs that came crashing down when the walls were shaken). Their aim was to instill a new tradition as they knew that most people would rebuild their homes form the rubble of the old ones. The key was a simple timber ring beam that would hold the roof together and up, even if a lot of the walls fall down.

Annnnnyway, these architect went out with the view to help this agency spread this news to the people who would be building, as the the tradition and economy was based around people building their own homes. But what they found was people doing nothing, just broken really. There were faced with so much to do quite aside from who and what they had lost, that nobody knew where to start. So the architects just started shovelling rubble, with their soft CAD-jockey hands. But starting, and making a bit of progress was all it took to stir the locals into action.

Take a look at people like Habitat for Humanity perhaps, I've friend who works for them, they had people out in Haiti already but of course they'll have no means to contact them just now, and their time isn't right right now either. But for the next few years they'll have their work cut out I reckon.

They only need heros for the next week or so, after that they'll need friends.

Witness: a plane load of young American Christian missionaries getting the first plane out!
Make of that what you will.

Perhaps they reasoned that the work they were doing wasn't possible in the current situation and rather than consume scarce resources they elected to leave the place rather than be a distraction for those who can usefully accomplish something? Just a thought.

i'm not doing my bit here for Haiti but for other stuff.

Is that really any less worthy though? Doing good is doing good no matter who is helped or where.

(Yes I know that charity work isn't always good or helpful but that's a separate discussion)

If you'd have asked me which group would have been the first out, I'd have guessed the Christian do good-ers.
It's always the same, almost every where I've traveled, those who preach the most vocally are usually the first to falter.
As you might have guessed, my opinion of preaching Christians is very, very low. It's just another example of double standards employed for their own selves. We have Born Agains opposite me and they completely reinforce my prejudice against their kind.

Typically 1st in, well in advance of any actual disaster? MSF. Fantastic organisation.

Didin't mean to hi-jack your thread.

Click HERE to help out with MSF UK

Why not consider trying to volunteer with a regional branch of Oxfam or Red Cross or similar organisation in the UK and try and promote the need for support in the area where you live.

In the mid 1990s I worked with Oxfam in the South West and helped raise over £200k to send a plane of emergency equipment to the Rwandan refugee camps mainly through local/regional media. I am sure that the aid agencies will be needing people in the UK to keep the disaster in the news, and trying to galvanise fundraising support at a local level.

If you really wish to volunteer, have a look at Voluntary Services Overseas. You won't be able to choose where you go, but thats not really the point…

I'm off to Ethiopia with them at the end of January for two years.

:o)