Dedicating your time, resources and expertise to any volunteer project in need is an admirable way to contribute to the bettering of the world.

From two weeks to two months or two years, volunteer abroad experiences come in a lot of different shapes and sizes.

It’s a collection of diverse perspectives on what volunteering abroad can look like and what kind of impact can be achieved with different timeframes, organizations, and approaches.

Unlike traveling, where you can easily move on if you don’t like a place, as a volunteer you’ve made a commitment to an organization. Despite uncomfortable situations, you’ll need to power through and push the boundaries of your comfort zone. And you know what? You’ll be better off for it.

You’ll look back on those mini-breakdown moments and laugh it off… eventually.

Some moments that you’d never have access to if you were just visiting as a traveler, disconnected from the true day to day activities of the culture you’re passing through.

My current EVS is being held in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania and often called Jerusalem of the North, former capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania – which stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea.

Being a great geographical destination with plenty of opportunities for fostering culture and prosperity there is a variety of multicultural heritage and community.

Vilnius on one hand, it is very spacious, where everyone finds enough room to feel comfortable – located right by the Neris and Vilnele rivers, while on the other hand, it is also compact, so no one feels too far from one another.

Verica Slavkovska