Image by Ben Thomson
Youth unemployment is higher than it has been for a long time—around 12 percent across the country. In some parts of Australia a quarter of young people are out of work, and not by choice. Even those in work are often on low salaries, working part-time, or on contracts that could be terminated any day. At the same time, the cost of living in Australia is nearly the highest in the world.
Consider an average person in an average job living in an average house. You'll earn about $600 a week, pay $300 a week in rent, $100 in bills and transport and spend the rest on food and beer. You're not left with much.
But there is an easy and fun way to get ahead—volunteering.
There are quite a few volunteer programs where either the Government or the United Nations fund young people to go overseas and work for a year for a non-government organisation, UN agency, or in the government of that country. And despite being called volunteering, you get paid. Plenty.
It's something Australians have been slow to catch on to. In 2012, the most recent year data is available for, there were just 28 UN volunteers from Australia out of a total of 6,807 worldwide.
Depending on who you volunteer with and where you go you're paid somewhere between $1500 and $3000 a month, so about average for Australia. But you're not in Australia! You're in places where people earn two dollars a day! You all of a sudden become rich.
Volunteers in remote parts of South Sudan live in shipping containers provided by the UN, and pay about $200 a month in rent. Their car and phone are provided, and there's no electricity so no electricity bills. The only costs are food and beer. In most remote towns there's at least one Ethiopian or Arab "restaurant" where you can get a huge tasty lunch for a couple of dollars. A litre of beer is a dollar or less. If you're bored with that you can get a Rolex, which is a chapatti with a fried egg. What more could you want? Well the lack of variety might get to you, but after a year in South Sudan, UN Volunteers can end up with $25,000 in cash—almost enough for a deposit on a 30sqm studio in Sydney.
One of the reasons there are so few Australians taking up this opportunity could be the impression that to work for the UN you need to be a human rights lawyer or have a degree in International Relations. This is wrong. Most UNV jobs are in peacekeeping missions, and while there are some human rights lawyers, it's usually about five per country. There might be three political affairs jobs, and five communications and PR. But there are hundreds of UNVs in all the world's poorest and most conflict ridden countries who are needed to work in IT, mechanics, electrical trades, engineering, accounting, payroll, administration, human resources, security and policing, fire safety, transport, air operations, and pretty much any kind of trade you can think of. In most of these jobs you're not really involved with development or human rights or things that affect local people that much (until you hit the bars)—they're more about supporting the thousands of troops who come to keep (or sometimes disrupt) the peace.
At the moment the UNV program is skewed towards developing countries—the countries with the highest numbers are Liberia and Congo, places where people are recruited as local staff and then have an easier time joining the UNV roster (it helps to have previous experience). But in some of the roles there's such high demand for people that they'll take you even if you're illiterate.
Our Government also runs a program called Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development, although they're soon going to incorporate it into the bigger Australian Volunteers International Program. They fund some pretty cool volunteer jobs in countries that are mostly in our region. There are the regular project manager and marketing and community development jobs, but there's also stuff like training up chefs in Myanmar or coaching AFL in Papua New Guinea. The best job by far last month was spending six months at the yacht club in Samoa teaching people how to sail.
Anthony Rologas, the Director of the AYAD program, says young Australians are highly regarded in international development in the region. “They bring enthusiasm, passion and vitality to their host country,” he said. “Surveys of returned youth volunteers show that approximately 30 per cent remain working in the aid and development sector following their assignments, which shows that volunteering overseas provides valuable international work experience.” Of course they do—once you get a real development job, rather than a volunteer job, your salary is four times higher.
Through the AYAD program around 500 people under 30 volunteer each year. New jobs go up on the first of the month, and you have to apply by the 21st—there are 70 assignments open in April.
A lot of these volunteer jobs require some kind of qualification, whether a degree or a training certificate, and a little bit of experience, but some are open to new graduates. This month there are seven jobs in the Solomon Islands for people who are just finishing off teaching degrees. Some other fun jobs are Surfing and Surf Lifesaving Training Officer in Fiji, Radio Production Officer in Ghana, as well as a Legume Agronomist in Mongolia if you're big on planting veggies.
A lot of volunteers go to these countries thinking they're going to help poor people, live on a basic allowance and experience what it's like to be a poor person. They then find themselves in a place where their $1500 a month makes them one of the richest people in town. A lot of the AYADs, particularly when the program first started, spent a lot of time getting drunk and taking advantage of the local entertainment (yeah hookers). Don't do that.
The fact that volunteers become relatively rich overnight can somewhat undermine the whole program. The US has its Peace Corps program which gives volunteers an actual volunteer allowance—something like $300 a month. Peace Corps volunteers live in houses that regular people live in (or huts or whatever), they don't have cars and have to take public transport, and if there isn't any, they have to walk. They eat whatever food normal people eat, because they can't afford pizzas and burgers like the other expats. They get sick all the time like normal people. Peace Corps volunteers, in the end, have a better experience—they learn local languages, they make friends who aren't expats, they really get a good sense of the shit that goes on in a dirt poor country. AYADs often don't really get that—while some are posted to the bush, a lot are based in cities or big towns, work in offices and hang out with other expats. For UNVs it's usually worse—they're stuck in UN compounds with over the top security and rarely get to meet anyone outside.
Aid and development is a massive industry that just keeps getting bigger. It would be great if people got into it for the right reasons, but a lot don't. In the end the more Australians work overseas, the more aid money keeps coming back to Australia, which is a good thing for everyone (in Australia).
Follow Carly on Twitter: @carlylearson