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Planet Aid recently hosted a webinar for prospective volunteers, offering first-hand insights into its 10-month international service program. Moderated by Dinorah Vences, the event began with a welcome to attendees and an introduction of two current volunteers, Jodi and Kristen, who were completing their final week before their program graduation.
The conversation contextualized practical and personal aspects of the volunteer experience.
Having spent six months working in Malawi following their training at Richmond Vale Academy (RVA) in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Jodi and Kristen offered participants an honest, sometimes emotional conversation about culture, fear, purpose, and the strange way that time bends when you stop living on autopilot and being intentional.
How the Program Is Structured
The 10-month program breaks into three distinct chapters. The first three months take place at RVA in St. Vincent, where volunteers live communally with an international cohort, splitting time between classroom learning and the daily work of running a shared household: cooking, cleaning, and simply learning to coexist with people of different ages, backgrounds, and beliefs.
After those three months are accomplished, teams choose which project they'd like to join; however, placement isn't guaranteed until shortly before departure. The three months of living together help to create bonds, so “goodbyes” can be difficult as volunteers leave the nest and scatter to individual assignments within Malawi or Zambia.
The program’s next six months are almost entirely hands-on. Volunteers familiarize themselves with their new surroundings, immerse themselves in their assignments, experience the culture, and work hand in hand with program partners, DAPP Malawi or DAPP Zambia. At the midway point of the program, all the volunteers reconvene at a regional headquarters to share progress and swap ideas before dispersing again to finish their projects. The final month brings everyone back to St. Vincent to close out the experience and translate it into something the public can learn from.
Jodi's Project: Preschools, Training, and a Refugee Camp Community
During the webinar, Jodi talked about her assignment in Malawi, where she worked with DAPP Dowa Teacher Training College alongside a small team of three. Their work centered on training Malawians to teach primary school. Additionally, the team helped run preschool projects in villages near the Dzaleka Refugee Camp.
Over six months, the team built two new preschools, ran a successful fundraiser to support additional projects, and delivered caregiver training to local preschool staff. But Jodi was clear that the technical accomplishments weren't the real story. "The biggest thing that you do within your six months in Malawi is you integrate into the culture," she said, describing the experience as one where volunteers receive far more than they give. She was struck by how openly communities welcomed the team despite obvious cultural differences, and how quickly humans find common ground when they simply show up.
Kristen's Project: Databases, Grants, and Growing Moringa
Kristen’s assignment was also in Malawi. Her assignment took her to DAPP Mikolongwe Vocational School, where she worked and lived on campus in a small house with students and staff. During the webinar, Kristen explained that she didn’t realize how much her prior administrative and research background would shape her role at the school. She spent much of her time helping the school evaluate and select a new database management system to replace the outdated one. This work led to research and seeking grant-making institutions and co-writing a funding proposal with one of the school's principals, an effort the school can continue pursuing after her departure.
One of her proudest moments was introducing a sustainable idea to the school, which was directly inspired by lessons at RVA. She proposed that the school cultivate and process moringa to generate income, while giving students hands-on experience for their resumes. Moringa is a highly nutritious and medicinal plant that can be produced at scale.
What They Wish They'd Known Sooner
Both volunteers agreed on one thing: the anxiety they carried into the program turned out to be almost entirely unfounded. Jodi said she wished she'd trusted the process more from the start, noting that the organization's structure is built to support volunteers regardless of how much experience they bring.
Kristen echoed the sentiment, remarking that a positive mindset going in tends to shape the outcome. "You tend to get what you expect," she said. Her message to future volunteers is to let the communities they serve guide them rather than arriving with a fixed plan.
When asked what caught her off guard about her volunteer experience, Jodi pointed to how readily communities accepted the volunteers despite the cultural gap. "They didn't care if we did it wrong or if we did it right. They were just happy we were there," she said.
Does 10 Months Feel Long?
A common question for those interested in the program is “Does the 10 months feel like a long time?” For Kristen, once immersed in the work, time moved quickly. Jodi agreed, explaining that the unpredictability of each day, rather than a fixed routine, made the months disappear.
"I know I'm only 22, but this program made me feel like a child again in the best ways," Jodi said, describing a renewed sense of creativity and freedom from the stresses of ordinary life. Looking back, she joked about staying twice as long if she could.
The Hardest Part
Jodi, who described herself as fiercely independent, found communal living to be the biggest challenge, but also the most rewarding. Learning to lean on a support system, she said, was difficult but ultimately life-changing.
Kristen's hardest moment came earlier, during the physically demanding preparation period at RVA, complicated by a prior injury. Even so, she said the experience left her healthier than she'd been in years and encouraged older prospective volunteers not to let age hold them back. "I'm 64 and a half and feel absolutely wonderful," she said. "Don't let anything stop you."
Kristen found that most of what she worried about beforehand simply never materialized. Jodi added that no one is forced into anything they're not ready for, and that the three-month preparation period at RVA offers a low-risk way to test the experience before committing to travel abroad.
"The worries and the anxiety, they're not founded," she said, noting that an organization with this much history wouldn't still be running successful programs if it were built to fail its volunteers.
The Big Decision
Reflecting on the life-changing experience and the friendships she made at the vocational school in Malawi, she said: "You just don't even know what you might be cheating yourself from." Both volunteers had similar advice for hesitant applicants: acknowledge the fear, but don't let it make the decision for you.