Want to help volunteer in Nepal earthquake relief and help make a difference?

Here are some things you can do to volunteer in Nepal/Northern India and be more successful before even leaving home.

Don’t rush to the region just yet. Read this first. Consider what you have to offer.

1.) By prevailing law in Nepal, you are not allowed to do volunteering on a tourist visa. In order to volunteer legally, the organization which will engage you must procure a permit and respective non-tourist visa. So ask before you travel with a non-profit, church, or on your own.

2.) Consider ways you can help from home. Online. Become a community activist by sharing our guide on social media and get others involved. Volunteer as a Digital Humanitarian and Micromapper for the UN and others ( see guide here). Give – If you can’t give, why spend $1400 on a plane ticket and take the time off work? Besides, locals are much more capable of helping...

It has been said that aid (and charitable work) has hurt, rather than helped, the long-term viability of the world’s poorest communities and nations. How are we to think about aid and development, poverty and wealth, help and self-reliance? What role, if any, do we in the West play in helping solve these highly complex issues, often having to do with issues of state, politics and corruption? And is there a “right approach” to tackling these problems? As someone once said, “Nobody asked them if they would rather get respect and no aid, rather than aid and no respect.“

This is what we feel is a “must-read” list (and even a suggested reading order?) for those interested in working to combat global poverty, and studying to help solve the issues of poverty, hunger, corruption, aid, social change, education, sanitation, economics, and the ways these elements combine to hurt the chances of the world’s extreme poor from ever becoming anything...