Before departure to the country of service

Before you begin your volunteering experience, it’s helpful to pause and explore what brings you here. This stage invites you to reflect on why you chose to volunteer, what you hope to discover about yourself, and what expectations or fears you’re carrying into the journey. It also encourages you to think about the issues that matter to you, how it connects to your values, and how you want to contribute to the project.

This is also a good moment to consider how you learn best, how you usually respond to cultural differences, and what you already know - or want to know - about the country you’re going to. These reflections help you enter the experience with more clarity, curiosity, and self-awareness.

Time to capture your reflections - take your notebook, your phone, or whatever you like to use for recording your thoughts. Use the guiding questions below to begin, and follow any thoughts, images, or emotions that come up.

Guiding questions:

• Why did I choose to volunteer?
• What do I hope to discover about myself during this time?
• What are my biggest hopes and fears for this experience?
• What issues feel important to me? Why do I feel connected to them? How does it align with my values?
• How do I want to contribute to the project?
• How do I learn best? How do I want to learn in this project?
• How do I usually respond to cultural differences?
• What do I know about the country I am going to? 
• What interests me most about this country?
• What skills do I want to develop in my project?

These questions are here to help you notice what truly matters to you at this stage. Let them guide your reflection, and explore any topic that feels meaningful.
If a certain question feels especially important, you can explore it further using one of the reflection methods suggested for this phase.

Ask yourself “What do I need right now?”  and choose a method if you want to explore deeper:

Purpose	Method	You will need:
To understand my motivation or purpose	Vision Board	or
	My Target for This Experience	or
To explore my cultural expectations	Window to New Country	or
To map which skills I want to grow	Skill Map	or or
To capture my feelings or expectations quickly	Private Voice Note
To understand how I learn and how to use it during volunteering	My Learning Style