Volunteering abroad can be a wonderfully rewarding experience. You will meet great people, do satisfying work, constantly learn and see hidden corners of the world. When you return from your adventure, you are a versatile person with many memorable experiences. Of course, things can go wrong during your time abroad, but by following our tips below, you can ensure that you have a truly rewarding experience as a volunteer abroad.
1. Think of everything as an adventure
Living abroad is an adventure. Volunteering is an adventure. Over the course of your time abroad, you will have good and bad days, but if you consider every moment of your experience part of the adventure, you will be much happier and have a much more valuable volunteer experience abroad. Above all, stay flexible.
2. Explore the history of the country
By researching the history of the country in which you will volunteer, you will gain a better understanding of the situation in which the country and the people find themselves. Once you understand something well, you are better equipped to take action. Not only will you have a more rewarding volunteer experience, but the work you do will ultimately be more beneficial to the local community.
3. Talk to people
Talk to the locals. Talk to your fellow volunteers. This is the best way to learn more about the country you have chosen and to share experiences and knowledge with others. Volunteering abroad is an exchange, and keeping the line of communication open with everyone around you enhances the exchange of knowledge, skills, stories and experiences. You never know what will come out of a conversation with someone.
4. Learn the language
Learning the local language, even just a small part of it, will go a long way towards having a rewarding volunteer experience abroad. Not only is it good for your mind and for your overall skills to have knowledge of a foreign language, but the locals will admire and respect you for participating in their culture. Learning the local language is also a great way to get to know a culture as they are closely linked.
5. Develop a relationship with your local coordinator
It’s a good idea to establish a positive relationship between you and your organization’s local coordinator. This is the person whose job it is to support you if you encounter any difficulties while volunteering abroad. Make sure they know who you are, where you are stationed, and that you have each other’s contact details. By maintaining a good relationship, you feel safe and supported during your stay abroad.
6. Have the right expectations
It’s easy to get very excited about the prospect of volunteering abroad, but this can lead to very unrealistic expectations. The correct expectation is to have no expectations at all. Take each day as it comes and just be present in the moment during your time abroad.
7. Don’t expect to make a big difference right away
When we first started Friends for Thailand, we had a clear goal of what we wanted to do and understood that change takes time. Many volunteers get frustrated because things don’t go as fast as they used to. It is best not to develop big expectations about how much you will achieve when you volunteer abroad. Every situation is different, and every country is different. All you can do is do your best and remain patient and vigilant. Positive change will come whether you are there to see it or not.
8. Understand the limitations of developing countries
If you’re from the western world, you’re probably used to having certain things always available to you. This is not the case in developing countries. If you live in a developing country, it is essential that you understand how the country functions, what the laws are, how they relate to the culture and what is and isn’t available. If you understand and accept this, you will have a much more valuable volunteer experience abroad.
9. Stay Positive
Wherever you decide to volunteer, a positive attitude while volunteering abroad will make your experience that much better. While you will usually have a lot of fun, witnessing the conditions in a developing country can sometimes be difficult. Remember to keep a positive attitude – you will not only help yourself to feel better, but you will also help everyone around you.
10. Be Committed to Volunteering
Too often, volunteers go abroad with the intention of working, but end up not doing much. Either they get caught up in the idea of ​​partying and socializing, or they decide the work is too hard and don’t want to put in the effort.

This harms the surrounding community, which is largely dependent on the humanitarian work of volunteers. If you’re not 100% committed to volunteering, you probably shouldn’t be volunteering abroad at all.

Here in Thailand, we expect all candidates who volunteer with us to commit to the projects we support. When you volunteer with us in Thailand, we expect volunteers to be really involved and help where needed.

When you decide to volunteer in Thailand with Friends for Thailand, you are making a commitment to participate and contribute to long-lasting, lasting change.

Friends for Thailand is a grassroots volunteer organization. We offer volunteer placements in small rural schools and orphanages with the aim of helping and supporting underprivileged children.

What is the digital divide?
The term “digital divide” has been used to describe the variations in Internet access and Internet-related technology (such as computers) available in different countries and even within developed countries. As the internet has become more ubiquitous in many countries around the world, there is still significant variation in how many people have access to that resource. There is a clear trend line that correlates countries where poverty is more prevalent with lack of internet access and undeveloped technological infrastructure in those countries.

The existence of a digital divide separating the developed from the underdeveloped does not imply that the evolution of the internet has somehow led to inequality in the world. In fact, the digital divide generally follows historical patterns of development and technology use between advanced countries such as Britain, the United States and Japan versus more primitive countries such as those in Africa and South America.

However, one thing becomes clear when you consider what the internet does offer. Those who have consistent Internet access naturally have greater opportunities to communicate, learn, conduct business, and generally utilize the global network of resources. A study published in 2014 showed a high correlation between median household income and average internet speed.

How does the internet create opportunities?
An example from Honduras
The internet offers countless ways to overcome poverty and create opportunities. As I write this article, I am in Honduras helping a non-profit charitable organization teach its students internet marketing skills. An important part of our fundraising program for the school involves building an online dental store that the students will operate. They learn how to use search engine optimization and social media marketing, order fulfillment, customer service, technical writing and other skills that they would not have at their disposal without the opportunity that the internet offers.
Education
Perhaps the most crucial part of making the Internet accessible to as many people as possible is the access to information and education that comes with it. Learning has certainly evolved over the past twenty years. Rather than relying on face-to-face lessons that consist of programs that require tuition and a flexible schedule, YouTube, Wikipedia, and other online learning resources have made education available to anyone who can access their pages.
Company
The ability for companies to market their products on the Internet has leveled the playing field, making profitability a great opportunity for those who want to take the time to learn how to configure the Internet to bring their customers to them . Techniques for attracting customers are described in detail for free or at a low cost on inbound marketing tutorial sites all over the internet.

The internet has created a market for entrepreneurs building their businesses from their homes, including mom bloggers who sell ads, YouTubers who take advantage of simply filming what they do every day or filming demonstrations of themselves opening toys, owners of ecommerce companies that dropship products that they market through online stores, and lots of other creative ways to create a revenue engine over the internet.
Conclusion
While the digital divide has not resulted in the wealth disparity between developed and lagging countries, the expansion of the Internet so that it is more readily available in places that cannot yet be accessed could significantly change the playing field, making it so that otherwise lower or poorer people can take advantage of opportunities that are currently being used to create wealth among the internet-enabled population.

Richard Robbins is an advocate for using the internet to do good in the world. He is a philanthropist and a successful internet entrepreneur. He owns Prosperopedia.com, a blog with tips on  internet marketing  and  building online businesses .

TOKYO, JAPAN
The Tokyo Olympics are set to go off in full force, with the opening ceremony less than a day away. Several events have already begun, and the United States softball team has already demonstrated its worth with a 2–0 start to the first Olympic softball tournament since 2008. Meanwhile, the United States women’s soccer team lost 3–0 to Sweden in their first encounter and will seek to bounce back against New Zealand on Saturday.

COVID-19 is a major worry as thousands of athletes prepare to compete at the Games. Follow along with our reporters on the ground in Tokyo for competition updates, COVID-19 updates, and more throughout the Games.

The greatest single-day total of COVID cases has been reported by Olympic organisers.
On Friday, just as the Games were ready to officially begin with the opening ceremony Friday evening, Olympic officials announced their highest single-day total of COVID-19 cases (morning in U.S.).

Three athletes and three Olympic Village residents are among the 19 new cases reported by Tokyo organisers. Four of the instances involve Japanese residents, while the other 15 include non-residents.

Three contractors, ten game-related people, and three media made up the total.

Non-residents are all subject to a 14-day quarantine.

Since July 1, there have been 106 occurrences, according to the most recent data.

The Olympics begin on Friday, and at least eight athletes have been ruled out due to positive drug tests in Japan.

Women from the United States are ranked sixth in the world in archery.

Mackenzie Brown, Casey Kaufhold, and Jennifer Mucino-Fernandez, all of whom are Americans, were among the top 25 in a group of 64 athletes who establish a bracket for individual elimination bouts.

An San of Korea shot a world-record 680 in the Olympic ranking round, shattering a record that had stood since 1996. Jang Minhee (677) and Kang Chaeyoung (678) were her teammates (675). Their combined score of 2,032 was also an Olympic ranking round record.
At the opening ceremony, flagbearers will make history.
On Friday, British rower Mohamed Sbihi will create history. The 2016 Olympic gold winner from Rio de Janeiro will be the first Muslim to carry the British flag at an opening ceremony.

Sbihi told The Guardian, “It’s such an honour.” “Within the Olympic movement, it is an iconic moment – people remember those images.”

Sbihi was the first practising Muslim to compete in the 2016 Olympics for Great Britain. Along with sailor Hannah Mills, he will carry the flag.

Laurel Hubbard is another historical figure. The weightlifter from New Zealand is thought to be the first openly transgender woman to compete in an Olympic individual event.

According to the International Weightlifting Federation, Hubbard is rated 15th in the world in the super heavyweight 87 kilogram-plus division.

Since 2004, transgender athletes have been allowed to compete in the Olympics and Paralympics, but Hubbard is the first in an individual event to qualify.

Transgender advocate and triathlete Chris Mosier wrote on Twitter, “Laurel Hubbard becoming the first transgender athlete in the Olympics will be meaningful – to the trans community as a whole, but to me specifically, as I’ve spent the last decade of my life trying to lay the groundwork for this moment.” “I am ecstatically proud of her.”

The government has chosen to take control of the hot heat in Dubai, which often exceeds 115 degrees Fahrenheit.
Technology
Scientists in the United Arab Emirates are making it rain – artificially — by manipulating the weather with electrical charges from drones and forcing rainfall throughout the dry nation. This week, meteorological officials published video footage of a rainstorm in Ras al Khaimah and other parts of the UAE.

The new cloud seeding technology has the potential to help alleviate drought conditions around the world while posing fewer environmental issues than prior methods employing salt flares.

The United Arab Emirates receives approximately 4 inches of rain per year. The government hopes that zapping clouds to generate rain on a regular basis will help to mitigate some of the country’s yearly heat waves.

Scientists manufactured the storms using drones that hit clouds with electricity, causing huge raindrops, according to research from the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. In the hot country, where tiny droplets evaporate before reaching the ground, the larger rains are crucial.

“It’s moving to think that the rainfall technology I saw today, which is still being developed, might someday support countries in water-scarce environments like the UAE,” Mansoor Abulhoul, the UAE’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, said during a visit to the University of Reading in May, where he was shown demonstrations of the new technology.
Announcement
It was announced in 2017 that academics at the university had received $1.5 million in funding for what they call “Rain Enhancement Science,” which is also known as “man-made rainstorms.” The United Arab Emirates has invested a total of $15 million on rain-making projects as part of the country’s “search to assure water security.”

“The water table is dropping dramatically in the United Arab Emirates,” Maarten Ambaum, a professor of meteorology at the University of Reading, told BBC News. “And the objective of this is to attempt to assist with rainfall,” says the narrator.

According to the National Center of Meteorology, the United Arab Emirates is one of the first countries in the Gulf region to employ cloud seeding technology. As reported by The Scientific American, at least eight states in the western United States have adopted a variant of the notion in some form.

A conspicuous LGBTQ rights association, the HRC (Human Rights Campaign) reported Thursday that it will have an official municipal centre on LGBTQ issues one month from now. The occasion will air on CNN. LGBTQ promotion bunches disclosed that they know precisely what thoughts they need to hear talked about at the city centre set for Oct. 10, which is Public Coming Out Day. Many said that above all else, they need the possibility to recognize the battles of the most minimized in the network, including LGBTQ minorities, and set forward strategies to react to against LGBTQ predisposition in the criminal equity framework.

“LGBTQ individuals are bound to come into contact with the police because of prejudicial policing, be detained, and experience brutality while secured than non-LGBTQ individuals. Dark and Latinx LGBTQ individuals are generally affected,” Tyrone Hanley, senior approach counsel for the Public Community for Lesbian Rights.
Hanley said that hopefuls to the White House should put criminal equity change as one of the issues beating their rundown. “Up-and-comers should exhibit an agreement that enemy of LGBTQ segregation and brutality is affected by issues of race, sexual orientation, and class similarly as they are for different networks,” he said.
The city centre comes at a crucial time, as the Trump organization has moved back medical care insurances for transsexual individuals and assurances for transsexual understudies, executed a prohibition on transsexual individuals in the military, and proposed a standard that permits expansive strict exclusions for organizations with government contracts. See the latest article published by kazinoekstra.com for reference.
Sens. Kamala Harris (D-CA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mama); previous VP Joe Biden; South Curve, Indiana, Civic chairman Pete Buttigieg, and previous Lodging and Metropolitan Advancement Secretary Julián Castro have acknowledged the solicitation to the city centre, and others may yet go along with them.
HRC welcomed up-and-comers who reach at any rate 2% in four public surveys picked by the Popularity based Public Advisory group (DNC) and who have met the DNC’s limit of 130,000 interesting benefactors. The up-and-comers will respond to inquiries from CNN columnists and the individuals from the crowd at consecutive municipal centres throughout the night. LGBTQ advocates have a wide scope of issues on their rundown of themes they need to see talked about.

Shannon Minter, the legitimate overseer of the Public Place for Lesbian Rights, said he’d prefer to perceive how every applicant remains on turning around the president’s prohibition on military assistance by transsexual soldiers. Minter said he might want the possibility to recognize that medical care, neediness, and food weakness are all LGBTQ issues.
What’s more, he added, the up-and-comers ought to likewise exhibit how they would carry on the advancement of the Obama organization with regards to handling the issue of transformation treatment, programs in which youngsters are told they can and should change their sexual direction and sometimes, their sex. The American Clinical Affiliation has said transformation treatment, particularly in youth, may cause critical mental pain.
“While directing that issue falls essentially to the states, President Obama’s Branch of Wellbeing and Human Administrations gave a momentous report on the damages caused to minors by transformation treatment in 2015 that has assumed a critical job in supporting state enactment,” Minter said.

Most have likewise communicated some degree of help for the Green New Arrangement, a proposition to quickly decarbonize the economy while guaranteeing mass occupation creation. They are additionally back leftover in the Paris atmosphere arrangement, which President Donald Trump has taken steps to exit. Furthermore, Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA) — who based his whole mission around tending to an Earth-wide temperature boost — posed a potential threat over the occasion, despite exiting the official race a month ago.
Examination shows surrendering non-renewable energy source reserves has any kind of effect. Atomic force additionally arose as a disruptive theme. Sanders upholds finishing atomic force in around 10 years, contending that it “doesn’t sound good to me to add more risky waste to this nation.”  In any case, Sen.

Cory Booker (D-NJ) and business visionary Andrew Yang both grasped atomic energy, attesting that the fuel source, which presently creates 20% of the country’s power, stays basic to accomplishing net-zero emanations. Warren sent out a centre vibe, spreading out transitory help for atomic force while supporting no new atomic plants. She said she underpins backing ceaselessly from atomic dependence with an eliminate total by 2035 at the most recent.
A few applicants additionally marked out their situations on deep oil drilling. Only preceding the gathering, Sanders required each of the 2020 liberals to back a government deep oil drilling boycott. Warren’s mission has said she would support such a boycott. What’s more, on Wednesday night, Harris and previous Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) settled on comparable decisions.
Klobuchar and Biden, conversely, punted on the issue, with Klobuchar venturing to such an extreme as to promote petroleum gas as a “momentary fuel” spanning the move away from non-renewable energy sources and towards environmentally friendly power.
While applicants differ over components of strategy, one individual endured direct shots over a forthcoming pledge drive. Biden had booked a Thursday occasion with Andrew Goldman, prime supporter of Western LNG, a non-renewable energy source organization. In the same way, like other 2020 competitors, Biden has taken the No Non-renewable energy source Cash promise, which avoids gifts from petroleum derivative organizations and chiefs.

At the point when CNN have Anderson Cooper faced Biden about the pledge drive after a crowd of people part raised the issue, the previous VP contended that Goldman is “not a non-renewable energy source chief” per his monetary divulgences. Biden at that point said he would have to accomplish more examination about Goldman’s professional interactions, while one of his senior counsels, Symone Sanders, tweeted with regards to the competitor.
“Andrew Goldman is not a petroleum product chief. He’s not engaged with the everyday activity,” she composed. “He’s not on the leading group of the organization, nor the leading group of the portfolio organization.” Goldman is recorded second under the “Administration” segment on Western LNG’s site. Biden has recently endured analysis over his atmosphere bonafide, with rivals like Sanders blaming him for a “widely appealing” way to deal with combatting the emergency. It was hazy on Thursday morning whether Biden may at present be going to his planned night pledge drive.

In a meeting with Harper’s Bazaar UK, entertainer Kristen Stewart, who has been impractically connected to display Stella Maxwell since 2017, stated, “I have completely been told, ‘In the event that you simply like help yourself out, and don’t go out holding your sweetheart’s hand out in the open, you may get a Wonder film.’ I would prefer not to work with individuals like that.”
Stewart has said openly she doesn’t distinguish as promiscuous or lesbian, and doesn’t have any desire to pick a mark for her sexuality. In a similar meeting, she added, “I was educated by an old fashioned attitude, which is — you need to save your profession and your prosperity and your efficiency, and there are individuals on the planet who don’t care for you, and they don’t care for that you date young ladies, and they don’t care for that you don’t distinguish as a statement unquote ‘lesbian’, however, you additionally don’t recognize as a statement unquote ‘hetero’. What’s more, individuals like to know stuff, so what the hell right?'”
Even though it might, now and again, seem like LGBTQ portrayal and interest in Hollywood has accomplished some similarity to equality, Stewart’s experience is a long way from extraordinary. A few youthful, straightforwardly LGBTQ entertainers, for example, Ellen Page and Ezra Mill operator have discussed how their sex and sexuality have influenced how individuals converse with them about their professions.
Ellen Page, star of Commencement, Juno, and Tallulah, came out as gay in 2014. “I was unmistakably told, by individuals in the business, when I began to get known: ‘Individuals can’t know you’re gay.’,” she said to Watchman Alter recently. “Furthermore, I was compelled — constrained, much of the time — to consistently wear dresses and heels for occasions and photo shoots. As though lesbians don’t wear dresses and heels. In any case, I won’t ever allow anybody to place me in anything I feel awkward in until the end of time.”
Ezra Mill operator, who has featured in Equity Class, Madame Bovary, and the latest Harry Potter establishment Incredible Monsters, came out as eccentric in 2012 to Out and told GQ in 2018 that their sex is liquid.
“I’m alright with all the pronouns. I let he/his/him ride, and that is fine,” Mill operator said.
Yet, Mill operator said they were educated not to be open regarding their sexuality and sex by various individuals who figured it would harm their acting profession.
In 2017, Mill operator stated, “I won’t indicate [who revealed to me not to come out.] People in the business, people outside the business. Individuals I’ve never addressed. They said there’s an explanation so numerous gay, strange, sex liquid individuals in Hollywood disguise their sexual personality or their sex character in their public picture. I was told I had done a ‘senseless’ thing in… obstructing my capability to be the main man.”
Sarah Paulson, who likewise decides not to mark her sexual personality, revealed to Watchman Alter in 2017 said that she was informed that her relationship with Holland Taylor could be an obligation for her vocation.

President Donald Trump’s most recent assault on working families will hit particularly hard in the states that decided in favour of him: The greater part of the individuals who are set to lose admittance to food stamps under guidelines proposed this mid-year live in states that went for Trump in 2016.
One in every twelve individuals who get food stamps cross country will lose them under the approach — some 3.6 million individuals, as indicated by a new examination by Mathematica, the private arrangement investigation firm the Branch of Horticulture (USDA) has depended upon for as long as 40 years.

“I was astounded by the degree of the effect in a portion of the southern states, for example, Texas,” Mathematica senior examination software engineer Sarah Lauffer said. The effect was continually going to be extreme in states that apply the current standards in the most liberal design, however southern states have commonly not broadened their qualification lines very as far. Despite that, Lauffer stated, her group discovered “34% of older Texans accepting advantages will lose them through this standard.”
Right around 400,000 individuals in Texas presently getting Supplemental Sustenance Help Program (SNAP) advantages would lose them. Another 328,000 in Florida, 200,000 in New York, 97,000 in Georgia, and 176,000 in Washington state face cuts, to give some examples champions.
Right around one of every five Wisconsin family units presently finding support with their staple goods will lose the advantage, just as 16% of such families in Oregon, Nevada, Iowa, and Delaware. Two of each 13 SNAP families in Minnesota and Texas should discover food cash somewhere else.
The organization intends to cut advantages by finishing a famous, bipartisan arrangement known as an expansive based unmitigated qualification (BBCE). That approach shields low-wage labourers from an eccentricity of neediness help law known as the “benefits bluff,” whereby bringing in or setting aside somewhat an excess of money can trigger a low-pay family’s removal from public help programs.
Finishing the extended qualification framework for SNAP will likewise boot generally a large portion of 1,000,000 children out of free school dinner programs from one side of the country to the other. The organization has demanded those children could all jump directly back in by rounding out application frames right now mooted by the BBCE framework, yet specialists have cautioned it doesn’t really work that way.
The organization estimates a $10 billion complete draw-down in SNAP spending throughout the following five years once the arrangement is instituted. It didn’t assess the drawn-out expenses of making families hungrier and more urgent.

“Permitting families whose gross pay is a little over the neediness level to get food help helps ensure that both the children and grown-ups in the family can eat,” said Lisa Davis, Senior VP at the destitution strategy focus No Child Hungry. “Kids that don’t get the sustenance that they need end up with more regrettable medical care results, more terrible physical and intellectual turn of events, they have more unfortunate results in school, they think that it’s harder to focus, they don’t excel on tests, there are more social issues.”
The organization has consistently realized it would yank food help away from millions. Branch of Horticulture (USDA) authorities said as much when they reported the new guidelines in August.

President Donald Trump, regardless of his unfilled cases that he’s the most supportive of the military president “ever,” is planning to empty assets of schools and daycare focuses that serve military families, just as slowing down preparation projects, to pay for his guaranteed line divider.
The Pentagon is redirecting billions of dollars from effectively financed projects at Army installations around the globe to surge fence development along the U.S.- Mexico line, Safeguard Division (DOD) authorities declared Wednesday.

The division demonstrated the shunting of cash away from military kid care contributions was not DOD’s thought. “A Pentagon official said in a preparation that the division was given a ‘legitimate request’ by Trump to redirect the assets,” Reuters revealed Wednesday.
The office likewise focused on that the childcare and different ventures being undermined were planned to get things started next financial year, recommending that they are not halting work on dynamic development to yank cash to the line.
The postponed projects identified with personal satisfaction for families on bases incorporate another grade school attached to a U.S. military officer in Germany, a childcare community at the Maryland base were the essential teams answerable for adjusting and working Aviation based armed forces One are positioned, and another fire station at a Marine Corps office in South Carolina. Lodging development for troops and families on bases is being held innocuous in the asset redirection, the Pentagon said.
The office has likewise conceded different activities attached to preparing and availability for troops themselves, as per the New York Times. A gun range in Oklahoma, a digital safeguard office in Virginia, different undefined pilot test programs, booked fixes at ports, and discharging range offices will all be retired to construct the fencing, as indicated by the Occasions.
A sum of $3.6 billion in as of now appropriated DOD reserves is being moved to Best’s fencing projects, as indicated by a division letter revealed Tuesday by The Day by day Monster. “Wall” seems multiple times in the letter, the site noted, however it records areas and primary subtleties for 140 absolute miles of a new fence. Quite a bit of that length will supplant or increase existing structures.

More than 33% of the absolute expense and mileage goes to the 52 miles of Rio Grande riverfront extending north from Laredo, Texas. The main part of different tasks, notwithstanding, either supplant existing passerby and vehicle boundaries with fresher forms or add extra layers to existing wall lines.
A significant part of the U.S.- Mexico line is as of now fenced from past organizations’ lower-profile endeavours at improving security. Those tasks have left scars in boundary networks, where landowners exposed to prominent area oftentimes got low-ball pay offers and deceiving pitches about how the new boundaries would influence their capacity to use the land they own after the feds are finished structure.
Claims and enormous settlements followed those earlier floods of development, adding to the direct front expense of the undertakings. The huge takeaway from government audits of what had turned out badly was that hurrying into such undertakings makes preventable waste and creates infringement of landowners’ privileges.