Yes, even geeks can vol­un­teer, and they may be in just as high of demand in the vol­un­teer world as they are in the pro­fes­sional world. A non-profit from the UK gives IT pro­fes­sion­als a chance to teach their skills in the under-developed world. The NGO called Vol­un­tary Ser­vices Over­seas says the num­bers of techs apply­ing to vol­un­teer is increasing.

From this arti­cle that we found at Silicon.com, writer Jo Best explains the work of VSO.

he inter­na­tional devel­op­ment organ­i­sa­tion places vol­un­teers in devel­op­ing coun­tries to share their skills and help local com­mu­ni­ties fight poverty.

Of the hun­dreds of peo­ple the VSO places abroad every year, 15 or 20 will be IT work­ers, leav­ing their com­fort zone behind for a stint in the devel­op­ing world.

Mostly, techies are needed in coun­tries includ­ing Tan­za­nia, Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia to help com­mu­ni­ties in sub-Saharan Africa learn about and deploy IT.
…

Repeat vol­un­teer Don Car­ney, agrees: “I don’t think tech­ni­cal skills mat­ter so much as the will­ing­ness to pick up a tool and see how it can be made most effective.”

Carney’s place­ments include being a data­base spe­cial­ist in the Philip­pines and work­ing as an infor­ma­tion com­mu­ni­ca­tions spe­cial­ist in Cam­bo­dia — expe­ri­ences he describes as “chal­leng­ing, and at the same time satisfying”.

“I spent some years in com­mer­cial organ­i­sa­tions back in the UK and although pro­fes­sion­ally chal­leng­ing I couldn’t help but feel that my life focused on the next pay­check and the per­sonal sat­is­fac­tion seemed to dimin­ish over time. Vol­un­teer­ing in devel­op­ment gave me a refresh­ing new way to look at life and work, as well as feel­ing that I could do a lot more for oth­ers than I did in the com­mer­cial world,” he added.

http://management.silicon.com/itpro/0,39024675,39497506,00.htm

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