It's been over a year ago that I returned from Africa where I did HIV/AIDS work for a year. Although real work was involved, it was volunteering in the sense that I voluntary took a pay-cut from a professional job to receive a measly stipend that was just enough to cover basic expenses (and think about how much expenses I would incur traveling to villages and living off rice and beans).
I volunteered to boost my experience in community health care in developing countries and it was just as valuable as a graduate degree as I was doing hands-on work in the field that you would only learn about in a classroom. But it was also partly because I didn't have the funds to leisurely backpack through Europe or South East Asia which was what most of my fellow recent graduates were doing at the time.
It was an experience I both loved and hated at the same time but despite the rough patches, I feel an itch to go back every so often. Also because every other person I know is now entering the development field and in Africa alone, there are about a dozen countries where I know someone who is offering their professional services including law, medicine and other health fields, to volunteer oversees. It has now gone beyond the basic fields of law, medicine and health. Now there are MBA's without boarders, Engineers without boarders, and other professions are finding their niche in volunteering oversees.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125915795064863829.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
