Gawana

Have you ever wonder what a website needs to appear on the first positions on search engines? or maybe you’ve asked yourself, how to make your own site to be at the top of the lists? well, is not just you, behind every important website there are teams of people trying everyday to beat its competitors, for some of them it’s a war, companies set big budgets in order to appear on the first positions on Google.

There are many factors that will influence your position on search engines and that’s why SEO experts charge a lot of money. What about NGOs? they don’t have big budgets, so how do they get indexed on the first positions on organic searches? unfortunately, the reality is that they do not. Looking at the Gapyear niche, big companies are fighting everyday to get better ranks and positions on the web leaving NGOs with small or null budgets far far behind, sadly the strongest (economically speaking) will get better results. I think this is very unfair, and we want to do something about it. [...]

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I frequently find myself at the end of a touching documentary or a heart-rendering news piece telling myself that there must be something that I can do to help the situation. So I turn to the place with all the answers – the internet.

The empty google box stares at me, expectantly. What do I want to know? Why not try “How can I help the world” – just 469 million results appear. Seems there is no shortage of answers to that question. Where do I start? I browse through the first page and discover that volunteering seems a good place to begin the journey. A paid ad takes me to a site called the “GVN Foundation” a non governmental organisation based in New Zealand. The site enthuses me with great ideas about volunteering. My enthusiasm is short lived. To join one of the projects I first have to pay $350 which is transferable to the project and if I am (and they, I guess) accepted as a volunteer. My presence in South Africa on a conservation project for 8-weeks comes in at $1947.

$1947 + flights, visa (if required), travel insurance and personal spending money. It strikes me that helping the world is an expensive intention. My search continues. I encounter website after website offering life-changing volunteer opportunities. Projects are offered by NGO’s, charities, not-for-profit and outright businesses but regardless of their registered status they all charge you money to participate.

Interestingly when you compare two organisations, one set-up as a not-for-profit (Voluntary Projects Overseas) and another established to make a profit (Projects Abroad) all things being equal you can crudely work out the profit that the latter makes. Two examples:

Teaching in Bolivia – VPO = £1500 for 3 months – PA = £1845 for 3 months (£345 profit)

Let’s take another example

Teaching in South Africa – VPO = £1900 for 3 months – PA = £2595 for 3 months (£695 profit)

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not against paying to do voluntary work or people making profits. I have a Masters in Business Administration for goodness sake. My question is why is that?

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Web 2.0! Don’t you just love the way that computer types love adding numbers after names. Imagine…when you are born you are called Trevor, wait sorry, Trevor 1.0, then you go to primary school and you become Trevor 1.1, you graduate from high school and become known as Trevor 2.0 – you get the idea. I took a Gap Year in 1993 and I have recently looked at what the Gap Year industry is offering and I have to say that I was disappointed. While the rest of the world has been revolutionising; Gap Year organisations seem to be stuck on version 1.0… [...]

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