First things first, an introduction seems necessary. The Danish NGO Crossing Borders has started this new series of posts because their staff – i.e us- knows how hard it can be to find a permanent job in the NGO sector and to live out of it. Plus, there is a lack of information on how to achieve that. That’s why we wanted to compile testimonies from people working in NGOs, including how they got there, their advices…
Working in an NGO also often means travelling and moving abroad. So, we also thought it could be interesting to hear the stories of people who had to “cross borders”. There are a lot of travel blogs out here, showing dreamy landscapes, leading one to think that travelling and moving is easy. But, as you may know, there are always downsides that people don’t really talk about, simply because bloggers’ aim is to make people dream. But, we think it’s interesting to hear the full story, so that you know that struggling is also part of the process of moving abroad, and is a path to achieving success.
So, expect to find interviews and portraits of people from all around the world, of different age, with different backgrounds and ambitions. And hopefully, it can give you a more objective point of view on living abroad and how working in an NGO really is.
Written by Alexandre Telliez and Chloé Ladeira, Crossing Borders’ interns and National Coordinators for France