I am looking for any advice on volunteering across the globe. Most of my research lands up at the same point. You pay an organisation to work there. And the fees are pretty steep. Has anyone volunteered abroad? What were your experiences? And are there ways to do it cheaply? 

haha thanks  Give me a day, I will come over. Hell, I will even do some polishing if need!

If you go on holiday anywhere in SE Asia get in touch with with the UNAID, UNICEF offices that are usually located in the capital. They probably won't have anything available with the UN itself but they would have a list of local NGO's, schools, non-cult church groups that would probably need a helping hand. You can always contact your embassy in the country and have them set up the contacts.

Sundays are good, afternoonish.

You can't help anywhere.  Accept it.  You can pretend to build a house or something, but really you are just getting in the way.

Take a vacation somewhere.  Visit local stores and buy stuff.  That is probably the best way to directly help people in a foreign country.

First: Are you male?

If you are, the answer is Laos. Go to Vientiane, walk into any Temple and say you would like to volunteer teaching English to the novice monks. They'll give you lodging and food and be extremely grateful for as long as you stay, or they'll direct you to a Temple  that can use your expertise.

I do agree to some extent with many of the comments on this page, which relate to the real value of international volunteers, but I wouldn't personally go as far as dismissing this value all together. International volunteers can play an important role in development if they are highly trained professionals in a relevant field. This doesn't just include doctors, nurses, dentists and engineers. Volunteers can help provide the expertise to help facilitate community lead movements, such as a local co-op or credit union. These types of projects often need volunteers in IT, management, marketing and a variety of other business related fields. When a volunteers simply has an undergraduate degree and no practical work experience, this is where little value will come as a result of the volunteer placement. This is more like tourism than development.

There are NGOs that will cover the expenses of volunteers, but positions with these organizations are often very competitive, and a successful applicant typically has years of experience in a specific field. Since these volunteer placements are typically government funded, it often depends on your nationality as well. That being said, CUSO International is a highly regarded development organization with a variety of volunteer opportunities. I believe CUSO is usually open to Canadians and Americans. I've pasted the link below:

http://cusointernational.org/volunteer

In the off chance that you are Canadian, you could also try the World University Service of Canada (WUSC). This organization partners with a group called CECI to facilitate the Uniterra programme. Volunteer expenses with this organization are completely covered by funding from the federal government. I did an internship with this organization in Botswana. Internships are only partially funded by the federal government, so I did have to pay some money out of my own pocket, but the fee did cover my airfare, accommodations, a monthly living allowance, and all of the associated costs with the training and debriefing session in Ottawa. I have pasted the link below.

http://www.uniterra.ca/en/

I hope that helped. Most governments do fund NGO volunteer placements with at least a few NGOs. It is just a matter of finding these NGOs, and like I said, these positions can be very competitive. If you are Canadian, you might want to try contacting the Department of Foreign Affairs and Development. They might be able to guide you to these organizations. If you are American, you might be able to try USAID. Also, if you are American, you can also try the Peace Corps.   Unfortunately, I do not know anything about UK, South African or Australian systems.

I need someone to do some free work for me in the Philippines.  Basically cutting trees, putting up bobwire fence and clearing a plot of land of weeds.  If there is extra time, maybe painting a house if you have nothing else to do.

>Cut myself in lab--minor cut but it's a lab so you have to report it.

>Boss didn't know who to report it to so she asked some big shot. 

>Big shot informed her that volunteers are limited to one month or the duration of a summer program with Large Local University and I'd been there 11, so I had to be gone. 

>This is so they don't run afoul of unions who fear paid jobs replaced by volunteers.

>Funny because labs are chronically understaffed due to funding.

>Funny because they didn't have the money for an employee

>Funny because this organization just had a major bad publicity headache because they didn't have enough staff to do thing properly.

>Funny because half their paid employees are underpaid according to standard pay scales because they are H1-B visas.  But apparently this doesn't threaten salaries.

My homegirl tanya was volinteering in Korea for a minute.  She work with like dogs or something.  She like it, but she aint get paid, so she quit.

That's true.  If you're from the American south you probably know of that one church in your area that runs mission trips to all sorts of places.  Although, those tend to be constrained to one particular month or week out of the year. 

I wonder if Korean evangelicals can set you up with something abroad.  Evangelicals tend to be better at this than Catholics.

You could just do a short term course in a lot of countries.  See if there's a language school that offers a one month immersion course with homestay in your country of interest.

Or, heck, use the time and become a bartender or something.  Or phlebotomist.  Something, you know. 

Don't go on one of those yuppie feel good faux-volunteering things that seem to exist only for people to put on their University applications and to alleviate white middle class guilt.