Hello everybody,

I hope this is the right section to post my question: I have just moved to Zürich from the UK, following my partner who got a job here. As I don't have a job yet (and I am an academic in social sciences, so jobs in that area are not that frequent), I was thinking I would like to do some charity work or volunteering. Could any of you recommend or indicate to me any local organisations in the Rüschlikon, Thalwil, Kilchberg, Zürich areas?

I think it would be a great way to employ my time constructively and meet local people and improve my very basic German. Do you think charities or organisations would be sympathetic to the fact my German is limited?

Thank you in advance for your help!

Elisa

Hi Elisa,

You could try Red Cross. I know someone who volunteered for them and got involved in raising funds through English speaking events...

Try looking at the Zürich voluntary work site zuerichfreiwillig.ch. If you go to te Stellenanzeige section the are dozens of voluntary activities some of which don't seem to require fluent German/Swiss German. It's updated every month.
There's also tischlein.ch which distributes free food. I imagine you wouldn't need a very advanced level of fluency for that one.

Thank you both for the replies! I will look into this today!

I volunteer for Room to Read in Zurich. It's a great organisation which focuses on developing literacy and gender equality in education across Asia and Africa. I've only been involved since May this year but so far have enjoyed organising a number of events and meeting lots of nice people. You can find out more on their website. Here's a link to the Zurich chapter's webpage.

http://www.roomtoread.org/Page.aspx?...id=417&chid=37

Do let me know if you want any further info.

There's a link to a volunteer site on Caritas called Zürich Freiwillig:

http://www.zuerichfreiwillig.ch/

There seems to be a Corporate Volunteering Conference (focusing on skills-based volunteering) coming up on Nov 20th, complete with Apero! I would be up for going myself but I have German class on Wednesdays If you are interested keep, in mind that you have to register by the 15th. There's a link provided for registration but I haven't followed it to see if there is a fee for participation.

Good luck with your search and I hope it opens doors for you!

Great, thank you for the message! I really appreciate your help!

Hi! I'm new to Zurich, and currently researching possibilities of volunteering for a charity.
In UK, I used to fund-raise for Marie Curie Cancer Care, by offering short massages to sponsors. I'm a qualified massage therapist and reflexologist, I speak English, Latvian and Russian fluently. I can't speak any of the Swiss languages, though.

I have tried the website above, but it seems like the link is not working any more.

I would be grateful for any recommendations/suggestions.

Several websites for volunteer work in Zurich:

https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/sd/de/i...genarbeit.html

http://www.freiwillig-zh.ch/cms/

https://www.benevol-jobs.ch/

For other organizations, google on "freiwilligenarbeit zürich"

I don't understand any German, unfortunately

Hi,

The red cross has a section for volunteering for English speakers!

Good luck!

Google Translate is your friend:

https://translate.google.ch/?hl=de

Thanks very much for your replies! I will try Red Cross or ZIWA!