Award-winning Canadian author Lawrence Hill has advised students to volunteer abroad, as a means to experience and understand other cultures.

On a visit to a Canadian secondary school, reported in Burnaby Now, Hill talked about black history, his acclaimed novel The Book of Negroes and his experiences of travelling and volunteering in West Africa.

Having volunteered in Niger in 1979, when he was just 21, Hill recognises the impact volunteering can have on a young person’s life. “It was a life-changing experience. It opened my eyes up to life in rural West Africa”. Having gained so much from the experience Hill recommends that today’s students do the same: “You’ll never regret it”.

During his first volunteering experience in Niger, Hill fell seriously ill after drinking contaminated drinking water and almost died. By the time he returned home he had wasted away to less than 100 pounds.

This experience made Hill recognise the importance of healthcare and drinking water in the developing world and how they are often taken for granted in the West: “Clean water can save so many lives”.

Hill volunteered abroad again 10 years later in Mali; another experience which served to raise his cultural awareness, racial self-perception and literary imagination.

Hill’s final advice to students was “to believe in themselves and to exercise their imaginations, not just in their writing but in their living and travelling, and to think about more than studies and jobs and dollar signs and cars.” Students should “think about the possibility of expanding themselves through international volunteerism or being interested in people in other parts of the world”.

Inspire offers a range of volunteer opportunities in Africa. Read more about volunteering in Tanzania, teaching in Gambia or community volunteer work in South Africa.