or many, volunteering abroad is the ideal way to travel thanks to the balance of exploring a new place at the same time as doing something worthwhile. A trip based around volunteering also has the added benefit of making the travel dollar go much further, as accommodation and food is included. Opting for a destination like India, where the cost of living is lower than in the US, can make a travel budget go even further.
Whilst a popular choice for students either before or after college, many overseas volunteers are taking a career break to see more of the world. There is a vast range of programs available and Ridhi Patel, Founder of Volunteering Journeys, an organization that provides unique volunteering and travel opportunities, shares her top tips on how to book an ethical overseas volunteering project.
1. Assess your skills
A very important part of deciding which volunteering trip to go on starts with working out your own assets and skills.
What are you good at? What do you enjoy most? These are all important questions as part of being an ethical volunteer is working out how you can help the most. If you’re a really active person who enjoys being outside, there’s no point signing up to a research-based project where you’ll be in an office all day. You would be far better suited to a project where you can volunteer with kids outside, teaching them to play your favorite sport!
2. Ask the Right Questions
In order to find out all the information you’ll need to make an informed decision, you need to ask the right questions. For example, what will the daily schedule be like (and how much free time is there to explore the local area)? Where will you stay? How many other volunteers will be there? It is also important to know what others have thought of the project you are looking at, so ask if you can read online reviews from past volunteers.
To be sure that you are considering the right kind of company to travel with, it is important to check they have the right safety precautions in place for volunteers. It is also worth asking where the money you will pay the organization goes – do the local people benefit?
Asking these questions benefits not only you in that you find out more about the project but you are also checking that you are suited to the project in question. Ethical volunteering is a two-way street, and you must hold up your end!
3. Research
The key to making sure you have an incredible time volunteering overseas is doing a lot of research before you book anything.
It may seem obvious, but there are so many options for volunteering experiences abroad that you can be overwhelmed by all the choice. Do you love working with children? Then volunteering in a school in India is something you should consider. Have you always dreamt about going on a safari? Perhaps a volunteering at a game reserve in South Africa helping to track and identify animals is the project for you. Do you like the idea of doing something more worthwhile with your vacation time, but aren’t ready to sacrifice your time on the beach? A project like Volunteering Journey’s sea turtle conservation work in Costa Rica may be the ideal solution as volunteers help with educating local people and tourists about the importance of turtle conservation, joining night patrols and cleaning and feeding turtles.
4. Work Out Your Budget
Different projects will require different levels of funding by participants and the length of time spent in the destination will impact the amount of money you need to take with you.
5. Know What to Expect
Talk to people who have done the project before, read reviews online and discuss your options as much as you can. It is counterproductive for the organizations overseas to have people turn up thinking they’d be doing one thing and find out they’re actually doing something totally different.
6. Check Your Qualifications
Check you have the right qualifications to do the project. The chances are, if you aren’t qualified to do it at home, you shouldn’t be doing it in another country.
7. Make Sure You Are Happy with Your Final Choice
In order to be responsible and therefore ethical, you must make sure you are ready to give 100% to whichever project you sign up for. Commitment is key, and in order to be an ethical volunteer, you must be willing to give it your all and stay as long as you originally agree to do.
An example of a Volunteering Journeys project
India is a popular choice for volunteering overseas as it offers a great range of opportunities in terms of places to see during days off. Volunteering Journeys’ projects are in the stunning coastal city of Cochin in the Kerala region of south India. They include teaching English in schools in disadvantaged areas, helping in a project aiming to empower local women who tend to live in highly traditional ways through free English lessons and sharing information about modern social issues or, for medical students, medical volunteering or pre-med projects.
Weekend travel available for volunteers includes visiting the tea plantations or relaxing on a traditional houseboat on the backwaters of Kerala.
Programmes cost from $1,299 per person for four weeks, or $2,099 per person for eight weeks including food, accommodation and local transfers. Shorter programmes are also available. www.volunteeringjourneys.com / 732 333 8905
Opportunities are also available in Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Nepal, Peru, Costa Rica, the Philippines, Vietnam and South Africa. More information is at www.volunteeringjourneys.com
