The last few years have seen a significant shift in what we look for when booking a holiday. With the greater awareness of our role in the worldwide community and our impact on holiday destinations, has come the desire, hence the demand, and now the opportunity, to volunteer overseas.
Volunteering is no longer restricted to gap year and career break types or professionals looking to take their skills to the developing world. The industry is now beginning to cater for Joe Bloggs, office worker, with limited paid holiday, a mortgage and a family to support, who quite frankly needs a ‘holiday’, in the traditional sense, after his last project deadline. But he also wants to give something back…
And here lies the dilemma - the majority of the population just don’t have the luxury of a 6 week break, however wonderful and rewarding the volunteer placement would be.
The answer has come in the form of ‘a taste of volunteering’, a short holiday, typically 1-3 weeks, which gives you the chance to give something back and still have time to laze on the beach or climb your mountain before you return home.
In contrast with for example charity treks, where funds are your main contribution, in a taste of volunteering trip your contribution is your time, and therefore it needn't cost the earth either. You could be building a classroom, visit Hanoi, Saigon and Ho Chi Minh City in less than 3 weeks and for under a thousand pounds excluding flights.
All our operators are carefully selected to ensure that placements are well organised and genuinely bring a benefit to the local community or environment. From not one single 'taste of volunteering' holiday in 2005, we now have a rapidly expanding section with over 50 trips and new ones added weekly!
From budget to luxury, wildlife to community, solo traveller to family, I challenge you to try something new...
Choosing the right volunteering organisation
It’s important that you choose your volunteering organisation carefully. It’s vital that the project is based on real local development or conservation needs, and that local people are consulted about what is required and how it is implemented.
You certainly will enjoy your trip more if the benefits to conservation and local people are obvious. There have been examples of volunteering programmes determined by what appeals to the volunteering organisation or tourists rather than real local needs.
Our advice would be to ask to see detailed reports on the effectiveness of the projects before you travel, and to ask how local people are involved in the decision making processes. In some projects you will have the opportunity to work alongside local people, which is both desirable and enjoyable.
And finally Edward Abbey said
'sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul' . If you like the idea of travelling with a purpose then I’m confident that you’ll find these trips one of the most worthwhile, enjoyable and memorable experiences possible.
Interested? Take a look at our
taste of volunteering holidays.
