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We believe that travel can change lives! Travelling can change you as a person and, if done responsibly, can have a profound affect on the people that you meet and the places that you visit. We want as many people as possible to experience the heart and soul of another culture in the way that we have, and in doing so, help them to make a positive and lasting impact on our world.
Despite featuring in more war films than travel brochures, Vietnam has done a remarkable job of reinventing itself as a top destination for travel. Scars take a long time to heal though and it’s no wonder that with such a turbulent political history social problems linger into the present. Many of the youngsters can’t take advantage of educational opportunities because of their difficult backgrounds and your job is to use your patience, compassion and resourcefulness to help improve their future lives.
While volunteering in Vietnam on this project, you'll find they offer valuable support to children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, many of whom are orphans. While the children at the projects have access to education provided by the government, they are usually unable to benefit from it fully due to the many complexities in their lives. The support that our volunteers provide allows many of the children to improve their English skills, which will create more opportunities for them, and learn about a new culture. Often the staff members do not have time to give attention to all of the children, and they will really benefit from spending time and doing creative activities with volunteers.
Our volunteers work on local projects run by local people. We do not own or operate any project but simply partner with them to assist in achieving their goals for development. It is this continuous stream of committed volunteers that allows the projects the time to focus on improving the lives of the people they work with. This is a local project working in a number orphanages that help disadvantaged children aged 1 to 18. As well as acting as a positive role model you’ll help them with their English and bring a smile to their faces with the odd sing-song.
You’ll stay in a local accommodation ensuring that you directly support the local community while you’re there. You’ll also be supported by your local in-country coordinator; who with their team are best placed to understand the specific economic, social and developmental needs of Vietnam.
We do not give a financial contribution to this or any of our projects as we believe that money is rarely the answer to complicated development issues; if it was, the poverty problems in the world would be getting better! Short-term aid relief can cause aid-reliance and financial instability and the corruption seen in many developing countries means the guarantee of your money going to the heart of the cause is massively reduced. From our experience (and by learning from our mistakes) projects benefit far greater from a sustainable framework to ensure they develop rather than short-term financial aid relief.
If money is paid directly to projects then they may become dependent on that income. If that country or project becomes unpopular, or through restrictions in the opportunity to travel to that country, the money dries up and they are no longer able to continue with their work. Supplying projects with enthusiastic volunteers creates a constant supply of helpful hands and as they are not reliant on an income can continue without the assistance of the volunteer travellers, although significantly slower in achieving their goals.
We invite every traveller who books a holiday via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the holidays they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same holiday can have different views!
