Volunteering abroad is becoming an increasingly popular activity for a number of reasons. Obviously it is great to be able to make a difference in a local community which attracts many volunteers, another common motivation is the opportunity to spend a more time in one place and to become more involved with the community. This type of travel can be very satisfying.
You might also like to check out this article with advice from travel bloggers on the best holiday destinations for volunteering.
Due to the growing phenomenon of people taking gap years and career breaks much later in life, as well as the current lack of university places, making your trip more cv friendly is becoming increasingly important. It can be a lot easier to sell an employer the value of your year out if you have done a little bit more than full moon parties and drinking goo on the east coast of Australia!
It surprises many people that you often need to pay for your overseas volunteering experience. It is possible to find opportunities to volunteer overseas which don’t cost you any money, in fact some programmes will actually cover costs such as flights for you. Typically these programmes are for a longer period of time, however, and they often require specialist skills or professional training (i.e. doctors, nurses or craftsmen such as plumbers.) If you have the time to commit and skills of this nature to share then this will be your best option. A good starting point is the excellent international development charity VSO
If you can only commit to a short project, or have less easily defined skills then you may need to pay for a volunteer project. Remember that if this is the case you are not paying for the volunteer experience itself, but for the logistics of that experience. You will need to pay for your accommodation and food during your volunteering experience as it is important that you do not become a burden to the community that you are going to help. With the larger volunteering companies you are also paying for the in country support that you are receiving. It is still possible to find a free project even if you are only planning to volunteer for a week or two, but you will have to find it independently so the experience can be quite variable.
If you are going to pay an agency or tour company to organise your volunteer experience make sure that you chose carefully as not all offer the excellent support and experience that your fee should pay for. A starting point could be checking out some of the volunteer projects operated by GAP Adventures. They run these experiences in conjunction with their development charity Planeterra and partner with STA Travel so while it may not be the cheapest option you know there is a good support structure in place: GAP Adventures volunteering
