- volunteering
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Wherever you go in the world on your gap year, my advice would be to not just flit from place to place but to stay in the places you enjoy the most for as long as you can to really get a sense of the people and place - you'll appreciate it way more. You can do this by finding a job in the local community that can fund your stay and future travels. If you speak English, then teaching is the obvious option, or work on a farm or whatever you like (see organizations like WWOOF, or meet locals by coach surfing). Also, take one set of smart clothes for when you're away, you never know what you might be invited to (I was invited to a wedding in India by the headmaster at the school I was working in). Finally, avoid the agencies if you can, organizing it independently is cheaper and gives far more options and freedom.
WWOOF: www.wwoof.org/
CoachSurfing: www.couchsurfing.org/
Entremundos is a non-profit organization based in Quetzaltenango (also called Xela) that connects volunteers to organizations all around Guatemala, with the highest number of projects based in the western highlands. You can access their database of volunteer opportunities for free on their website but if you are already in Xela (as I was, studying at a Spanish school) you can also make an appointment to go and talk to them about volunteer work and get more info. This appointment costs a donation of £2. They helped me contact a small community project where I helped out with agricultural work and some basic teaching for three weeks. I think its a great organization for those who are willing to take the leap and set up volunteer work when they get to Guatemala, and not pay some profit making company a fortune to send you to the same projects Entremundos does. They also have their own projects on the go, like training for local community groups and NGOs and produce a great bilingual magazine about development issues. I used it a lot for my Spanish study. Oh, and they rent rooms out too. So if you are planning to go to Quetzaltenango (and you realy should), check them out. I hope they keep up the great work they are doing!
6a calle, 7-31, Zona 1, Quetzaltenango
www.entremundos.org
volunteering@entremundos.org
Google map: tinyurl.com/3xte52h
Get out of the backpackers rut and use some imagination when it comes to places to stay! Farming is a great choice to see some of the hidden gems of NZ. You make great new friends, learn new skills and gain a sense of achievement.
Become a member of Farm Helpers in New Zealand or WOOFFing for lists of farmers who are willing to take on backpackers (both skilled and unskilled in farming) to stay at their farms for 3-4hrs work a day in return for a bed and food.
Save money and volunteer at a festival - get in free for one night shift or 10 - 15 hours of duties such as stewarding, working behind a bar or in a cafe, doing stage duties or security. Meet new people, learn new skills and put something back - some festival volunteers support a charity such as Oxfam. You also often get your own superior camping facilities and free refreshments. Look out for 'volunteer' or 'stewards' links on official festival websites and plan ahead, especially for more popular festivals, such as Glastonbury.
All festivals
Kibbutz Ein Gev is beautifully located on the sea of Galilee. While it does have its own hotel, many young travellers go there to work as Kibbutz volunteers. It has a strong agricultural sector, growing bananas, mangoes, dates and catching the famous St Peters fish in the depths of Lake Kinneret. Volunteers can particpate in all these endeavours. While kibbutz volunteers work hard the beauty of Ein Gev pays for itself were you can climb mount Sussita or swim in the lake and get drunk in the Kibbutz pub.
A bus usually leaves twice a day from Tiberias on the opposite side of the lake from Ein Gev. A 20 minute ride along Lake Kinnert and you are there
Worth it though festivals are for the money, it's worth volunteering as a steward/marshall/whatever your skill, to see parts that you might not get to otherwise - possibly even backstage if you're lucky! You'll meet others easily and have fun.
On the website, as you book.
The best way I have found to enjoy UK Festivals in recent years has been as part of the Workers Beer Company. Charities and Trade Unions that support WBC are asked to provide volunteers to work the bar at various festivals around the UK. You donate your time for free and WBC pays your wages to the charity that you are volunteering for. In return, you get a separate camping area, vouchers for two meals a day (in your camping area) and vouchers for two drinks once you have finished your shift. A win-win situation if you ask me!
You don't get to see every band that plays, but the banter behind the bar is always good fun and you get to see more bands than you would working in your local. See if a charity you support is part of WBC and get invovled!
This truly is the greatest ferry ever, The mixture of brilliant views and perfect length make this a beautiful journey, in fact one I would do simply for the ride. Starting off in central Vancouver you can take a bus too Horseshoe Bay, a beautiful cove or to Tsawwassen which ferries also go from. From Horseshoe Bay you the views you get are amazing, the contrast and sudden change from city to rural beauty is exquisite. While on Vancouver Island I would recommend exploring the Pacific Rim, a wonderful walking area and surfing beaches. Such a wonderful place.
While there you could WWOOF, which is a voluntarily work scheme in which you work for food and accommodation, usually five hours a day. A brilliant way to meet the locals and save money.
www.bcferries.com/schedules/mainland/
www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/bc/pacificrim/lg/visit/index_e.asp
www.wwoof.ca/
If you'd like to extend your interactions with Thai people beyond bartering with tuk-tuk drivers or ordering another Singha, I heartily recommend booking a cultural exchange trip with this sustainable development / community-based tourism organisation based in Kuraburi on the Andaman coast, two hours' drive north from Khao Lak.
I received a warm welcome from the friendly AD team, who arranged for me to stay with a Thai family in a local fishing village. I got to see and experience various activities that the villagers undertake to support themselves in a post-tsunami world, including planting mangroves, weaving palm leaf roofs, designing batik, fishing, and much more. It gave me a real insight into a very different way of life - and was plenty of fun besides.
Andaman Discoveries also arrange longer-term volunteering opportunities, teaching English at a local school, helping out at a local orphanage, or in a school for disabled children in Phuket.
Soi Nangyon, Kuraburi.
You can get an overnight bus from Bangkok, or it's a three-hour bus ride from Phuket.
www.andamandiscoveries.com
vMaD is an NGO Charity in Siem Reap offering cheap and short-term volunteer opportunities. Their minimum placement is only one week, and they were the cheapest I could find.
They pay for all your accommodation and transport and the profits go to charity. There are projects available teaching in orphanages or doing building and farming work. Probably worth checking out if this sort of thing appeals.
I wanted to post something about volunteering because it is a concept which interests me, and many others too! And people too often focus on the negative aspects of it. So I wanted to add my thoughts on the benefits it can have.
My personal experience of volunteering was when I spent three months in India after school. I worked in a junior school, and since it turned out I wasn’t a great teacher I spent my time teaching the two weakest kids basic English and maths. This placement was arranged by a gap year company (Projects Abroad) and I decided to go away with a company because both me and my parents wanted the secure ‘safety net’ these companies provide.
Most gapyear companies do not claim to make a huge difference to people’s lives, it would be arrogant to assume that youngsters with no transferable skills could be of much practical use just because the country they are going to has a lower GDP than the one they are coming from. However, the benefits of these projects – I think – come more from simply being there and staying there for a fairly long period of time. Volunteers go to developing countries in high numbers throughout the year and stay for an average of three months. They therefore constitute a significant part of the income of the communities they live in, especially as they are easily persuaded to buy locally made souvenirs. The company I travelled with paid a host family to look after me and feed me (on locally bought produce) after which they still made a profit for themselves and their family. Tourism is a a very important part of the income of the majority of countries, and no more so than in the developing world. The fact that this form of tourism is ‘dressed up’ as being more ethical than regular tourism is the reason why so many people are keen to criticise it, but I think that this is a waste of energy in the end.
My other point is to do with cross-cultural learning. If you live in Britain as I do, you come into contact with people from almost every country in the world, but the cultural exchange is predominently one way. They learn about England and our culture whereas we do not learn about theirs. A great benefit of travelling and living in other countries is that you gain an awareness of how other cultures differ from your own, an awareness that you cannot attain to the same level unless you travel. Through travelling you can therefore learn more about the people who live in your own country, especially in such a racially diverse country as England. When people learn about each other it often leads to a greater level of tolerance, which is without doubt a positive thing!
Even if the volunteers intentions are selfish, I don’t think it matters too much provided they are respectful to their host country. If a young person can go abroad, learn a bit more about the world and its people, and return home a more rounded, and knowledgable person, that can only be a good thing. Talking about ethics is a tough one these days anyway. It is very difficult to do anything which is truly ethical (from driving your car, to buying a pair of trainers), and equally very few people manage to act with true altruism. So I think that it is better to focus on the good aspects of volunteering and realise that in a world where everything has become a commodity, you are never going to be satisfied with the ethical side of things.
I would like to recommend established companies such as Projects Abroad, as they offer young people, especially girls, a good safe introduction to the developing world, and allow them to become emersed in cultures very different from their own. They offer a very vaulable experience and in many cases the volunteer is able to make a worthwhile contribution to at the very least one other person’s life.
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